Today is the last day to get your Owl Club donation in to count for the fiscal year goal of $2.2 MM! If you have been putting off your contribution, today would be the day to make it. You can donate online at http://www.rice.edu/owlclub or by contacting Tyler Maines, Assistant Director of Annual Giving at TDM3@rice.edu or 713.348.5086.

GO OWLS!!!

Bump. Under six hours left.

Where do we stand relative to the goal?

Did we reach our goals? Any word?

Great news, the Owl Club has reached its goal! Thank you to all of you who contributed and used the power of peer pressure to encourage your friends to do the same. In addition to hitting the goal of $2.2 MM, we also added several hundred new members!

(07-09-2015 07:53 AM)Mecklund Wrote:  Great news, the Owl Club has reached its goal! Thank you to all of you who contributed and used the power of peer pressure to encourage your friends to do the same. In addition to hitting the goal of $2.2 MM, we also added several hundred new members!

...but still only around 1,200 total donors which, while better than just over 800 annual donors, remains an embarrassment.

(07-09-2015 08:15 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(07-09-2015 07:53 AM)Mecklund Wrote:  Great news, the Owl Club has reached its goal! Thank you to all of you who contributed and used the power of peer pressure to encourage your friends to do the same. In addition to hitting the goal of $2.2 MM, we also added several hundred new members!

...but still only around 1,200 total donors which, while better than just over 800 annual donors, remains an embarrassment.

How about celebrate today and work on increasing it tomorrow. No reason to be such a downer

Congrats on reaching the goal!

(07-09-2015 08:15 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(07-09-2015 07:53 AM)Mecklund Wrote:  Great news, the Owl Club has reached its goal! Thank you to all of you who contributed and used the power of peer pressure to encourage your friends to do the same. In addition to hitting the goal of $2.2 MM, we also added several hundred new members!

...but still only around 1,200 total donors which, while better than just over 800 annual donors, remains an embarrassment.

(07-09-2015 08:15 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(07-09-2015 07:53 AM)Mecklund Wrote:  Great news, the Owl Club has reached its goal! Thank you to all of you who contributed and used the power of peer pressure to encourage your friends to do the same. In addition to hitting the goal of $2.2 MM, we also added several hundred new members!

...but still only around 1,200 total donors which, while better than just over 800 annual donors, remains an embarrassment.

It IS a 50% increase

What's the frame of reference?

What are the numbers for other small private D1 schools?

(07-09-2015 10:54 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  

(07-09-2015 08:15 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(07-09-2015 07:53 AM)Mecklund Wrote:  Great news, the Owl Club has reached its goal! Thank you to all of you who contributed and used the power of peer pressure to encourage your friends to do the same. In addition to hitting the goal of $2.2 MM, we also added several hundred new members!

...but still only around 1,200 total donors which, while better than just over 800 annual donors, remains an embarrassment.

It IS a 50% increase

I like the compounding possibilities if we can maintain this trend!

(07-09-2015 08:15 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(07-09-2015 07:53 AM)Mecklund Wrote:  Great news, the Owl Club has reached its goal! Thank you to all of you who contributed and used the power of peer pressure to encourage your friends to do the same. In addition to hitting the goal of $2.2 MM, we also added several hundred new members!

...but still only around 1,200 total donors which, while better than just over 800 annual donors, remains an embarrassment.

Perhaps we could replace "remains an embarrassment" with " gives us a lot of room to grow." Put a positive cast into the comment rather than a downer like "embarrassment." Just a thought Walt.

If there are 70,000 living alumni, that's a 1.7% participation rate and an average of $300 per alum. Is that embarrassing? I don't know how those numbers compare to those of booster clubs at similar universities.

(07-09-2015 10:54 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  

(07-09-2015 08:15 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(07-09-2015 07:53 AM)Mecklund Wrote:  Great news, the Owl Club has reached its goal! Thank you to all of you who contributed and used the power of peer pressure to encourage your friends to do the same. In addition to hitting the goal of $2.2 MM, we also added several hundred new members!

...but still only around 1,200 total donors which, while better than just over 800 annual donors, remains an embarrassment.

It IS a 50% increase

Amazing *50%

(07-09-2015 02:16 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  If there are 70,000 living alumni, that's a 1.7% participation rate and an average of $300 per alum. Is that embarrassing? I don't know how those numbers compare to those of booster clubs at similar universities.

I don't follow your math. 70,000 living alumni, a 1.7% participation rate and average of $300 per alum vs. $2.2M and 1200 donors which averages $1833 per donor?

It would be interesting to also know what percentage of the 1200 donors are alumni versus non-alumni, i.e., relatives of current students, friends/supporters of Rice Athletics (aka Tiki, 13th Owl, etc.), etc.

I should have written $30 per all alumni, not $300.

The average per alum and the average participation rate seem low, but I don't know how they compare.

(07-09-2015 03:01 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  I should have written $30 per all alumni, not $300.

The average per alum and the average participation rate seem low, but I don't know how they compare.

I disagree: my hunch is that by comparison to all 4-year, residential universities, an overall athletics giving participation rate of 1.7% of alumni is quite good, and a $30 average is as well (a $300 average athletics gift across all alumni would probably be phenomenal). When you expand the comparison to all types of universities, those numbers seem more than good.

But like you, I don't really know.

One thing I know for sure is that people who are interested in an organization tend to drastically overestimate the number of other people who are similarly interested. So while people on this board may think that, say, the athletics giving participation rate should be 5% or higher, the reality may be that no university in the world has ever come close to that rate.

For gift amount, one revealing statistic is the median gift among donors, which is a good rough measure of what the "average" donor is giving (as opposed to what the average donation amount is). I suspect Rice does decently on that measure, but again I don't know.

(07-09-2015 03:01 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  I should have written $30 per all alumni, not $300.

The average per alum and the average participation rate seem low, but I don't know how they compare.

OK. Thanks for the clarification. I thought I was missing something.

Rather than quibble over how "good" or "bad" the results are, why don't we celebrate the truly remarkable increase and all commit to do what we can to make the numbers grow even more next year?

In particular, let's shout out a huge thank you to the two alums who spearheaded the effort--Mike Ecklund and Tom Hetherington. I consider both of them to be friends as well as very, very good Owls, and both of them stayed on my butt (in very good natured fashion) until I completed my gift. They simply did a fantastic job and the results reflect that. A huge thank you to both of them.

(07-09-2015 08:05 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Rather than quibble over how "good" or "bad" the results are, why don't we celebrate the truly remarkable increase and all commit to do what we can to make the numbers grow even more next year?

In particular, let's shout out a huge thank you to the two alums who spearheaded the effort--Mike Ecklund and Tom Hetherington. I consider both of them to be friends as well as very, very good Owls, and both of them stayed on my butt (in very good natured fashion) until I completed my gift. They simply did a fantastic job and the results reflect that. A huge thank you to both of them.

I'll echo this one. It was great seeing them rally the troops down the stretch. This seems like it could be a big win in some way for our Athletic Department. I love big wins. Lots of positive momentum and great efforts by some great alums. I'm a bit surprised we haven't seen a final number or a thank you tweet, story or post or something. Perhaps it takes some days for the final tally. Feels like a heck of a cliffhanger. As it is, thanks to those who led the efforts. Here's to another giant increase next year! And a couple more conference championships to go with it.