http://www.ohiobobcats.com/MultiPurposeCenter/

HA!

I just donated $500 GO BOBCATS.

IMHO, all anyone needs to know is that OUr Athletic Dept asked Ryan for a favor that he granted.  It's how mutually beneficial relationships are formed / sustained.  We're all after the same end goal and the AD obviously felt this situation was tenuous enough to put that request out.

OUr Marketing efforts are growing slowly and with the launch of biggest development for Ohio Athletics since Coach Solich was hired hanging in the balance, I for one don't think their request was unreasonable in the least...Especially considering the radical faculty contingent that's in play.

This is a HUGE step for Ohio Athletics and the Administration should absolutely have been granted the ability to get this communication out on their own terms... 

Well, thank goodness nobody's bitter about things... let's move on.

There is a great opportunity here for people to be a part of this that can't be discounted or minimized.

I've never been a person that has the capacity to cut a check for $1000 to an endowment like this.

However, a minimum $200 annual pledge for 5 years will get my name up on the wall for perpetuity. And that's an amount I can get my hands and finances on board with.

There's certainly an amount of ego stroking involved with that. But it works on me.

why, why, why is there no IMMEDIATE "donate now" link on ANY of the webpages having to do with the center?  Most people I know don't write many checks any more, they make their donations on line.  And virtually every nonprofit I've come across has a "donate now" button--big and bold--on their initial webpage.   Whatever you wanna call it---marketing, immediate response, impulse--it's a tool EVERYONE uses.  Everyone but us!

I wanna make a credit card donation...the site says they're accepted  But there is NO WAY TO MAKE ONE!    Instead, I'm told to make a long distance call to Athens "to make a gift or obtain further information."  Glad to know we are not entirely living in the 1980s, because there is an email address also.

Here I am with my credit card out, ready to donate, and its like YOU DON"T WANT IT.

Also, is this tax deductable?  There's no indication that I can find one way or another.  If it is tax deductable, SAY SO.  If it isn't at least say so in small print so dummies like me won't try to claim it.

I'm extremely frustrated that this has not been thought through and double checked more thoroughly.  If this was done in house without the expertise of a professional fund raiser, it shows!

I don't wanna say this is amateur hour, but... 

The university only allows online credit card donations OF ANY KIND through their http://www.ohioalumni.org/give website.

At least now when you designate where your donation goes, you have the option of picking "The Ohio Bobcat Club (Intercollegiate Athletics)."  For a long time, you had to blindly guess a donation to "Athletics" would actually get applied to your OBC account.

I think they should update the website with a button to donate now and provide instructions to pick OBC from the dropdown list.  Ideally they would get the MPC added to the list of where you can designate your donation...but knowing how things work in higher edu, it would probably take somebody 2 months to get that dropdown list updated.  At the least, they should add some text to inform users to "select OBC, then email us @ ??? so we know your donation is for MPC."

That's a nice picture.  I'm trying to recall where I saw it 

Not a bad reason.  A number of vendors of large dollar items refuse CC payment for the same reason.  Why give up 2 - 3% of the transaction for the "benefit" of a week's float on the money?
 
It might have been different when securities made positive short term returns and cash investments weren't paying just 0.25%.

This could lead to an interesting, but endless, debate.  I'd rather have the money now, have the certainty of cash in hand, even at the expense of the fees.  Perhaps ask for donations to be a bit higher, explaining the fees come out.

Can we get a break on the servicers' rates based on volume (tuition payments?, use of banks' card to pay the University's bills)?

There's often an additional fee for online transactions, too. Sure, $3 doesn't sound like much, but when you get hundreds or thousands of donations...

It could be university policy and athletics has no control of it. That's pure speculation.

Good point.

Amen, Bro!  I'm glad that you have mentioned Jody.  We should never forget all that she did for Ohio athletics.  As I understand it she gave the bulk of the funds for the permanent lights at Peden and also for the replacement turf when the original artificial turf at Peden had to be replaced after only a few years of use.  She also was a strong supporter of the College of Osteopathic Medicine.  Great Ohio lady!