RCAF: Perfect storm – RCAF fundraiser tackles triangle of trouble

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, February 19, 2016

 

His first day on the job last September in the newly created position of executive director of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Ragin’ Cajuns Athletic Foundation (RCAF), Midwesterner Jim Harris stepped into a college athletics fundraiser’s perfect storm.

Cajun-style.

A football team that would go 4-8, suffering its first losing season in five years.

A program under investigation, waiting for the NCAA’s hammer to fall.

An oil-and-gas-based local economy that can be called nothing kinder than lousy.

Looking back almost six months later, it’s a wonder he didn’t run.

“Obviously his biggest challenge,” UL athletic director Scott Farmer said, “is we’re in the worst economic time (locally) in the last 30 years.”

Yet Harris managed to help the RCAF set a seventh consecutive Annual Fund donations total, going over the top in late December thanks to a pooled-resources gift from a group of RE/MAX real estate agents that raised the final $11,000 or so — bringing the total to $2,166,913.63 and breaking the 2014 record by $966.

Membership was down from around 2,500 in 2014 to 2,311 in 2015, but individual gift averages were higher, and as of mid-February both membership and donations were up more than 15 percent compared to the same date one year prior.

“I think Jim has come in and brought a level of professionalism that has been very, very well-received,” Farmer said. “This guy lives and breathes and sleeps RCAF every day of the week.”

And he’s weathered the dark days with hope sunnier skies are ahead.

“There is a lot to be excited about, and proud of,” said Harris, who worked previously in NCAA Division I athletic fundraising positions at the University of South Florida, Ohio University and his alma mater Indiana University.

The Indiana native mentions UL’s four New Orleans Bowl victories from 2011-14.

The Cajuns’ men’s basketball team went to the NCAA Tournament in 2014, and its women’s team won the 2015 Women’s Basketball Invitational.

UL’s baseball team has been to back-to-back NCAA Super Regionals, its softball team has been to four straight Super Regionals and the 2014 Women’s College World Series and both were nationally ranked at the start of their 2016 seasons — this weekend and last, respectively.

“So you keep the focus on those positive things,” Harris said, “and the pride people have in this athletic department and being Ragin’ Cajuns.

“Just because the economy is rough right now doesn’t mean we have any (fewer) student-athletes competing in our sports. It’s the same number we would have if oil was trading at $120 a barrel right now.

“We have 370 athletes that are on scholarship that are out there every day, committing and committing and trying to do their best,” he added. “So all we can ask from our fan base and our donor base is they also do their best.”

   Get it done

When he arrived in Lafayette following an extensive nationwide search, Harris was charged with some priorities.

One was fundraising to support UL’s $115 million athletic facilities masterplan, which includes already completed projects like Cajun Field end-zone seating additions; a new athletics performance center with football coaching offices, football locker rooms, a training room and a weight room; and a renovated soccer/track facility.

A $10-plus million renovation of UL’s M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field baseball stadium begins in earnest after this season.

Other projects are planned, including major renovation at Cajun Field.

That fundraising effort remains in its silent phase, but eventually will become a public capital campaign.

Another priority is branding, restructuring and making more transparent the RCAF’s Annual Fund, which provides UL’s athletic department with unrestricted funds — beyond those earmarked for specific teams — that benefit student-athletes, subsidize coaching salaries and support facility improvements.

That includes altering the Annual Fund’s benefits structure, partly to increase donations and partly to ensure tax-deductible donations remain IRS-compliant.

(The RCAF raised $8.129 million in all last year, including Annual Fund donations, $5.189 million in new cash and pledges for masterplan projects and $773,159 in RCAF Excellence Fund donations.)

The last directives: implement a Priority Points system — something UL has never had, and something it plans to unveil sometime in April — and reseat renovated venues.

The points system is designed to award donors both for their level and longevity of giving and of season-ticket purchases, so their relative value can be weighed when seating is redrawn at venues including the Cajundome for basketball next season, The Tigue for baseball next season and Cajun Field for football sometime later.

