(09-10-2020 12:24 PM)WMTribe90 Wrote:  

(09-10-2020 11:33 AM)Tribe2011 Wrote:  

(09-10-2020 10:35 AM)WMTribe90 Wrote:  Apparently Director Huge missed 400 stones worth $800,000+. The swim team acting on its own behalf was able raise this amount in roughly 3 days time without the benefit of the AD’s rolodex. Does anyone truly believe our AD may a good faith effort to keep these sports?

Its obvious the pandemic was just the excuse needed to axe these sports. No public attempt at raising the needed funds was made because they likely knew or at least feared such a campaign would be successful. One Tribe One Family (except for the expendable members).

I made a pledge here.

https://www.savetribeswimming.com/pledge

It’s the only money I will give to WM athletics this year when/if the swim team is brought back. I hope the other sports pursue similar efforts.

Taking no position here on the AD's actions, but that $800K figure seems potentially kind of misleading, no? It's just pledges, not money actually raised, and the fundraising page prominently says that you only actually donate any money AFTER the team is fully reinstated. So there would hypothetically be no reason someone couldn't "pledge" $100K just to get the team reinstated, then decline to actually follow through and contribute the money. More a PR campaign than an actual fundraising drive.

I certainly hope for their sake they have an actually $800K raised, but it seems what their fundraising page shows is far different from ACTUALLY having that amount of money in hand to fund the sport.

I refer to my “pledge” is my post and no where do I suggest money has been “raised”. Sure, someone could make a Pledge with no intention of following through, but to what purpose? People making pledges are smart enough to know an empty pledge is self-defeating.

The way I suspect this will work (if it works), is the swim teams gets pledges in the amount needed to fully endow the program’s annual budget. The team then goes to the school with those pledges and asks for reinstatement. If I’m on the BOV or President Rowe, I say great and release a public statement to the effect that once/if those pledges are converted into actual dollars then WM will immediately reinstate the program. If I’m the fund raisers, I put in writing that the new endowment money must be returned to the donors if the sport is ever cancelled down the road, before handing it over to the College.

The College announces projects all the time based on pledges of financial support or do you think Huge as 56 million sitting in a bank account for Kaplan right now.

It's definitely pretty different from a college or non-profit organization collecting pledges. When that happens, those pledges are vetted and confirmed directly with individuals, and everyone making a pledge has put their name to it with the org and thus is connecting their credibility to it. A lot different when you're just clicking something on a website.