Everyone sets goals in life.

More important than just setting the goal charting the path to reach the goal.

For the With Illinois campaign, the University of Illinois Division of Intercollegiate Athletics had a campaign goal of raising $300 million. As the campaign concluded in June, DIA surpassed its goal with a final total of more than $321 million raised.

They set a goal but also crafted the blueprint not just to meet it but exceed it. It's an amazing story of reaching higher, listening with intent, and finding ways to make a difference in student-athletes' lives at the University of Illinois.

In October 2017, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign launched With Illinois, an aspiring $2.25 billion philanthropic campaign—the largest in the school's history. Every college and unit on campus was involved. The year before, DIA announced Josh Whitman as the new Director of Athletics. His arrival coordinated perfectly with the public launch and execution of the With Illinois campaign.

As soon as Whitman was settled, he met with Howard Milton, Executive Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Development, and Zach Goines, Associate Director of Athletics, Development, to start prioritizing what their needs were going to be throughout the campaign and figure out the objectives they wanted to accomplish. It was quickly determined that infrastructure and capital were the two main pillars, with the third pillar focused on scholarship and developmental support for student-athletes.

An ambitious goal of $300 million was established for DIA.

"We set the goal based on our needs and expectations in terms of our facilities, our scholarships, and our student-athlete development needs," Goines said. "And the way we did it was by starting to work very aggressively."

The team hit the ground running with a proactive and intelligent approach to engaging with their donors. The team realized a large portion of their donor base had been engaged for a long time but had not yet been presented with an ask.

"We were pretty accurate in almost every solicitation, except for a few where we may have shot a little bit high," said Goines. "But to Josh's credit, he was always pushing us to be smart about making sure that if we're going to ask, let's ask a little higher than too low and miss the mark."

Over the campaign, several factors played out that made the goal of hitting $300 million more achievable. First and foremost was staff buy-in.

Milton challenged his development staff.

"I asked our folks to really fall in love with the process," Milton said. "Are we being thoughtful about our relationships? Are we engaging people and serving as conduits from our donors to the department and the university? It was enjoyable to see those relationships flourish and see how happy donors would be when they realized that their gifts have made an impact."

The team rapidly learned about their culture, accountability, and responsibility. Everyone from the front office staff to the bookkeeping side was part of the success.

The collaboration between team members developed into a well-oiled machine during the campaign.

"The biggest thing that came out of that was we were able to execute at a high level," Goines said. "We were able to plan at a high level. We were able to work together and communicate at a high level. Everybody was pulling in the same direction."

Development gift officers were in line and making sure everyone was on the same page, communicating, and collaborating from the team in Chicago to everybody in Champaign to ensure that DIA could continuously move toward hitting that $300 million goal.

Building existing relationships and cultivating new ones with new ideas was a hallmark of the campaign. These relationships aren't backroom deals; they rarely come out of nowhere. They're authentic and transparent.

"Josh has a saying that we don't hide the ball," said Milton. "When we start cultivation towards a gift with a particular donor at the beginning, we begin with the end in mind. We think it's on us to share with the donor what our intentions are. What journey are we on? So, we're not wandering the forest blindly. We know we've got a destination. We'll get there, but we realize we have to do a lot within this relationship to get there. We're not going to hide the ball about what we're trying to do here, and that's been very helpful for us."

The With Illinois campaign was campus-wide and working together across units and colleges was a mainstay of the campaign. The campus has an enormous group of advancement officers for all the colleges and units. This group was decentralized and required a significant degree of communication from the chief advancement officers in each unit, all the way down to the principal gift officers, engagement officers, and annual fundraisers.

Some of the most significant gifts during the campaign were multi-unit. For example, the Smith family was incredibly generous in making their contribution to name the Henry Dale and Betty Smith Football Performance Center. At the same time, they made a gift to the Carle Illinois College of Medicine. They provided an additional gift that was part of the overall $20 million gift they made that helped to provide scholarships for continuing education and degree completion of former student-athletes.

"This was a campaign largely about how do we think bigger and more philanthropically," Goines said. "How do we think less transactionally? How do we think about how a donor can make an impact on a student-athlete's life and the ability for our coaches to be able to compete at a higher level and continuously think of ways that we can raise the bar for ourselves."