The bottom line, though: Harris’ top priority is tied to the almighty dollar.

And that’s something Cajun supporters, especially those in hard-hit industries such as oil and gas and the energy sector, seem to have fewer and fewer of these days.

   Array of roadblocks

In 2015, the Acadiana area alone lost more than 2,000 jobs to plummeting oil prices and trickle-down effect to housing, hospitality and transportation.

It hasn’t gotten better so far in 2016.

Yet wins and losses have an impact too, and UL is not alone.

“If you look at any university from an athletic standpoint, through an athletic lens, your Annual Fund and your donations, how many people are involved, how people are giving — it fluctuates with the success of your teams,” Harris said.

“That’s no different here than it is at any other school, any other conference. It doesn’t matter if you’re Big Ten or ACC, SEC or Sun Belt (to which UL belongs), or whatever you are, you’re gonna see a factor of that.

“So to come in here,” he added, “and our football team did not have as much success as we’re accustomed to — that’s certainly one thing.”

The NCAA investigation is another.

Earlier this year the NCAA ruled ex-Cajuns assistant coach David Saunders violated rules by arranging fraudulent college entrance exam scores for five UL prospects, denying his involvement and failing to cooperate.

The NCAA also ruled Saunders paid an unidentified student-athlete $6,500 over two semesters.

UL refutes the payment finding, but didn’t appeal.

UL self-imposed reductions in scholarships and recruiting activity, and vacated all of its 2011 wins including a New Orleans Bowl victory.

The NCAA put UL on probation, and ordered the additional still-to-be-announced vacating of games in which ineligible student-athletes played.

But there may have been even more fallout.

It’s impossible to calculate just what it may have cost UL. But it is possible that some donors held back money because of the investigation.

“We had kind of the NCAA cloud that was hanging over for a little bit, which hopefully now is fully behind us,” Harris said.

   The elephant

Then there’s what Harris calls “the elephant in the room.”

That would be the economy.

Harris said it’s “really tough right now nationwide,” but especially so locally when the cost of a barrel of oil is — on the day he was speaking — “dipping … below $27.”

“It affects not just the companies that are based here,” he said, “but all the companies that do business with those companies, whether it be banking or housing or whatever it might be. Those things certainly make it difficult.

“But the one constant that is a positive that’s different here … different than the culture of other places I’ve been … is the sense of pride people have in being Cajuns.”

Harris considers Acadiana resilient.

“This community has been through adversity before and has come out fine on the other side,” he said. “So what all this really is probably doing from a fundraising standpoint: It’s maybe delaying our goals a little bit.

“Because people that maybe would be able to make a certain impact might not be able to make as big an impact right now.

“But it doesn’t mean they won’t be able to again later,” Harris added. “So maybe we delay our involvement in terms of asking them for a gift right now.”

What he refuses to do, however, is cut ties with those who cannot donate like they might otherwise.

“We keep including them, and visiting them, and cultivating them,” Harris said, “but we don’t ask for what we normally would ask for — because we’re not gonna get it in this economy and this culture.

“But we don’t want to ‘just take something, and move on.’ That’s not a good philosophy to have, and that wouldn’t be very inclusive to what we’re doing trying to overall, holistically, with the campaign.

“So I think, if anything, it just slows our progress a little bit,” he added. “But it really certainly doesn’t detour what our goals are in the end.”

The reality of trying times, however, is hard to ignore.

"Look, we understand that right now — and I’m speaking from a donor standpoint — it may tough for a company to buy as many season tickets as they have in the past,” Harris said. “It may tough for a family to give as much money as they’ve done in the past.

“But to do the best they can in this economy is what we ask of our athletes every day. … It’s what RCAF members would demand of me, and what my Board (of Directors) would demand of me.

“So,” he added, “keeping it simple like that and just asking people, ‘Don’t give up; don’t abandon; at least stay involved and try to do what you can’ — hey, that’s all we can ever ask for, right?”

   Defining success

As Harris sees it, there are other ways besides the stall game to deal with economy-related obstacles.

