GTAA financial Issues

[Scubapro]

It is false that the GT Foundation does not share donor lists with the GTAA. I asked that question to the head of the Foundation.
It is true that the Foundation does not provide any funds to the GTAA, This is because the Foundation was formed to support the Academic interests of the Institute and has by- laws in place to prevent transfer of funds to the GTAA or other similar non academic organizations

I did a quick read through of the Roll Call by laws and didnt see anything that excluded the ability to contribute funds to the athletic dept.

 

[Bodidley2]

I was told the above by the head of the Foundation

 

[okiemon]

I hope this doesn't make anybody mad, but I would encourage people to give more to the GTAA, even at the expense of donations back to the school if necessary. I read somewhere something like 35% of alumni give back to the school, but only 8% give to the GTAA.

I’m only guessing, but it would not surprise me if a large % of that 35% think their money is going to athletics as well as academics. If so, the Institute is being dishonest by not making it public that the Roll Call does not support the GTAA.




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[GSOJacket]

Separating the Roll Call from Alexander Tharpe had the following effect on my company's matching grants program: they'd match gifts to Roll Call, but no match to AT.

 

[ibeattetris]

This is a good time to remind anyone who uses Amazon for online shopping. If you use smile.amazon.com you can have a percentage of your order total get donated to a charity of your own choosing at no cost to you the customer. I am not suggesting or asking for anyone to do this, but coincidentally, the GTAA is a charity you can pick.

 

[RonJohn]

I’m only guessing, but it would not surprise me if a large % of that 35% think their money is going to athletics as well as academics. If so, the Institute is being dishonest by not making it public that the Roll Call does not support the GTAA.

There are some. Some have posted on this forum that they didn't know that Roll Call doesn't support athletics until they read it on this forum. However, there are some, including some people that I know, that have said they would not donate to Roll Call if the money did go to athletics. I can't find fault in someone who wants to donate money specifically for athletics, and I can't find fault in someone who wants to donate money specifically to academics. I can't find fault in someone who wants to donate money to GT in general and doesn't care if the money is used for athletics or academics.

I would say that the athletic association should be the front organization for athletic fund raising. My impression of the last few ADs: DRad seemed to only court big money donors. MBob didn't appear to court anyone. TStan appears to be doing a good job of getting big money donors involved, and reaching out to smaller donors. GT Athletics is in the middle of the AI2020 initiative. I have confidence in TStan that once AI2020 is completed, the GTAA will launch a different fund raising campaign. I hope that such a campaign will encourage smaller donors to donate and feel engaged with GT athletics. In short, I have confidence in TStan and I think GT athletic fund raising will continue to improve.

 

[Techster]

I’m only guessing, but it would not surprise me if a large % of that 35% think their money is going to athletics as well as academics. If so, the Institute is being dishonest by not making it public that the Roll Call does not support the GTAA.




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CPJ alluded to this in the interview that was recently posted. He talked about the disparity in how the academic endowment is one of the largest in the nation yet the athletic endowment was one of the smallest for a P5 school. He went on to say there are a lot of donors that have no clue that when they donate to academic endowment none of the money goes to the GTAA.

 

[Animal02]

It's really unbelievable that a school like GT doesn't see the value of great athletic programs and how "IF" they had nationally prominent programs it would benefit the entire student body. Everything would go up... and the entire Institute would be lifted. Just consider this article https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/sports/ncaa-applicants/

There is a direct correlation when a school wins a national championship, to their admission applications. Its a 3 hour commercial for the school!! For those of you that won't read that article, it shows that when a school wins or appears in a championship game the number of admissions go up, which would in turn allow even higher student profiles, which would in turn be used to secure even more funding.

Everything is elevated. It really is a narrow view to see academics as a sole vertical outside of athletics, and reminds me of the stereo-type "Jock" that is made fun in movies because they can't value the "nerd". Only in our case, we have the exact opposite where we aren't valuing what the "Jock" brings and the result is that we are damn near the bottom in athletic funding.

It us sad to those of us who can see the benefits.

It is not like Tech is suffering from a lack of applications to begin with. Just saying

 

[TheSilasSonRising]

It was discussed on another thread, but I think it deserves its own.

One of the issues PJ mentioned on the PodCast was the underfunding of the GTAA. This can be fixed but not without some grass roots efforts.


I understand the following assumptions:

The athletic department is $200M in debt

The Institute cannot provide more than 10% of the GTAA’s operating expenses

Roll Call does not contribute any funds to athletics

The Institute does not share donor information with the GTAA

The Institute historically has not aided in GTAA fund raising efforts


Each Football game and Basketball game is nothing more than a commercial for the school. The Institute benefits from this immensely, whether they believe it to be true.

Should the GTAA be supported for this advertising? Yes. Is it? Minimally.

They announced each class raising millions of dollars for Tech on the jumbotron during halftime of homecoming. How much of that went to Athletics? Zero.

I find it curious for Roll Call not to contribute to the GTAA when nothing in its By-Laws prevents it from doing so.

Also, look at the video on Roll Call’s website: https://www.gtalumni.org/s/1481/alumni/19/home.aspx?gid=21&pgid=61

How many of these clips are of sporting events?

Does the Institute tell donors that their money will not be used to help athletics? Nope.

Do they encourage /direct prospective donors to AT? Nope.

