Plunging revenue and added costs from the pandemic have many colleges and universities facing shortfalls. These days, fundraising has become more important than ever, yet donations have flattened.
Enter collegiate charity-athletic leagues, inspired by fantasy sports leagues in which more than 59 million fans create dream teams that “compete” weekly based on the real-life performance of professional athletes. The fantasy sports industry generates more than $7 billion in revenue annually.
Universities could adapt the fantasy sports concept and create fundraising competitions to encourage fans to give during live sports matches. For example, during a football game between Penn State and Ohio State, the scoreboard could display, along with the actual score, a real-time tally of how much fans from each university had donated. The team that raised the most money during the game would register a win in the Big Ten’s “Charity Sports League.”
Some well-known rivalries already include charitable-giving competitions. For example, Yale and Harvard have hosted fundraising challenges before their football matchups to encourage donations from alumni.
Before they go head-to-head on the football field, the Universities of Alabama and Auburn run a competition to see which one will generate more money for local food banks.
When Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill compete in basketball games, they also compete to raise money for Habitat for Humanity.
This year, the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M created an event to see who could raise more money for struggling students.
How This Would Work
Americans are passionate about sports and their alma maters. In fact, alumni donated $1.2 billion to college athletics in 2015.
Psychological research shows that turning routine activities, such as cleaning or exercising, into games can boost success. Universities could benefit from an increased use of gamification in fundraising. Here’s one way it could work.
University development offices could band together to form an umbrella nonprofit, possibly in collaboration with the NCAA or individual sports leagues such as the Pac-12. The nonprofit could help create charity teams for each university and possibly even recruit alums who are professional athletes to be spokespeople.
To generate the most buzz quickly, it would make sense to start with sports that draw the largest TV audiences.
The collegiate charity leagues could keep track of yearly champions and encourage “fundraising dynasties,” create charity all-star teams made up of top individual donors, and elect members to a fundraising hall of fame. (If this route is taken, alums should also be given the option to donate anonymously.)
While a simple dollar tally of contributions might lead to the most funds raised, an alternative scheme would guard against a handful of large donors making the charity league uncompetitive.
For example, alumni donations could be grouped by year of graduation — such as 2015-20 University of Southern California alumni competing against 2015-20 University of California at Los Angeles alumni. The one with more winning alumni groups at game’s end would triumph.
Depending on the sport or division, bands of alums could be enlarged or narrowed to keep it competitive. Winning alums might even purchase apparel or mementos of their fundraising victory with proceeds going to student scholarships.
Non-alums could also be encouraged to donate and form groups. Alternative structures abound. For example, the leagues could compete for the highest number of donors or hours volunteered instead of total funds raised. Alums could even form small teams of a dozen or so to compete against other alumni teams or teams from a rival school.
I hope charity leagues catch on and help reinforce the realization that good deeds are inherently satisfying, whether part of a game or not.
