Titans’ Funding Goal Grows to $6.3 Million

FULLERTON —  A $2.3-million fund-raising campaign by the Cal State Fullerton athletic department has grown into a joint effort to raise $6.3 million for Fullerton athletics and for the Titan Sports Complex under construction on campus.

The drive was officially launched Tuesday night after the Fullerton City Council agreed to advance $540,000 to the school to pay for the campaign.

Plans and strategies were unveiled by the Robert B. Sharp Co., which released a feasibility study stating that at least $4 million--and possibly more--could be raised through private donors. School President Milton A. Gordon said the Santa Ana-based fund-raising consultants will run the campaign.

Gordon and Sharp announced that the athletic department’s recently launched two-year, $2.3-million fund-raising drive, which will cover $1 million in Titan Athletic Foundation efforts and $1.3 million in expected budget shortfalls, will be rolled into the larger campaign.

This will be added to a $4-million drive for capital improvements to the sports complex, a project that had been scaled back last year because of cost increases. Tops on the school’s priority list is the baseball pavilion, which will include a press box, concession stands and restrooms.

The structure, with an estimated cost of $800,000, was one of several “add alternatives” that were eliminated from the base project in March, 1990.

If successful, the fund-raiser would pay for other add alternatives, such as furnishings for the stadium support building and locker rooms, concession stands and restrooms on the east side of the football/soccer stadium and improved landscaping and grounds maintenance. The $540,000 campaign cost has been factored into the $4-million goal.

The TAF will be primarily responsible for the $2.3-million campaign, but it will be conducted simultaneously with the $4-million campaign and with input and guidance from the Sharp Co.

This raises the question: Won’t the two campaigns be targeting some of the same people?

who has been involved in several major county projects--including the Orange County Performing Arts Center--hopes to avoid this potential problem with proper planning.

care deeply about the construction of a stadium and those who care only about football. I think there will be minimal overlap (in donors).”

Sharp said donors will have the option of designating where their gifts go, but for those who don’t specify, the school will decide how pledges are allocated.

Tuesday night’s appropriation by the City Council, acting as the Redevelopment Agency, brings to $10.76 million the total city investment in the sports complex--the $6.7 million originally authorized in 1988, an additional $3.5 million contributed last June, $22,000 for Sharp’s feasibility study last spring and $540,000 to cover costs of the campaign.

About $5 million will be paid back to the city through annual revenue from the Marriott Hotel on Fullerton’s campus, but a small snag in the repayment plan arose Tuesday night.

When the Redevelopment Agency agreed to front an additional $3.5 million to the school last June, it did so under the agreement that any private funds generated for the project would go toward settling that debt.

But the recommendation to the council Tuesday was to amend that agreement so that project “add alternatives” would receive priority over repayment. The council unanimously passed the $540,000 appropriation for fund-raising costs but will renegotiate a new pay-back schedule for the $3.5 million.

“The feeling of the entire council was that we wanted to do this right, not half-baked,” Councilman Richard Ackerman said. “The No. 1 priority is to complete the project. That’s why we flip-flopped pay-backs. The city will get the money back. It just might take longer.”

Ackerman also said that the school would have a better chance of raising money if funds went to sports complex items instead of the city.

“You’ve got to give the fund-raiser tools to sell,” Ackerman said.

Sharp’s firm built its feasibility study around confidential interviews with 24 individuals, selected on the basis of their estimated capacity to: make a pledge from personal, corporate or foundation resources of $25,000 or more; serve in a fund-raising leadership capacity or influence others to do so, and judge the merit and need for this project in relation to other philanthropic endeavors currently planned or under way in the area.

A wide range of opinions are quoted in the study, and Sharp believed there was sufficient interest in, and support for, the Titan Sports Complex to warrant proceeding with a capital campaign of up to $4 million in private gifts.

Sharp said the campaign will be implemented in three phases: an intense, one- to two-month period of strategic planning and preparation, a one-year solicitation of major donors (those with the ability to pledge $25,000 or more) and a six-month solicitation of lower-level gifts (less than $25,000).

A primary emphasis will be placed on finding at least one multimillion-dollar donor for whom the sports complex could be named. Sharp has recommended that sequential solicitation--in which the largest gifts are solicited first, followed by smaller gifts--be used.

“Like most capital campaigns, we hope 90% of the goal is funded by 10% of the donors,” Sharp said. “We want to begin at the highest level and work our way down.”

The TAF has been organizing volunteers, campaign materials and alumni lists, and Sharp said several potential large donors have been identified, but he declined to name them. Sharp hopes the conclusion of the campaign will coincide with the sports complex opening, which is scheduled for October, 1992.

Sharp said he will serve the campaign in the capacity of strategic planning and fund-raising counsel, which should require three to four days of his time per month. Sharp’s senior consultant, Stephen D. Christensen, a 1989 Fullerton graduate, will be the full-time campaign director, Sharp said.

A full-time secretary will be assigned to the campaign, as will several other part-time fund-raising specialists, but those costs will be incorporated into the campaign.

“We need professional advice on planning this campaign so both (the athletic department and sports complex drives) can go forward without bumping into each other,” said Gordon. “I think Bob Sharp has an excellent reputation. They’ve talked to all the people and think the money can be raised. They have the track record, so what more could you want?”