The College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) announced ten recipients of the CSCAA development grant last week. The program, which will allow all ten coaches to participate in the CSCAA’s Fundraising Academy, aims to help college swimming and diving coaches gain fundraising and development acumen, while also guaranteeing the coaches will successfully solicit at least one $5000+ donation to their program.
The coaches selected include nine head coaches and one assistant coach. Each coach will have access to online workshops, one-on-one office hours and guest speakers as they hone their individual fundraising approach. The recipients include:
- Woody Woodard (Head coach, Colorado State)
- Katie McCardle (Head coach, Dickinson College)
- Randy Horner (Head coach, Florida International
- Nic Askew (Head coach, Howard University)
- Nick Lakin (Head coach, Northern Iowa)
- Paul Mangen (Head coach, St. Leo)
- Paul Dotterweich (Head coach, SUNY Geneseo)
- Amy Burgess (Head coach, Arkansas- Little Rock)
- Paul Bennett (Head coach, WPI)
- Nick Folker (Assistant coach, Hawaii).
The CSCAA Fundraising Academy is a new program offered for college swimming and diving coaches and signals an effort by the coaches association to educate their membership on the importance of the strategy, skills and tools of fundraising for their programs. The need for such education became as salient as ever over the past several years, as athletic departments across the country, including Michigan State, UConn, Dartmouth, William and Mary, Boise State, and East Carolina, opted to cut swimming and diving programs as a cost saving measure. Some programs have reversed their fortunes and been saved, oftentimes through a combination of massive alumni fundraising efforts and Title IX lawsuits, but the Fundraising Academy seeks to help programs proactively fundraise more effectively.
The Fundraising Academy program is conducted in partnership with CoachRaise, a fundraising education platform for college coaches and administrators across several sports and will also feature current college swimming and diving coaches with a successful fundraising track record.
Seasoned athletics development professionals Wade Garard and Julian Moses initially founded CoachRaise to help with fundraising efforts for collegiate men’s volleyball, but have since expanded their programming to include women’s volleyball, the CSCAA and the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA). In addition to leading the Fundraising Academy, Garard and Moses will also be offering a hands-on workshop at the 2023 CSCAA convention and a three-part virtual workshop series for coaches at various career stages.