Naming Opportunities

Development Programs > Naming Opportunities

Athletic Grants-in-Aid

Currently, fewer than 10 percent of athletic scholarships, also known as grants-in-aid, are endowed. This puts enormous strain on the operating budget of the athletic department, which must fund the remaining grants-in-aid directly out-of-pocket. In fiscal year 2004-05, this amounted to nearly $13 million, or one-third of its annual budget.

Yet students are the lifeblood of Notre Dame, and the University must do all it can to ensure that deserving student-athletes are afforded the opportunity to learn and compete at the highest levels at Our Lady’s University—regardless of their financial resources.

Securing more endowed grants-in-aid will allow Notre Dame to support the dreams of its student-athletes, while freeing up more of the athletics budget to fund other immediate and pressing needs as they arise. Benefactors may endow an athletic grant-in-aid at the following levels:

• Premier: $5,000,000
• Presidential: $1,000,000
• Distinguished: $500,000
• Prize: $250,000
• Named: $100,000

Grants-in-aid will be named at the donor’s behest: for example, the Lucille and Paul O’Brien Athletic Grant-in-Aid for Women’s Basketball.

With the consent of the donor, appropriate recognition will be offered, including the listing of the benefactor’s name on the Scholarships and Fellowships Recognition Wall on campus, invitations to special recognition events, annual reports, and regular correspondence with grant-in-aid recipients.

To learn more about endowing an athletic grant-in-aid, please contact: