Chapel Hill Review

The Rams Club has introduced two new fundraising initiatives aimed at bolstering the resources available to Carolina Athletics for its 28 sports programs. The initiatives, named the Carolina Athletics Excellence Fund and the Carolina Athletics Excellence Endowment, are designed to provide both short-term and long-term financial flexibility in response to the evolving landscape of college sports.

Bubba Cunningham, UNC's Director of Athletics, emphasized the importance of adaptability as Carolina navigates changes in revenue sharing, roster sizes, and NIL opportunities. These factors present both challenges and opportunities for the athletics department.

The Carolina Athletics Excellence Fund is intended to offer flexible funding through unrestricted gifts that can be used immediately. This allows Carolina to address current challenges swiftly and take advantage of new opportunities as they arise.

In contrast, the Carolina Athletics Excellence Endowment focuses on long-term sustainability by investing gifts to generate an annual yield. This yield will be used to cover scholarship needs beyond what is provided by The Rams Club's Scholarship Endowment Trust and to tackle future funding challenges.

John Montgomery, executive director of The Rams Club, stated: "The needs of a college athletics program like Carolina's are rapidly evolving. It's essential that we answer the challenges with adaptable solutions. Carolina is – and always has been – focused on excellence and the complete student-athlete experience. This dynamic environment holds a lot of uncertainty, but also promise. We're excited to work with our supporters to help meet the current needs of our programs and ensure a long and successful future for Carolina Athletics and Tar Heel student-athletes."

Further details about these initiatives can be found at ramsclub.com/excellence.