Athletic Fundraising at UND

[UND Fan]

Many of you know me.  I was one of the first ss.com members, joining back in 2002.  I have been less active in recent years as, in my opinion, the site has been used more for bitching than talking about UND sports.  I also tracked and posted UND football, M&W basketball recruiting efforts for many years.  More than 3,500 potential recruits were tracked over those years.  I am pleased that the tracking of potential FB recruits has continued.  After running seven successful Let's Help Bubba (meaning - let's help UND football) fundraising campaigns, I backed away due to my disappointment/disagreement with UND athletic fundraising efforts.  Long story short, I feel better about that area now and will likely become more active again. 

 

I had earlier posted that my next fundraising effort would be for an All-American Wall in the new football locker room.  It would include pictures and brief stories of our past All-Americans, MVPs, championship teams, etc.   It would be professionally done in a first-class manner to impress potential recruits and their parents. We did one of these for Rich Glas many years ago and it proved to be a recruiting asset for his basketball programs back then.  I had planned to launch the fundraising for the football Wall this summer. 

 

Due to the chaos in college athletic funding right now, we are going to put the Wall on hold for a while.  With the 701, 1883 NIL Collective, Champion’s Club, the Cost of Attendance and the recent House Settlement affecting mid-level Division I programs in many (some unknown) ways, the focus for the near term needs to change.  UND having adequate funds to attract and retain athletes is the priority right now.  Therefore, I am recommending and encouraging individual fans to contribute to one of the UND’s 701 Award funds (scholastic or NIL).  The 1883 Collective NIL will still be valuable for businesses who want to take advantage of having UND athletes represent their marketing efforts. However, for fans like you and me, we should be contributing to the 701 Fund.  It provides UND with the most flexibility in this challenging time.  As you may know, you have the opportunity to direct your NIL funds to specific sports or the athletic program in general. Contributions to the 701 are tax deductible, 1883 donations are not.    

 

Personally, I have a concern that some fans/businesses may cut back on their Champion’s Club donations in order to help with the NIL efforts.  We can’t allow that to happen as the CC provides the funds for our scholarships.  Losing scholarship dollars would have a negative effect.  So, I am asking that we all donate a little (hopefully, a lot) extra to help UND Athletics.  Setting up monthly contributions to the 701 or 1883 would be great.  You can be assured that some of our rivals are making this same plea to their supporters.  We cannot be left behind.  Many or our competitors have been successful in convincing business owners to contribute on behalf of their business AND make individual contributions as well. Many of our supporters already do this but many don't!  Convincing these owners and upper management to do so can make a huge difference in our efforts.

 

Here is the link to the 701 Fund:  

701 Award | UND Alumni Association & Foundation | University of North Dakota

 

If you live in the area, I encourage you to attend next Tuesday's meeting at the Ralph sponsored by the GF/EGF Chamber.  I expect all the specific ways to contribute will be fully explained.

https://d15k2d11r6t6rl.cloudfront.net/pub/8ziy/5krpme5r/kjb/sf0/yz0/UND%20and%20Chamber%20logo.jpg

 

Let's do all we can to assist UND Athletics!

 

If you have any questions or concerns about my message, please PM me. 

[brianvf]

Schloss wrote an article after the event:

https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/und-hockey/und-officials-explain-how-the-school-uses-nil-to-community-leaders

Quote

UND football coach Eric Schmidt told a story to a group of community leaders and UND boosters Tuesday afternoon.

He said relationships are vital — and Schmidt had a great one when he was an assistant coach at UND under Bubba Schweigert. Schweigert was Schmidt's former defensive coordinator, his first college football boss and his mentor.

"Then, Kalen DeBoer came along and offered me four times more (money)," Schmidt said. "What are you going to do? Relationships matter. Don't get me wrong. But they matter up to a point."

Schmidt likened the situation to recruiting and retaining top players.

