The athletic department took in a record $24,835,209 in pledges and gifts this past year, but officials don't plan on slowing their fundraising efforts any time soon.
Duke will begin a $150 million push to endow all of its 235 athletic scholarships, a measure that would benefit all of Duke's 26 varsity sports and ensure the athletic program's long-term financial strength.
"We are looking at some sort of special initiative focusing on endowed scholarships," said Susan Ross, associate director of athletics for development. "The [Campaign for Duke] goal was not achieved, and [the lack of endowed scholarships] remains a problem for Duke on a yearly basis."
About 50 scholarships are currently endowed, and Ross said it would take $150 million to close the funding gap.
Although the department exceeded its $140 million goal during the Campaign For Duke, it was unable to reach its $40 million target for endowed scholarships, collecting only $25 million. After seven years under a University-wide campaign, the athletic department is now taking a step of independence from the University on the fundraising front.
"This right now is my initiative," Athletic Director Joe Alleva said with pride. "I am going to hopefully get a lot more people behind it because I think it is something that the University needs to get behind. If you are going to raise that much money, because that is a huge amount of money, everybody needs to be pulling the rope in the same direction."
Athletic development officials are currently "in the beginning phases of talking to some of the lead donors," but a start date for the initiative has not been determined, said Donald Fowler, director of major gifts for the department.
The commitment to scholarship endowment marks a significant shift in priorities, as athletics spent most of the past decade raising money to upgrade its facilities. The Campaign for Duke, which concluded in December 2003, generated $152 million for the department, most of which was earmarked for capital improvements and general operating expenses.
"In the Campaign we had a number of different buckets," said Jackson Winters, executive director of the Iron Dukes, the group of donors that contributes to the athletics annual fund. "Our focus is going to be a little more targeted in the scholarship area."
Scholarship endowment has competed with facilities fundraising in the past, but within the department the new initiative has received widespread praise. Men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, Duke's most public figure, has expressed support for the initiative. He also plans to raise money for a basketball training facility for the men's and women's teams.
"We have just had a tremendously successful capital campaign, but I think [this is] where we kind of say, 'We have focused on everything here, lets just focus on athletics and see if maybe we can provide a big push to get it to the level that it needs to be,'" Krzyzewski said.
Some of the money raised during the Campaign for Duke went to the men's basketball Legacy Fund with the goal of endowing the basketball program. The fund has endowed six scholarships and helped to fund several capital ventures. Endowing the remainder of the 13 men's basketball scholarships will be a component of the new initiative.
In the long run, if Duke can increase the number of its endowed scholarships, the department will consider adding to the existing total, Alleva said. Such improvements would be a major boon for Duke's Olympic sports, which do not receive the maximum scholarship support permitted by the NCAA. The women's track and field program, for example, can grant 12 of 18 possible scholarships, and the men's program does not receive any such support.
"At this point it is our number-one priority fundraising-wise," Alleva said. "We have made tremendous improvement to our facilities, and that was my first priority. The practice facility is probably one of the last components. After that we have to improve our endowment. That is our future."
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