June 9, 2005

Fort Collins - Fundraising in support of Colorado State University's athletics scholarship fund is a year-round venture. But a primary focus of the campaign takes place every spring during the school's annual Ram Club Membership Drive.

With just over three weeks remaining in this year's spring drive, department officials said today they are quickly closing in on the goal of $1.7 million in cash contributions and gifts in kind.

Assistant Athletic Director Mike LaPlante said to date, the school has raised more than $1.48 million by 1,826 total donors.

Funds generated during the annual drive help offset scholarship costs projected to surpass $4 million next year. The remainder of scholarship costs are the covered by the department's general operating fund.

Earlier this spring, department officials also unveiled a new name for the club, and introduced a long-term campaign to increase scholarship support. Formerly called the Greater Ram Club, the scholarship fundraising arm of the athletics department will now simply be called "Ram Club." A new logo, designed by Black Diamond Concepts in Denver which is owned by a group of CSU alumni, was also launched.

The "Drive For Five" campaign, initiated during this spring's membership drive, was developed to increase awareness of the department's long-term goal of reaching 5,000 Ram Club members.

"Reaching this goal would allow us to use funds from our general operating budget that fund scholarships to instead be used to enhance the various aspects of our sport programs," said Director of Athletics Mark Driscoll.

The 2005 Ram Club membership drive has a goal of increasing membership from 2,329 to 2,600, and to raise $1.7 million in cash and gifts-in-kind. New components were developed and launched for this year's drive to broaden the base of support as well as add more convenience ways to join the Ram Club.

A recent graduate program has been implemented to help continue the enthusiasm our young alumni had as students for CSU Athletics by tailoring a special membership program to them. The Department of Athletics will match 1:1 any first-time donation a CSU graduate from the last three years makes to the Ram Club. Therefore, if a graduate donated $50 to the Ram Club it will be matched so that the recent alumni can enjoy the benefits of being a Century level ($100) member of the Ram Club. The Ram Club office also has developed an online membership form for both renewing members and new members. With a credit card, donors can join by logging onto csurams.com/ramclub. And finally, a new method of payment has been implemented. EFT, or electronic funds transfer, allows a donor to have automatic deductions from their checking account monthly or quaterly to pay for their membership.

The drive, which began on April 1 and continues through June, is utilizing more than 150 volunteers. Volunteers are split into 20 teams, half of which will focus on generating Ram Club members in Northern Colorado and the rest focusing on the Denver area.

Ram Club membership levels begin at $100 and expand to the $10,000 level. Each level of Ram Club membership includes unique benefits including access to special seating at Hughes Stadium and Moby Arena, membership in the university giving clubs, priority parking privileges and more. Besides enlisting through a volunteer or athletics department staff member, registration is also available online at CSURAMS.com.

For more information of the Ram Club call 970-491-4666 or visit CSURams.com and click on the Ram Club link.