This past May, Penn State’s Board of Trustees approved a wide range of facility upgrades (aside from Beaver Stadium renovations) proposed by Penn State Athletics with a total price tag of around $90 million.
All told the projects encompass five projects including the second phase of the Lasch Building renovation as well as four more olympic sport focused construction and renovations.
Buried not so far down into the proposals was the need for philanthropy to fund at least a portion of each project in order for it to get off the ground. According to Penn State Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Patrick Kraft, about half the required money has been raised so far.
“You’ve got to raise the money to do it,” Kraft told StateCollege.com during a recent interview. “But it’s really hard to raise money when you can’t show what you’re exactly raising money for. You can’t raise money off of an idea. Then also when you talk to donors my philosophy is, you lay a strategy out and you say, “Here’s what we need and why we need it and how it’s impactful.
“So just getting the approval — the board has approved us to move forward. Now we’ve got to do the hard work right now and raise money and we’ve actually really done a good job. I would say about half the money is raised for most of the facilities. We’re in a good place. We’re really doing a good job of pushing that out.”
According to Kraft, the process of informing donors takes time, and it takes information that is still to be gathered.
“For example, we have studies but we don’t have renderings,” Kraft added. “So if I’m going to go to you and ask for any significant amount of money or any money, really, I need to show exactly what we’re doing and walk you through it and what the real impact is. So it’s just everything is kind of phased and stepped.”
But to be blunt, if the money doesn’t come in, Penn State won’t do the projects.
“If we can’t raise the money – you can’t put a shovel in the ground.” Kraft said.
