July 30, 2005
ORLANDO - Records in athletics competition were not the only records broken during the recently completed school year at UCF as overall giving to UCF athletics during fiscal year 2004-05 topped the $3.5 million mark for the first time ever. Those donations include more than $2 million in capital giving and $1.2 million in annual gifts to the Golden Knights Club.
"On behalf of our more than 500 student athletes, I would like to say a big thank you, regardless of the size of the gift, to all who gave to UCF athletics this past year," UCF director of athletics Steve Orsini said. "A lot of the growth we experience in UCF athletics is as a direct result of the financial gifts of individuals and corporations and those gifts are helping us reach our goal of being nationally competitive in all of our sports."
The Golden Knights Club, the scholarship fundraising arm of UCF athletics, brought in a record $1.2 million in unrestricted gifts, an increase of 25 percent from a year ago. It's the first time that annual giving has topped the $1 million mark and this year's total is nearly double the $619,000 that was collected just two years ago.
"We could not have done it without the hard work of the GKC board and GKC staff," said Sean Helton, assistant director of the Golden Knights Club. "We topped our goal of $1.2 million this year and will celebrate that achievement. Ultimately, our desire is to raise the funds annually to cover all of the scholarship costs for our student-athletes, which now exceeds $4 million. We will continue to grow our donor base and increase our annual support for these students."
In terms of capital giving, donations for the building and expansion of athletics facilities, the largest gifts during the year came in for football-related projects. Of those, one of the leading commitments was from Tony Nicholson; whose pledge is earmarked for the indoor football facility, which was subsequently named the Nicholson Fieldhouse. Also, an anonymous donor gave a sizeable gift to fund the work being done to design and study the feasibility of an on-campus football stadium.
"The magnitude and scope of capital projects with a proposed football stadium and the plans for the new convocation center have stimulated considerable interest among our donor base," said Tim Leonard, assistant vice president for athletics development and annual giving. "Additionally, the excitement of the hiring of George O'Leary as football coach had and continues to have a huge impact on giving."
The amount of capital giving from the 2004-05 fiscal year was more than triple the capital gifts received just a year prior and overall giving to UCF athletics was doubled from the 2003-04 fiscal year.