Pursuant Sports Announces Partnership with

Clemson University Athletics

USING DONOR INTELLIGENCE THROUGH SMARTDATA TO GENERATE GROWTH AND RETENTION

Pursuant Sports begins engagement with Clemson University Athletics to bring a data-driven, comprehensive fundraising strategy to the IPTAY program.

Client Profile
Clemson Athletics’ IPTAY (I Pay Ten A Year) membership program is one of the oldest collegiate athletic booster clubs in the nation. Widely considered to be the father of athletic fundraising, IPTAY is the heartbeat of Clemson Athletics. With more than 16,400 members strong, IPTAY is able to support and continue the growth of the Clemson athletic program. For more than 75 years, IPTAY has played a major role in providing student-athlete scholarships, as well as building and maintaining the facilities that are essential to Clemson Athletics.

“We have teamed up with Pursuant Sports to elevate our fundraising initiatives and increase awareness of our brand in IPTAY. Since working with Pursuant, we have truly ramped up our acquisition goals, taken a proactive data-analysis approach, and enhanced our IPTAY fundraising brand. Pursuant’s thought leadership through a comprehensive program has challenged us to change the way we speak to our donors.”
- Travis Furbee, Assistant Athletic Director/Director of IPTAY Annual Fund

Challenge
Even with a powerful fundraising history and a well-known brand, the Clemson Athletics staff desired to take a strong leap forward in maintaining their place as one of the premier collegiate fundraising departments in the country. Like many successful organizations, they face the issue of continued organizational growth. IPTAY needed to find ways to grow outside of their ticket base by bringing in new members and cultivating them into lifelong supporters, while at the same time stewarding their current core donors to growing levels of commitment.

Solution
Clemson Athletics engaged in Pursuant Sports’ Philanthropic GPS program, which took a deep dive into the organization’s fundraising history for a comprehensive analysis. Then, by utilizing SmartData analytics—a donor intelligence system that examines donor behavioral data—IPTAY will be able to use targeted messaging to current donors and non-donors. This messaging will be crucial to creating a lasting relationship with IPTAY’s members by speaking in ways that specifically resonate with them through multichannel communications. Pursuant Sports has begun Phase One with Clemson Athletics, developing a two-year comprehensive strategy that includes a direct response and online program, as well as a major membership acquisition campaign surrounding IPTAY Day this fall.

“It was important for our team to know where this amazing institution had been, so we could make informed recommendations as they move forward,” says Greg Colunga, lead consultant for Pursuant. “As a part of our data analysis, we found an expected strong loyalty to the IPTAY and Clemson brand, but a missing systemic and scalable way that they could identify, cultivate and upgrade donors from the lower levels of their file without giving them ticket packages in exchange for their philanthropic gifts. To grow quickly, the organization needed to invest in an infrastructure that could scale with them as they bring a more personalized experience with IPTAY and Clemson Athletics to their donor base moving forward. IPTAY was one of the original innovators of collegiate athletics when they started in 1934, and now they are looking to innovate again nearly 80 years later.”

Tell us how we can help create a comprehensive plan for fundraising success through our contact form.