Baylor Bear Foundation Launches United for 10 Campaign

WACO, Texas – Baylor Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Mack B. Rhoades, IV announced Monday the official launch of the Bear Foundation's United for 10 campaign with an ambitious goal of growing the membership to an all-time high of 10,000 by May 2022.

"Today is an important day for the future of Baylor Athletics," Rhoades said. "With the current cost of Baylor athletics scholarships reaching $17.4 million per year, the Bear Foundation is the lifeblood of our athletics program. To be able to raise money for athletic scholarships and help us carry out our mission of Preparing Champions for Life is extremely important. If you look across the country, the health of any athletics department is dependent upon their ability to raise money for student-athlete scholarships."

In conjunction with Baylor University's Give Light campaign, the Bear Foundation's United for 10 effort focuses on a multi-year effort to strengthen membership support for student-athlete scholarships through both a membership drive for new fans and alumni to join, as well as a referral campaign with current members referring other fans.

Currently, the Bear Foundation has approximately 6,000 active members, with 5,640 BBF members and an additional 500 unique donors for the specific sports excellence funds.

"We certainly know and understand that this is an ambitious goal, but it's one that I certainly think we can achieve," Rhoades said. "We ask all of Baylor Family to join, get their friends to join, and come together and join forces to grow our membership to the 10,000 level, because this is really important to the growth and the health of our department."

Beyond the obvious benefits of potentially better parking and seats in the stadium or arena that come with a Bear Foundation membership, Rhoades stressed the opportunity to impact the lives of Baylor's 500-plus student-athletes.

"It's traditionally been very transactional, and we really want it to be more philanthropic," he said, "where this is about impacting lives. I get that we all want a great parking spot and great seats, but at the end of the day what's really important is the very tangible impact you're having on our young people."

United for 10 is the latest effort in reshaping and rebranding Baylor Athletics that began with the release of the department mission – "One Standard. One Accord." – last November.

"That's really our foundation for how we're going to operate as an organization, how we're going to filter all of our decisions," Rhoades said.

Baylor Built was introduced in December 2018 as a four-year character-formation program that ensures each student-athlete will participate in at least 48 hours of training in the areas of career and leadership development, personal skills, social responsibility and community engagement, while integrating spiritual growth.

Over the last year, the University also received an anonymous $100 million gift, the largest current gift in school history, with a portion of it used as the lead gift for the new basketball pavilion, and worked with Nike in a rebranding process that united the campus and Waco community "in terms of our marks, our looks, our green and gold colors," Rhoades said.

Baylor Bear Foundation memberships are available for as low as $25 annually. You can join now at www.BaylorBears.com/Unitedfor10 or call the Bear Foundation office at 254-710-2585. Current Bear Foundation members can get involved by referring a friend or becoming an ambassador to receive Baylor Athletics incentives such as gear and complimentary season tickets.

Baylor Bear Foundation Launches United for 10 Campaign

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