A Letter From IPTAY – 8.24.20

A Letter From IPTAY - 8.24.20

Greetings Fellow Tigers,

We want to thank you for the tremendous response we received from our note, dated August 3. Your responses through email, various social media platforms, and telephone were all very much appreciated. Your passion for IPTAY and our athletic program are so evident, and we want to say how fortunate our University is to have loyal supporters like you.

In the last several weeks, our staff has communicated with many of you and, at your request we will try to provide some additional information that will hopefully clarify some of the questions that you had. During that same period of time, more information has become available about our fall football schedule, various conference decisions nationally concerning fall sports, and most recently an opt-out form that was sent to all season ticket holders last week. Hopefully, some of the information in this note may aid you, as you consider the direction you want to take regarding tickets and your IPTAY contributions for this year.

For the fiscal year 2020 that ended on June 30, IPTAY received $73.26 million in pledges and cash from our loyal donor base.

Those funds were contributed to four major areas:

  1. Annual Fund: $38.65 million
  2. Major Gifts: $20.05 million
  3. Premium Seating: $8.04 million
  4. Planned Giving : $6.52 million

Annual fund and premium seat revenue is cash, while both major gifts and planned giving are in the form of pledges. Major gifts are paid over a five-year period and fund facility projects, endowments, and special initiatives. Planned gifts are donor estate intentions and are realized at the time of death of the donor. We tell you this as a way of breaking down what is cash versus what are future commitments.

These dollars raised noted above are critical to supporting the success of Clemson student-athletes. They directly support student-athlete scholarships, academic support and student-athlete enrichment programs through the Nieri Family Student-Athlete Enrichment Center, strength & conditioning, nutrition services, and new and upgraded facilities to train and compete in. It is important that we again remind you of the tremendous impact you make in the lives of our young people.

Some of you asked for some more clarification about how IPTAY spends donor funds for our operational expenses. Below are six main areas of funding for such operations.

  • $3.3 million – Personnel – 36 staff members tasked with day-to-day operations and implementation of the duties of the Organization – salaries and benefits
  • $1.5 million – Premium Seating – staffing and management of 95 suites and 1600 club seats in football, 440 club seats in basketball, and 150 field-level seats in baseball. Budget includes all food costs in each of the aforementioned areas for all three sports seasons, staffing, and maintenance – these expenses are funded by the $8 million from premium seat revenue shown above
  • $475,000 – Signage, staffing, and rental of 82 parking lots and 18,000 parking spaces for seven home football games
  • $600,000 – Printing and postage costs for all solicitations, credential packets, banners, and the design, writing, printing, and mailing of eight annual issues of Orange The Experience magazine, sent to 17,000 donors plus printing of numerous other publications
  • $325,000 – Support of Clemson University central donor database, CADENCE
  • $220,000 – Staff travel and donor relations toward generating the $73.26 million during FY 2020

As a 501(c)(3) organization, IPTAY is a self-supporting entity. We provide a gift processing and business office staff,  marketing / communications / social media team, feeder program outreach team (Collegiate Club, Cubs, and Cats), outbound Sales & Service Call Center team, management and oversight of the Block C Club, as well as annual fund, major gifts, premium seating, and planned giving officers.

Some of you also asked about what IPTAY is doing from an expense standpoint to deal with anticipated budget challenges for this year. Below are a few examples.

  • The university and IPTAY have been in a hiring freeze since mid-March.
  • Our IPTAY development officers have not traveled to meet with donors since mid-March. Essentially, the only dollars we have spent since mid-March are in compensation expenses for our 36-member team and we will participate in the University furlough program that was announced today.
  • Areas have been identified within our budget that will be significantly reduced for the year in which we are in currently.
  • Further reductions are anticipated, as this fiscal year progresses.

From this data, we hope that you can see the expanded scope of our organization, areas within the athletic program that we support as its largest revenue-provider, total overall revenue that we produce in both cash and pledges, and actions we have already taken to reduce expenses for this year. We further trust that you will see that we are, indeed good stewards of your financial support, and that our expenses are very realistic, given the revenue that we produce.

As always, we welcome your feedback and hope that, through these various communication pieces, you have gained a better understanding of our organization and role at Clemson University.

From all of us at IPTAY, we thank you again for your sacrificial giving that allows Clemson student-athletes to be the best they can be, in their academic, athletic, and life- preparation pursuits.

Sincerely,

Davis Babb, IPTAY CEO

Bob Riggins, President: IPTAY Board of Directors