Football seat donations.... Is it just me? Am I just clueless

2,238 Views | 11 Replies | Last: 10 mo ago by GivemTheAxe
AuntJan
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5:06p, 7/16/24
We've been football season ticket holder since 1986. Been sitting the the seat back section since the Memorial upgrade and doing donations, just like always. We donate in excess of our required seat donations. Typically some funds designated to Women's volleyball during Big Give and ad hoc donations to Volleyball and Rugby through out the year.

This year when I renewed football, I discovered I was being charged a random extra in addition to my season ticket payment. When I checked to find out why, I was eventually told that all the other donations I have made during the year didn't count towards my seat donation. The seat donation is separate and on top of what I have donated already this year. I'm being told this has been the policy since 2018 which is news to me.

I'm not sure we can afford to double donate like this going forward and can't understand why suddenly this year things have changed.

Did I miss something? Is anyone else having this issue?
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Bearly Clad
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5:35p, 7/16/24
It's just good business. We have so many people in the stands and fighting for tickets that they have to put up hoops to jump through and push out 40 year vets to make room for young blood with how well they've cultivated young alumni into rabid fans and donors
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SBGold
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6:12p, 7/16/24
This is how I have always been charged. You definitely need to do the donation tied to the seats at time of renewal
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AuntJan
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In reply to SBGold • 6:28p, 7/16/24
Thanks for the feedback. How odd, I've never had this happen before so I was shocked. So why bother to donate during Big Give or anything else. Makes it harder for the smaller ticket teams not to be able to generate their own donations. Oh well ..... live and learn
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calumnus
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In reply to AuntJan • 7:07p, 7/16/24
AuntJan said:
Thanks for the feedback. How odd, I've never had this happen before so I was shocked. So why bother to donate during Big Give or anything else. Makes it harder for the smaller ticket teams not to be able to generate their own donations. Oh well ..... live and learn


It might be a selling point if the AD allowed you to designate a beneficiary for at least a portion of the required seat "donation." Similarly, donations above a certain amount during Big Give (or otherwise) could be advertised as "qualifying you for purchase of donor seats" which might boost sales, get butts in those seats and then tie donors in for annual giving.

But that was if we had smart Cal grads running the AD.

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ColoradoBear
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In reply to calumnus • 7:31p, 7/16/24
calumnus said:
AuntJan said:
Thanks for the feedback. How odd, I've never had this happen before so I was shocked. So why bother to donate during Big Give or anything else. Makes it harder for the smaller ticket teams not to be able to generate their own donations. Oh well ..... live and learn


It might be a selling point if the AD allowed you to designate a beneficiary for at least a portion of the required seat "donation." Similarly, donations above a certain amount during Big Give (or otherwise) could be advertised as "qualifying you for purchase of donor seats" which might boost sales, get butts in those seats and then tie donors in for annual giving.

But that was if we had smart Cal grads running the AD.



It was like that before 2018. Now the seat donations must go to the Cal Athletic General (slush) Fund. So seat donations @ CMS can not even go to football operations. Neither does ESP club seat money. But it's all just a big slush pot at this point. The AD can use the CAF to pay for anything just as they do with other sources of football revenue.

OP, have you asked anyone in the ticket office if they can move your sport specific donation over to the General Fund to satisfy your seat donation? Not to be too flippant, but they are running a 30+ million deficit. At the min seat donation level, moving they money around isn't going to affect any of the other sports. But it absolutely affects you if they make you pay double.

It's definitely strange that this is only happening to you this year. Would you have given up/changed your football seats in past years to continue your other sport specific donations?
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Oski87
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In reply to AuntJan • 7:40a, 7/17/24
AuntJan said:
Thanks for the feedback. How odd, I've never had this happen before so I was shocked. So why bother to donate during Big Give or anything else. Makes it harder for the smaller ticket teams not to be able to generate their own donations. Oh well ..... live and learn


The is also happened to me. I was very surprised. I buy tickets for 7 guys so I had to make quite a bit of extra donation - like $9600.

To be clear - in prior years the donation was made separately on the bill and you could select that you already made donations and that would allow you to not pay the new seat donation every year. So this was a different process this year.
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philbert
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In reply to AuntJan • 9:28a, 7/17/24
AuntJan said:
Thanks for the feedback. How odd, I've never had this happen before so I was shocked. So why bother to donate during Big Give or anything else. Makes it harder for the smaller ticket teams not to be able to generate their own donations. Oh well ..... live and learn
You can do your required FB ticket donations during the Big Give. Just tell your ticket rep that you want to do it that way.
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AuntJan
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In reply to philbert • 11:09a, 7/17/24
philbert said:
AuntJan said:
Thanks for the feedback. How odd, I've never had this happen before so I was shocked. So why bother to donate during Big Give or anything else. Makes it harder for the smaller ticket teams not to be able to generate their own donations. Oh well ..... live and learn
You can do your required FB ticket donations during the Big Give. Just tell your ticket rep that you want to do it that way.
thanks I'll try doing that next year. Since I didn't know about this change until now, its too late to do anything this year. or so I'm being told.
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wifeisafurd
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In reply to SBGold • 12:04p, 7/17/24
SBGold said:
This is how I have always been charged. You definitely need to do the donation tied to the seats at time of renewal
Before you do that check with your tax advisor. They started decoupling donations from ticket sales after the tax law change which prohibited a federal charitable deduction for donations tied to seats. Most donors who are paying "excess" donations may be better off paying for the tickets separately, and donating to whatever they like separately.
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SBGold
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In reply to wifeisafurd • 2:44p, 7/17/24
Yeah, I don't even report it for any tax purposes.
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GivemTheAxe
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In reply to ColoradoBear • 8:12p, 7/17/24
ColoradoBear said:
calumnus said:
AuntJan said:
Thanks for the feedback. How odd, I've never had this happen before so I was shocked. So why bother to donate during Big Give or anything else. Makes it harder for the smaller ticket teams not to be able to generate their own donations. Oh well ..... live and learn


It might be a selling point if the AD allowed you to designate a beneficiary for at least a portion of the required seat "donation." Similarly, donations above a certain amount during Big Give (or otherwise) could be advertised as "qualifying you for purchase of donor seats" which might boost sales, get butts in those seats and then tie donors in for annual giving.

But that was if we had smart Cal grads running the AD.



It was like that before 2018. Now the seat donations must go to the Cal Athletic General (slush) Fund. So seat donations @ CMS can not even go to football operations. Neither does ESP club seat money. But it's all just a big slush pot at this point. The AD can use the CAF to pay for anything just as they do with other sources of football revenue.

OP, have you asked anyone in the ticket office if they can move your sport specific donation over to the General Fund to satisfy your seat donation? Not to be too flippant, but they are running a 30+ million deficit. At the min seat donation level, moving they money around isn't going to affect any of the other sports. But it absolutely affects you if they make you pay double.

It's definitely strange that this is only happening to you this year. Would you have given up/changed your football seats in past years to continue your other sport specific donations?


This must be a unique Business school approach to increase donations.
"Let's not treat our big donors well and hope that they will increase their donations. Let's just stick it to them by slipping in a few hefty increases and hope they are not smart enough to notice.
After all that policy works for the credit card companies.
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