One is preaching a common objective.

“Generally speaking,” Harris said, “that goal is to see this university and this athletic department achieve the highest level of success we can.”

How that’s defined, however, is open to interpretation.

“To some people, success is measured as ‘Let’s go to the New Orleans Bowl every year,’ ” Harris said. “To some people, success might be measured as, ‘Let’s go to the College World Series.’

“To some it might be measured as, ‘Let’s have a 100 percent graduation rate amongst our student-athletes.’ Some might say, ‘Let’s get out of this (Sun Belt) Conference.’

“I’m not saying anything that people haven’t heard, right? That type of conversation is all over the place,” he added. “But the point is, at the end of the day everybody wants us … to succeed at the highest level we can. So it’s important that during these times you keep the focus on that.”

Not the negatives.

“Because of a 4-8 season in a sport that we’ve become accustomed to winning eight or nine games in,” Harris said, “that doesn’t mean that the whole athletic department is a failure in that year.”

Another way the get past the hurdle, especially when it comes to funding the facilities masterplan, is the ol’ end-around.

That means tapping into less obvious, non-traditional sources.

“Not every single person is affected negatively right now with his economy,” Harris said. “There are still companies that are doing well, and industries outside of oil and gas that haven’t been affected as negatively as that sector.

“A lot of those are based on Lafayette. … So it doesn’t mean we’re gonna just back away and say, ‘Wow, until we recover from an economy standpoint we’re just gonna step away from people.’

“No,” he added. “It changes our strategy and it may change the end goal in terms of a date. But it doesn’t change the vision on what we’re trying to do and what we want to accomplish.”

   A delicate line

Most RCAF donors enjoy, and some have come to expect, benefits including priority parking for football, the chance to brush shoulders with coaches and athletes at social functions and priority-seating opportunities for postseason events.

But there’s a plethora of additional reasons fans donate.

On the highest level, Harris’ job is rooted in the receiving end of philanthropy.

Sure, there’s some quid pro quid.

“That exists everywhere,” he said.

“But at the end of the day most of what I deal with is … people that are giving money away for personal reasons, for naming opportunities, for tax purposes.”

Those won’t stop, even in the worst economy.

“With that being said … a lot of the more successful fundraising programs usually happen when times are really good,” Harris said. “That is a trend in our industry.

“If you can still have a high level of success when you’re not doing well, that’s when you’ve found a special place. And that’s what we’re looking for here.

“Because I know the passion this community has for this university,” he added. “And I’m not just saying it.”

It’s with that in mind Harris tries to balance asking with not asking too much.

“That’s a delicate line,” he said.

Ultimately, though, Harris feels he has an obligation to at least ask.

“Yes, business might be bad,” he said, “but if we don’t put stilts under the success we’ve had, then we’re letting it fall whenever times like this get hard.”

   Meet the people

The RCAF was founded in 2009, and the national economy was a mess then, too.

But the fundraising organization launched anyway.

“Everybody said you couldn’t start at it at a worse time,” Farmer said.

The athletic director wholeheartedly disagreed.

“Yeah, it was a great time to start it — because we were able to spend time, and get the word out,” Farmer said. “Yes, we understood people wouldn’t give the same amount in 2009 in bad times that they might when times were great. But at least we got them educated and we got them giving.”

Now?

“Same thing: This has given Jim (Harris) a chance to get around and meet people,” Farmer said. “This has given Jim a chance to get some of the processes straight, get this point system going.

“We don’t know when we’re gonna come out of this, but we’re gonna come out of it,” Farmer added. “And the RCAF is gonna be ready when we (do) to move forward.”

   High priorities

   A look at the top priorities Jim Harris was charged with when he took over last September as UL’s RCAF executive director:

   * Fundraising in support of a $115 million athletic facilities masterplan

   * Branding and restructuring the RCAF Annual Fund, which provides UL’s athletic department with unrestricted funds, and its benefits structure

   * Implementing a Priority Points system to aid with reseating at renovated venues