Michigan Champions Circle: Permanent fund raiser hired, more … your questions answered

Michigan collective Champions Circle continues to raise money for the “Those Who Stay” campaign and other initiatives, and it’s making progress. Jared Wangler answers some of your questions about the direction, crowdfunding (where does your money go?), and more. 

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DONATE: Those Who Stay Campaign

A big, recent move — bringing on a permanent fundraiser in a full-time position. 

“That person is fully in charge of helping manage and grow our donor network whereas in the past, it’s really been kind of our core group of the Champions Circle board — myself, Phil Hollyer my partner, working the Michigan network to bring people in,” Wangler said.

“We’ve been putting on different fundraising events, working with development to get different contacts, people that have been interested. This is like our big objective for term one of 2024 is to continue to build out a major fund-raising apparatus … to be able to get to that point. We obviously needed to be able to support it from an infrastructure standpoint. We’ve kind of built this company from scratch. It takes a while to get your business to the point to make those hires, meet the salary needs of very established, talented people. That’s a big hurdle we’ve been able to clear.”

They expect to accelerate the fund-raising in many different areas, he added. They’re taking a top down and bottom-up approach, and visibility is an important step. Having money available for Michigan coach Sherrone Moore in his NIL efforts will be huge.

“We need to be able to get major gifts from the biggest Michigan supporters, but also need to go and activate the Michigan fan base at large, just like any successful fundraising organization does,” Wangler added. “We’re trying to accelerate that and bring as much support as possible to the table. 

“I want it to be clear. … we’re never patting ourselves on the back thinking we’re this elite collective. We’re well aware we’re behind, and that there’s significant room for improvement. It doesn’t just take a small team of 5 to get this done — it takes the entire Michigan community as a whole. There have been a lot of people asking for other ways they can support other than writing a check or contributing through the portal. It’s engaging your friends, your network of Michigan alumni.”

Some of your questions, and Wangler’s answers:

What percentage of the money from the crowdfunding efforts goes to the players, and what percentage is administrative fees, etc., for Champions Circle? How do you and the others make your money?

• “One hundred percent of net proceeds goes to current student-athletes at the University of Michigan. ‘Net proceeds’ are the proceeds raised through contributions to the Champions Circle website and/or crowdfunding campaigns minus any costs associated with payment processing or applicable supporter benefits (such as products, services, or shipping charges). 

“There are no additional fees charged by Champions Circle, as overhead costs are covered by a group of founding members who pay a fee. This allows us to use 100 percent of the net proceeds from the website and our crowdfunding campaigns for NIL initiatives that benefit Michigan student-athletes

When do you decide who gets what from the pool you already have, and how? 

• “All of the net proceeds from the crowdfunding campaign are added to the overall pool of funds. Each sport with a Champions Circle fund consists of online contributions, small/medium/large donor contributions, local business contributions, ticket sales from events (i.e. signing events, Crisler National Championship celebration), sponsorship sales from events, etc.

“Each Champions Circle sport specific fund has a board of directors that decides how and when the funds are administered.”

When is the money going to start going to the Michigan players? Do they have to sign some sort of contract? Because the sooner they get it, the better.

• Champions Circle is in process of contracting with student-athletes for 2024. The student-athletes sign agreements with the Champions Circle to provide marketing and philanthropic services on behalf of the collective. 

How do you get more visibility for the campaign? What can the athletic department do legally to promote it?

“There are NCAA rules that restrict what athletic departments can and cannot do, in terms of how they’re promoting special campaigns and where those dollars are flowing. In particular, the A.D. can’t encourage donations to be for a different sport, but because Champions Circle supports all Michigan sports, they can generally promote Champions Circle. 

“But primarily, when you look at the biggest megaphone, it’s obviously the institution and the platform it brings. But campaigns like those who stay and crowdfunding initiatives, it really comes down to how strongly can we market it? How can we tap into the Michigan network to promote these campaigns?  The ‘Those Who Stay’ campaign was specific to Michigan football, so the university can’t go and promote the campaign. But the university can promote us because we support all sports on campus. As we continue to build on our fundraising initiatives, when we do have campaigns that are available for both men’s and women’s sports … the university can support that. 

“The reason ‘Those Who Stay’ was so successful was we had the communities out there embracing and promoting it. The On3 and TheWolverine.com group getting out and talking about it, talking about it on the message board, drives eyeballs, drives engagement, drives a sense of community. We’ve got [former Michigan quarterback] Tom Brady out there on social media promoting the campaign, Adam Schefter, Rich Eisen. That’s how we can accelerate those campaigns. But when you look at it, phase one was successful.”