(03-29-2020 04:43 PM)Wedge Wrote:  Where do an athletic department's biggest donors get their money? Let's say a program is dependent on donors who are in the oil industry. The price of gasoline here has dropped by a dollar a gallon in the last month. There are predictions the price of oil might drop to $10/barrel. Those donors are going to donate a lot less to the athletic department going forward. Might be similar for donors in the travel industry and a few others.

Politics will eventually make that determination.
If industry can't be rescued from China and the middle class revived in some fashion, many donating pools will dry up as the current boomers die out.

Where the southwest may be dependent on the oil industry, my state (North Carolina) was dependent on Furniture, Tobacco, and Textiles. These industries provided the family wealth that has sustained non-profit contributions for years. All of those industries are just shells of their former self and haven't been replaced on a large scale.