Industry/Stakeholders Analysis - Aggies For Change

Industry and Stakeholders Analysis
November 2, 2010
Jason Nelson, Tyson Ballard, Jakob Asplund

Aggies for Change is the first student-giving program at Utah State University. Ultimately the money raised will benefit students, but AFC focuses solely on student priorities. The money goes through the USU Student Services umbrella to have an impact on campus and benefit the greatest number of students. The idea was introduced by student employees as well as interns in the University Advancement office two years ago. Funds raised by AFC will be matched by private donors to maximize the impact of every dollar raised from students. Program sponsors are paying for the major expenses of program operations. The programs goal is to create a culture of philanthropy among the student body at USU, based on the idea that giving should be fun and rewarding.

Industry Analysis:
Geographic Area: Local, AFC operates on USU main campus
Target Market: Utah Sate University Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior students. AFC appreciates any donations from students beyond that market.
Estimated size of the industry: 14,893 students, with senior students subtracted from this number. Based on recent years and enrollment numbers increasing, so will the size of this industry and their target audience. Aggie Connection ($305,000), Aggies for Change, Senior Gift (Covered bike rack), Family Fund, Parent Fund ($83,000), Young Alumni, Leadership Giving Clubs and Annual Fund
Industry is not seasonally sensitive but is sensitive to economic fluctuations.

Growth factors
Tuition and fees, information (the more students know about where their money goes the likelier they are to give, they want to know they are making a difference), obligation to school (guilt).
Since the tuition was increased by 7.5% last year many students feel like they are already giving too much money to the university. With additional planned increases in tuition this can alter how students feel about giving their money to school programs. USU is making a successful push in informing students just how much of their tuition accounts for their actual college experience. A program that asks for their spare change could potentially upset students. It is very important to inform the students what the money they donate will go towards and how it is being spent in order to turn these feelings around. A great focus should be on Aggie spirit; how they are helping the school get better for the students, essentially what is in it for them.

Threats of New Entrants:
Not very high as the Aggie fund already has several programs for raising money, some of which are Senior Gift, USU Family Fund, and Parent Fund. All these programs are run within the same umbrella.
Threats of Substitutes:
Any other types of donation programs that are created on USU campus.
Strategy:
Plastic piggy banks are handed out to students who then fill the banks up with their spare change. A vote will be held for students to decide what the money will be used for. Some ideas include scholarships, specific university needs/upgrades, or the general university fund. Each semester, University Advancement will have a collection day where students bring all the change to a central location. Students will have an opportunity to see all the money that has been collected. The intention is to make it a campus-wide project. Many of the student organizations are joining to increase awareness and participation.
Last week AFC set up a booth on the patio outside the hub reminding students of the day to give. They have bright orange shirts making easy to locate anyone participating in AFC. The booth also featured a large Aggie blue pig in the shape of a bank. Another article was featured in the statesman making that their second one describing AFC. It was published after they were over the booth during the “Thank-a-thon” on the second floor of the TSC. Part of their budget was used with free aggie ice cream coupons. These visual placements will help in allowing students to gain more knowledge about the program and the reason behind its existence.
Financial:
* Investments: $4,000-$5,000 of AFC budget goes into paying for t-shirts, buttons, participation incentives, coupons, advertising etc.
* Sponsorship: USU Charter Credit Union gave $6000 in sponsorship money for the program, most of which went to pay for the piggy banks that were distributed.
* Number of students on first collection day: 200-250 (estimation)
* Dollars Raised: $1,000
* Donation Usage: SNAC (Student Nutrition Access Center), a program under the VP of Student Services that won the vote by students who donated. The other projects in the running were a Student Emergency Fund and new student exercise equipment for the HPER

Examples of Universities with a student giving program:
Student Giving at Texas A&M, which is also an agricultural school. There is no program designated specifically to student giving although students can donate money in different ways to the Texas A&M foundation.
Student Giving at Emory University: The Class Gift Piggy Bank, or Operation Emory, is a way for students at Emory University to donate money for student gifts. They do class gifts for students in every academic year, freshman, sophomore, junior and seniors. Last year they raised $72,000 from students participating. Students donating choose where the money will go. This organization is non-profit.
Brigham Young University:C2G or known at Choose to give is a student-run fundraising campaign in which 100 percent of the money raised is used to benefit students. You can choose to give to three categories: President's Priorities, Students Helping Students and College Annual Fund. Their payments options however are cash (no coins) or checks payable to BYU, or payment methods online exist as well. In 2009 more than 4,000 students contributed in excess of $49,000 between January and April. C2G had a newsletter printout featuring those who benefited from givers along with quotes and stories from those who gave.