Does Tech benefit from a successful Athletic Program? You bet it does.


I would encourage each Tech fan to email and call the head of Roll Call, Dene Sheheane and President Angel Cabrer and let them know what a disservice it is to Georgia Tech not to find creative ways to fund athletics.


Personally, I told Dene and emailed Carea informing them I would not donate a dime to the school until they found a way to support the GTAA

We took the academic side out of our estate planning years ago. If enough do it the egotistical, simpletons might start getting a clue.

 

[BainbridgeJacket]

We took the academic side out of our estate planning years ago. If enough do it the egotistical, simpletons might start getting a clue.

If you're going to call someone an egotistical simpleton, you should probably check for extraneous punctuation.

 

[TheSilasSonRising]

Even that article says that it isn't a proven fact. The article says "The theory isn’t foolproof; sometimes schools experience no significant increase in interest after pivotal sports moments." Also, as @ibeattetris asked, if the acceptance rate is already less than 25%, would an increase in applications actually increase the qualifications of the applicant pool?

Another related claim that people make is that the schools are growing because of athletics in general, and football in particular. I have heard people claim that Alabama has been expanding and building since the mid 2000s and the reason is football. However, if you look at other schools, they have been building also. Money into colleges has been rising greatly. Schools build when they have money. Look at GT. GT has expanded into Midtown. 30 years ago everyone thought that GT was landlocked. Now GT has property in Midtown, leases on brand new office space in Midtown, and lots of new buildings. Did football success drive the GT's ability to expand and build?

I do see value in having sports. I do have the attitude that if you are going to do something, you should strive to do it well. However, I don't see a direct correlation between championship sports and top rated academics. There are too many examples of schools with bad or no athletics at all that are too good at academics to determine that that correlation is accurate.

But, say in bama’s case, the numbers have not only grown but the quality of applicants as well.

 

[TheSilasSonRising]

It is false that the GT Foundation does not share donor lists with the GTAA. I asked that question to the head of the Foundation.
It is true that the Foundation does not provide any funds to the GTAA, This is because the Foundation was formed to support the Academic interests of the Institute and has by- laws in place to prevent transfer of funds to the GTAA or other similar non academic organizations

Anylaw that says those laws can not be altered?

 

[TheSilasSonRising]

If you're going to call someone an egotistical simpleton, you should probably check for extraneous punctuation.

Purhaps

 

[deeznats]

But, say in bama’s case, the numbers have not only grown but the quality of applicants as well.

It's also coincided with the escalating cost of schools and more people choosing state schools (same as GT and UGA if you compare over the same time period). It's really hard to tell the exact causes.

 

[Vespidae]

I hope this doesn't make anybody mad, but I would encourage people to give more to the GTAA, even at the expense of donations back to the school if necessary. I read somewhere something like 35% of alumni give back to the school, but only 8% give to the GTAA. The school itself doesn't really need the money so much - its elite reputation is there.

I don't give a penny to the school. 100% of what I give goes to the GTAA. I'm not necessarily advocating that, but based on our budgeting here in our house and what I can get away from with the wife thats where every penny we give goes.

We're making progress though, as donations are up a pretty big percentage from previous years, but we need everyone to spread the word.

I’m with you. I give generously to GTAA but not to the school. The Institute is flush.

 

[Vespidae]

I think the GTAA is trying to implement an intelligent approach to dealing with the financial issue. The completed a long-term refinancing of the debt and lowered payments significantly. AI2020 initiative will help consolidate facilities and provide for some much needed new infrastructure. TStan has said that in 3 years or so, many more legacy costs will end and they can begin to deal more aggressively with debt and with a more appropriate reinvestment rate. The deal with Mercedes Benz will generate $1-2M a year.

For the first time in my 40 year association with Tech, the GTAA actually has a plan.

 

[g0lftime]

I think the key to getting donations is to define specific goals for the money. Just asking for money is easy to ignore. TSTAN seems to be doing a better job at defining goals for the AA.

 

[GTLorenzo]

I agree with most of what you posted. However, this item isn't entirely correct. The information I received during my 25th anniversary year, they said that any donations to: Roll Call, The GTAA, AT Fund, the GT Foundation, individual colleges, individual projects, etc. Basically any donation that goes to the school or to athletics is counted in the number that they put on the big screen. I haven't seen them split it up, so there isn't any way to tell how much went to the school or to athletics, but the athletics portion isn't zero.

This Is exactly correct. I was on my 25th Committee two years ago and the numbers on the big screen include all donations to the school, athletic department, any college, etc. over a five-year period I believe, plus any future pledges. I believe that is correct. Not just one time donations for that year‘s Homecoming.

 

[bob4gt]

As the number of Baptist ministers in a town increases, so do alcohol sales. Correlation and causation are two different things. When Bama wins a national championship, the quality of applicants doesn't necessarily improve. More applicants mean that poorer students are not accepted, thus raising average scores.
Bob (BUT not BobinATL)

 

[slugboy]

As the number of Baptist ministers in a town increases, so do alcohol sales. Correlation and causation are two different things.
Bob (BUT not BobinATL)

Since I’ve heard that the difference between a Baptist and an Episcopalian is that Episcopalians recognize each other and say “hi” in the liquor store while Baptists duck into another aisle, maybe correlation and causation are the same?



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