Tournament trip may sway alumni to give

Penn may have been knocked out of March Madness early, but its game in the NCAA Tournament could help the school raise money in the long run.

A national college fundraising expert says that athletic prominence can help spur alumni donations to universities, though the connection may not be quantifiable.

The Penn basketball team's televised loss to Texas Friday night may help secure donations from proud alumni, says William Hamm, president of the Foundation for Independent Higher Education, a fundraising organization for universities.

Penn's presence at the NCAA Tournament has only brought the University good press coverage, Hamm said. The team's loss was irrelevant -- making it to the tournament was what mattered.

"Most people may not think of the University of Pennsylvania in the course of a whole year ... but I bet that they noticed that Pennsylvania was in the NCAA tournament," he said.

Penn Director of Athletic Development Denis Spizuoco noted, however, that it's "almost impossible to tell" to what degree sports victories contribute to alumni donations.

Success in athletics does, however, contribute to an increase in donations to universities' athletic departments, aid Jim Kunetka, assistant vice president for development at the University of Texas at Austin.

"There is no direct correlation with academic philanthropy, but there is with athletic," Kunetka said.

And Spizuoco said that positive publicity of any sort helps the University.

"Our basic philosophy is that any good publicity, whether it's athletics or not, certainly makes our alumni base feel better about Penn," he said.

"Do we see dollars suddenly increasing because of our success? The short answer is 'no,'" he added.

But for the university that beat the Quakers, fundraising success hasn't hinged on winning basketball games.

Kunetka said that there is no correlation between athletic success and general donations to his institution.

"That surprises a lot of people because they think if we win, people are going to give us a lot of money," Kunetka said.

Texas recently finished a major capital campaign that ran from 1997 to 2004 and yielded $1.62 billion. Kunetka said that figure far exceeded the university's goal of $1 billion despite the fact that its sports teams weren't performing at their best.

While they may not spur donations outright, sports victories do increase general awareness of the university, Kunetka said.

"Alumni that are not too active ... may get interested in the university through the back door," he said.

Hamm agreed that sports victories are another avenue for universities to reach their constituencies.

"If you have a wealthy alumnus ... and he's enjoying the fact that [Penn] is on TV ... it sort of builds his pride a little bit so the next time he is contacted about a gift he might be more inclined to open up his checkbook and give more sacrificially," he said.

However, sports success isn't necessary for a university to be successful in fundraising, Hamm said.

"Some institutions that have lousy athletic programs do exceedingly well" with fundraising, he said.

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