SWOT
AFC has the strength of a powerful student body as they seek to increase student participation in the program. Students here are unique and want to make a difference. Being the first program of its kind at USU, AFC has teamed up with SOAR in giving the piggy banks to all of the incoming freshmen. This is a smart move on the part of AFC because it gets instilled into the new incoming students right from the get go. They are maintaining visibility throughout the university through advertisements, booths, and newspaper articles. What makes AFC piggy bank idea so great is the fact that it is only spare change that is donated. Students who are already on a tight budget do not need to feel as if they are asked to give so much when they have very little themselves.
One of the weaknesses that face AFC is the fact that they are relying largely on students to donate. It has significant potential to be a very prosperous program as long as the students are always aware and reminded of the piggy banks they were given. There is no way to donate online or through a payment method other than coins or cash. Students are going plastic now more than ever and the number of students with coins are decreasing. There is also a lack of Stakeholders making it difficult to make significant jumps in certain directions. Students are involved in social media now more than ever. Consistent updates, reminders, stories, experiences, pictures etc. will all benefit how they are viewed by their market.
Opportunities to grow will come from obtaining more stakeholders to match certain amounts of money that students donate each year. It is a new program and is still taking shape and making its identity known to USU. There are many examples of other Universities who have embraced similar programs and we can learn from their right and wrong decisions. Need of many more stakeholders in the form of sponsors and matching gift donors, that are not officially secured at this time, as this is a new program. In the future, money invested by the stakeholders will likely be allocated less towards paying for the program and more towards additional and matching donation money. Investments to get started will not be needed in future years. There are numerous events where students are surrounded in an environment that is full of excitement that might allow for more donation opportunities.
Threats are the existing programs at USU and the potential of receiving more. If certain aspects of attending college are increased too much a large portion of students might block off any form of giving.
If the money is not used properly or agreed by the students then it could build a bad reputation for AFC. High goals and expectations are a must for any new organization. The committee must believe in everything they are doing and expect results higher and higher each time a giving period happens.

Stakeholders:
The fact that there aren’t many stakeholders right now only means that there is the opportunity to go and find others to donate outside of the student body. Currently there are two main stakeholders, which are the USU Charter Credit Union and University Advancement. University Advancement will be donating $4,000 to $5,000 to the AFC this year, while the USU Credit Union haven given $6,000 to the program this year. These two stakeholders are promoters and highly invested in AFC. They must be managed closely and kept up to speed on what is happening. Tonya Davis, Elizabeth Bare, and Tessa Goodall lead the way of stakeholders who have helped form a committee and team responsible for AFC and its progress. There are many interested in the program and the level of interest will be seen clearer as time goes on. The students as their target market, suppliers who make the piggy banks, T-shirts, coupons etc. AFC is currently working on finding any way to reach out to more stakeholders. could speak to USU alumnus’s who have shown interest in donating to the university and seek for their participation with the piggy banks.
Aggies For Change is on the right track and have successfully identified their industry. AFC has stakeholders and they will continue to grow. There are multiple aspects of this organization that are being done correctly. As visibility increases and weaknesses become strengths there is no reason why USU can't obtain tens and thousands of dollars from student giving.





DId Boise States Kyle Brotzman really miss the kick??

From an unheralded state hero, all-time leading scorer...to in a matter of seconds becoming someone receiving death threats from the same people that loved him most have made me reflect a little bit on the Nevada vs. BSU game in Reno. A game fit for BCS complications on all levels; ESPN, Heisman runner Kellen Moore, and the undefeated Broncos then ranked #3 taking on a Nevada team that was out to prove they belong as well. This game was meant to become a classic but was the outcome the truth and what really happened?

Looking on YouTube or if you were watching the game Nevada has pee-wee goal posts which do not help in seeing if the ball, when kicked high enough was either good or no good. A short recap on how we got to the kick was when it was pretty much the end of regulation Moore made an amazing pass from about his 33 yard line that was caught by Titus Young near the ten yard line with just seconds remaining. That week Brotzman was named special teams player of the week and had all the confidence in the world to make a simple chip shot. The snap came, the kick was up..and everyone froze - the 3 points were even put on the scoreboard as the refs were signaling no good. I was shocked at what happened, let alone for him to miss another in OT for the Wolfpack to come up with the victory.

My question is with it being a nationally televised game that means multiple camera angles to see exactly what the kick looked like. Not one of those were ever shown, there was never even a review from a different angle to see if he could have possibly made it. Posts and articles have even been written from Nevada fans sitting behind the end zone that said they thought he for sure made it and were amazed the refs said no good. Conspiracy or not as it has not been debated very much we have learned yet again this week about the many loop holes in the BCS system as they "accidentally" left out important information resulting in a misplacement in rankings during bowl selection week. I guarantee there was hundreds of big wigs that wanted that kick to be missed and Boise to miss any chance of playing for a national championship! I am not a Boise fan but find it interesting that they have just one mediocre view of the shot..but then again that is what happens when you do not play two halves of football!!