Sports Fundraising and the Modern Sports Manager's Role
This paper reviews and critiques William F. Stier's 1999 article "Fundraising: An Essential Competency for the Sports Manager in the 21st Century," published in the Mid-Atlantic Journal of Business. The paper summarizes Stier's argument that modern sports managers must be proficient in conceiving, planning, and implementing fundraising activities as sports programs increasingly shift away from organizational budget funding. Key topics include the four types of fundraising sources, three categories of sponsorship agreements, the role of advertising and promotion, time frames for fundraising events, regulatory compliance, and a 12-step plan for effective fundraising. The review concludes with a brief critique noting the article's failure to address post-2008 economic realities.
- Introduction to Sports Fundraising: Overview of self-supporting sports program funding trends
- Article Overview: Bibliographic identification of the reviewed article
- Article Summary: Summary of Stier's fundraising arguments and categories
- Critique of the Article: Critique of article's post-2008 economic relevance
✍️ How to write this paper — guide, tools & examples ▾
What makes this paper effective
- The paper maintains a clear and logical structure, moving from a broad introduction to article summary to evaluative critique, making the argument easy to follow.
- The summary accurately condenses a multi-layered article, identifying specific numbered categories (four funding sources, three sponsorship types, 12-step plan) that demonstrate careful reading.
- The critique is concise and focused, identifying a single but significant limitation—the article's 1999 publication date relative to the 2008 economic crisis—without overstating the case.
Key academic technique demonstrated
This paper demonstrates the article review format: objectively summarizing a source's core arguments and structure before offering a focused, evidence-based critique. The student identifies both the article's practical strengths and a concrete contextual limitation, showing the ability to evaluate a source critically rather than simply describe it.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a general introduction to the topic of sports fundraising, followed by a brief bibliographic identification of the reviewed article. The bulk of the paper is an organized summary of the article's major arguments, structured around its key categories (funding sources, sponsorship types, time frames, compliance, and the 12-step plan). The paper closes with a short but pointed critique focusing on the article's temporal limitations relative to the 2008 financial crisis.
Introduction to Sports Fundraising
Sports and fundraising are no longer separate endeavors. Today, the modern trend is for amateur sports programs at every level to be self-supportive. Scholastic, community, and recreational sports programs must be able to generate funding to support their needs apart from any funds available from organizational budgets. Successful fundraising is a means to an end that resembles an art in some respects and a science in others.
Some of the fundamental defining elements of sports fundraising events include different types of sponsorships, profit centers, promotional avenues, applicable time frames, permissions, compliance issues, matching of themes with prospective sponsors, and the talents and capabilities of the available staff responsible for organization and implementation.
Article Overview
The article reviewed is "Fundraising: An Essential Competency for the Sports Manager in the 21st Century" by William F. Stier, published in the Mid-Atlantic Journal of Business on June 1, 1999.
Article Summary
The author explains three reasons for the modern shift from sports programs funded by organizational budgets to self-supportive sports programs: inflation, the increasing popularity of sports, and the large numbers of people interested in sports. According to Stier, the contemporary sports manager must therefore be adept at conceiving, planning, and implementing fundraising activities in addition to possessing skills directly related to sports management.
The author suggests that the most effective approach to sports fundraising is to conceive of it as an opportunity rather than an obligation, and also to maintain the perspective that fundraising is always a means to a worthwhile end rather than an end in and of itself. The article details four types of fundraising sources — individual solicitation, corporate sponsorships, profit centers, and special projects — and in conjunction with these describes three types of sponsorship agreements: non-exclusive, semi-exclusive, and exclusive agreements.
The analysis further details the manner in which successful fundraising depends on advertising, promotion, and cooperation with other organizations and entities. The article also outlines the differences between various time frames associated with fundraising activities, such as one-time events, periodic events, and repeated events. The author provides an explanation of the importance of securing necessary permissions, ensuring compliance with formal legal and regulatory requirements, and assessing the capabilities of available staff.
The article concludes with examples of both good and bad matches between sports programs and sponsors, an approach to understanding the psychology of sponsorship, and an outline of a 12-step plan for effective sports program fundraising and sponsorships.
Create your account
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.