During the initial planning stages for what became the Smith Football Center, the Development staff at DIA and a couple of donors, including Richard Demirjian, visited several institutions, such as Clemson and the University of Kentucky, to tour football facilities. The goal was to learn what they could from their peer institutions.

When the group returned from the trip that evening, the staff thought Demirjian might be in the $500,000 range and give toward the promising football project. The conversation was about football, and the trip was about football.

However, Josh Whitman could see another opportunity.

Through their conversations, he realized there was a chance to do something bigger and impact a larger number of student-athletes. Just like they had done with the golf facility, the Demirjian family saw a way to make a huge impact on the soccer and track and field programs with a gift that had nothing to do with football. That was the beginning of Demirjian Park, the Illinois soccer and track and field home, which has now hosted a Big Ten championship in track and field.

"It's pretty easy to want to go to the wall for Josh and help execute his vision," said Goines. "And he really does have an unbelievable way of communicating, especially to individual donors. We would bring him into a room, and a gift of $500,000 would turn into a gift of a million dollars, or a gift of $2500 would turn into a gift of $10,000. He has so much credibility. He has so much integrity. People trust him. The donors that are buying into his vision and our vision trust him. And you can't say enough about that."

In March 2021, the university announced that the With Illinois campaign had surpassed its fundraising target with $2.268 billion in gifts and commitments a year ahead of schedule.

From named colleges to COVID-relief funds, the campaign's success can be attributed to nearly 730,000 gifts of all sizes from over 158,000 donors. The outstanding support for Illinois has been seen in all corners of the campus. Eight individual colleges and units reached or surpassed their unique goals, and another seven were at least 75 percent of the way toward completion.

Because DIA's focus during the With Illinois campaign was primarily on infrastructure and facilities, it's easy to see the fruits of the department's labor.

First, the renovation of Assembly Hall into State Farm Center cost $170 million and featured what was then the most lucrative naming rights agreement in the history of college athletics. State Farm Center was officially re-dedicated in the fall of 2016.

Second, the creation of the Henry Dale and Betty Smith Football Center, a $79.2 million, 110,000-square-foot home for Illinois Football, was formally dedicated in October 2019.

In one of the most unique gifts in Illinois Athletics history, Whitman coordinated the possession of the former Stone Creek Golf Club as part of a $15 million, multi-faceted gift of real estate to the University from long-time friends of Illinois Athletics, the Atkins family. The course, now rebranded as the Atkins Golf Club at the University of Illinois, underwent extensive renovations using funds from a $5 million anonymous gift to provide Illinois Golf with a championship-caliber home that re-opened earlier this spring. 

Other projects included Demirjian Park, the home for the Illinois soccer and track and field programs which opened in the spring of 2021 at a cost of $20 million; the $8 million Susan and Clint Atkins Baseball Training Center, and the $6 million Rex and Alice A. Martin Softball Training Center, both opening this summer. Also, in 2021, work began to renovate and expand the Ubben Basketball Practice Facility, a $40 million project scheduled for completion in the fall of 2022. 

"I've done capital projects at other institutions," Goines said. "But in my almost 10 years at Illinois, this is by far the most impactful and meaningful campaign I've been a part of. And it's certainly been a pleasure to help lead the campaign from an internal planning and management standpoint."

The campaign total was reached with more than 117,000 distinctive gifts from more than 26,000 different donors located in 49 states and 11 foreign countries. During the campaign, DIA raised more than $30 million in new business for five consecutive years, including three straight years surpassing $40 million. More than $71 million raised went to scholarship support for student-athletes, while 41 new scholarship endowments were created.

"Our success during the With Illinois campaign is a testament to the thousands of people who stand behind our program, providing the resources to our coaches, student-athletes, and staff to strive for excellence every day," Whitman said. "We have been fortunate during the campaign to receive some of the most meaningful gifts in the history of Illinois Athletics; the largest donations have received the most public attention, but every gift, no matter the amount, has been appreciated and made a difference in our ability to strive for championships while fulfilling our educational mission."

Even though the campaign has ended,  continued support from fans and alumni will be what drives Illinois Athletics forward. No matter the size, an annual donation to the I FUND is the most impactful thing Illinois fans can do to help student-athletes and coaches remain relentless in their pursuit of victory.

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