12th Man Foundation chair David Dunlap discusses 2020 impact on donations

Key notes from David Dunlap interview

• Everybody is talking about A&M and A&M football. I think we're all proud of the football team and Jimbo and everything they've accomplished this year.
   
• It's been a challenge this year. Our staff has done a good job of trying to be very transparent and upfront with our donors from the start. Back in May and June, we didn't know if there was going to be a season or not. Many season ticket holders had re-upped for the season already, and we went to them to tell them that we'd be upfront. We gave everyone the chance to opt out because of all the challenges that we were facing. I think we've done a great job of sharing with everybody what they could expect.
   
• The impact of losing a game is around $4-5 million, but it's a bigger impact than that. College athletics have been impacted greatly by 2020. Season ticket revenue is the largest source of funding we have for athletics. We typically have about $76 million of season ticket revenue for all of our sports, and football is about $65 million of that. That's a massive part of the department's entire budget.
   
• We're happy to have anything. We're happy to have 25 percent. We're happy to have all of our donors. We're so appreciative of all of our donors and all of you Aggies listening.
   
• When we had the opt-out period, we allowed people to give up their tickets and get a refund. We were honest as Aggies, and some people decided to move their money to the 2021 season. Some people decided to opt out but turn that into a donation. We got $5 million in donations from those people, which has been so helpful for us. We are so appreciative for them.
   
• We're primed for this opportunity because we know the love and passion our fans have for A&M athletics, A&M football and Texas A&M, in general. We understand how this university can impact the world and impacts the world every day.
   
• Those fans who opted in for this season have come to Kyle Field and made Dan Mullen mad, beat the Tigers and all of that over just four games. We told them that the season wouldn't be normal. We knew we wouldn’t have the usual seven home games. We told them the opportunity. We told them that $19 million was at risk. We gave them an opportunity to get a refund on those games or move that money to 2021, but we also told them to strongly consider a donation.
   
• These gifts help us turn into champions. It's because we're part of the haves and ones who can fund different things, including assistant coaches. We want to continue to be one of the haves. Other universities don't have a fan base, a donor base or a former student base like we do. This is an opportunity for us to rise above them forever.
   
• Please consider turning it into a donation and consider donating to Texas A&M Athletics. We've never needed it more than we do right now.
   
• We have proven under the leadership of our Athletic Directors and leaders of this university that we are committed to funding scholarships for championship athletics. We are not going to settle for anything less than that. You're seeing it on the football field this year. You're going to see it on the basketball court soon. It's because of that funding, and we need Aggies to continue to step up.
   
• There will be some big programs that will have to take a step back because of this bizarre year. Some big universities have already done that. That is not what we want to do. We have been progressing as a university for a long time. Now is the chance for us to step up and step up for good to accomplish what we know we can here at Texas A&M.