Quote

The most important factors may be relationships, facilities and opportunities, but if UND isn't in the ballpark financially, they're going to lose out.

"Ultimately, those kids are going to go to Brookings, South Dakota, they're going to go to Fargo, North Dakota, and they're going to come to Grand Forks," Schmidt said. "We're all going to put an offer sheet in front of them. It's got to be competitive. As long as it's competitive, and in the same boat, I think we've got a great opportunity with what we're doing here — and how we're developing our guys — to be able to win a lot of those battles.

"At the end of the day, you've got to be able to be competitive when you throw the offer sheet in front of a kid."

 

[forksandspoons]

On 8/16/2025 at 4:44 PM, UND Fan said:

Many of you know me.  I was one of the first ss.com members, joining back in 2002.  I have been less active in recent years as, in my opinion, the site has been used more for bitching than talking about UND sports.  I also tracked and posted UND football, M&W basketball recruiting efforts for many years.  More than 3,500 potential recruits were tracked over those years.  I am pleased that the tracking of potential FB recruits has continued.  After running seven successful Let's Help Bubba (meaning - let's help UND football) fundraising campaigns, I backed away due to my disappointment/disagreement with UND athletic fundraising efforts.  Long story short, I feel better about that area now and will likely become more active again. 

 

I had earlier posted that my next fundraising effort would be for an All-American Wall in the new football locker room.  It would include pictures and brief stories of our past All-Americans, MVPs, championship teams, etc.   It would be professionally done in a first-class manner to impress potential recruits and their parents. We did one of these for Rich Glas many years ago and it proved to be a recruiting asset for his basketball programs back then.  I had planned to launch the fundraising for the football Wall this summer. 

 

Due to the chaos in college athletic funding right now, we are going to put the Wall on hold for a while.  With the 701, 1883 NIL Collective, Champion’s Club, the Cost of Attendance and the recent House Settlement affecting mid-level Division I programs in many (some unknown) ways, the focus for the near term needs to change.  UND having adequate funds to attract and retain athletes is the priority right now.  Therefore, I am recommending and encouraging individual fans to contribute to one of the UND’s 701 Award funds (scholastic or NIL).  The 1883 Collective NIL will still be valuable for businesses who want to take advantage of having UND athletes represent their marketing efforts. However, for fans like you and me, we should be contributing to the 701 Fund.  It provides UND with the most flexibility in this challenging time.  As you may know, you have the opportunity to direct your NIL funds to specific sports or the athletic program in general. Contributions to the 701 are tax deductible, 1883 donations are not.    

 

Personally, I have a concern that some fans/businesses may cut back on their Champion’s Club donations in order to help with the NIL efforts.  We can’t allow that to happen as the CC provides the funds for our scholarships.  Losing scholarship dollars would have a negative effect.  So, I am asking that we all donate a little (hopefully, a lot) extra to help UND Athletics.  Setting up monthly contributions to the 701 or 1883 would be great.  You can be assured that some of our rivals are making this same plea to their supporters.  We cannot be left behind.  Many or our competitors have been successful in convincing business owners to contribute on behalf of their business AND make individual contributions as well. Many of our supporters already do this but many don't!  Convincing these owners and upper management to do so can make a huge difference in our efforts.

 

Here is the link to the 701 Fund:  

701 Award | UND Alumni Association & Foundation | University of North Dakota

 

If you live in the area, I encourage you to attend next Tuesday's meeting at the Ralph sponsored by the GF/EGF Chamber.  I expect all the specific ways to contribute will be fully explained.

https://d15k2d11r6t6rl.cloudfront.net/pub/8ziy/5krpme5r/kjb/sf0/yz0/UND%20and%20Chamber%20logo.jpg

 

Let's do all we can to assist UND Athletics!

 

If you have any questions or concerns about my message, please PM me. 

Will UND be actively promoting donations to the 701 Fund? 
 

I am glad they did the info session last week, but feel like some explanation videos online would reach a lot more people.