CARY, N.C. - Since USA Baseball’s first medal in 1938 at the inaugural Baseball World Cup, the organization has pursued and set a gold standard with 69 gold medal finishes since the first in 1967 at the V Pan American Games. But it can take a lot to keep the organization functioning at such a level, and in a changing financial landscape for the sport both internationally and at home, National Governing Bodies (NGBs), such as USA Baseball, are facing new challenges.
In the U.S., NGBs are not government funded. Instead, they run thanks to a combination of memberships, sponsorships, U.S. Olympic and Paralympic (USOPC) funding, and events. USA Baseball is no different, as it is fueled by sponsors and events hosted at the National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina, and at the Peoria Sports Complex in Phoenix, Arizona. Revenue can range greatly depending on the organization, with some of the United States’ NGBs, such as U.S. Soccer, coming in at around $100 million in revenue while others are closer to the $1-5 million mark.
To buoy the existing forms of revenue, NGBs have begun turning to another source of revenue that is emerging as a potential game changer - donations. Total revenue for U.S. NGB’s courtesy of donations alone rose from around $40 million to north of $65 million in 2022, and continues to rise. Part of that rise has been a willingness from these governing bodies to hire full-time staff to oversee gifts and donations and head up major campaigns to bring in donations. These donations have gone to multiple different causes, such as youth development programs and/or facility upgrades.
Now, USA Baseball is joining the movement with the launch of Our Pastime’s Future Fund, which features seven donor tiers of support that range from $100 to $10,000. Donors to the fund will have access to exclusive benefits provided by USA Baseball that are tailored to each tier, beginning with recognition on USABaseball.com and at the USA Baseball National Training Complex, and eventually climbing all the way to having the chance to meet and interact with future national teams.
Helping to lead this new frontier for USA Baseball is Drake Sacenti, the Director of Development who has been on the job since April of this year. Sacenti, who has an extensive background in collegiate fundraising and development, has been embracing his new challenge as part of the team that put the fund into motion. Previously spending time at the Universities of Nevada, Oregon State, and Houston, Sacenti is now spearheading USA Baseball’s jump into the world of fundraising and donor relations, and for him it’s been a new and exciting experience that brings a set of challenges different from the collegiate athletic world.
“I think it’s extremely different from what you see on a college campus. A lot of these development folks who are working for NGBs now have a college athletics background or experience, and as you go through research at different colleges, their annual funds are pretty frequently on parking and tickets for their given football and basketball games. So, instead of it being more transactional in nature, anything relating to NGBs is very philanthropic in nature, because again, you hear a lot of the annual funds on the college side you're paying to be able to have the opportunity to purchase parking,” Sacenti explained.
So, without the ability to incorporate benefits such as parking passes and season tickets like colleges can with their respective donor funds, what was Sacenti looking at to focus on with the future fund? That question was one he asked frequently in interviews with other development staff at fellow NGBs.
“The first thing I did for the first month was reach out to other NGBs and then speak with their development folks, see what works and what doesn't, what their goals have been, what they raised in the past, how big their staff is, everything relating to what they're doing on an annual basis to be able to grow funding for their NGBs. So, after doing the research, that kind of started with, ‘What can we offer people? What are the opportunities? What are the events that we can do to be able to enhance or entice a donor, someone to contribute to USA Baseball?’ And that's kind of where the where the fund started, in the sense of, alright, what are the levels going to be, what can be offered each level, what makes the most sense.”
The notion of what USA Baseball can offer was big to Sacenti, because without the presence of season tickets and parking, NGBs such as USA Baseball have to pivot to what events they can promote and what can fill in the void opened by parking.
“The biggest advice I got was making sure that I'm speaking with our whole staff here at USA Baseball to really focus on, ‘Hey, what can we offer?’ Because obviously there's some really cool experiences with the Olympics, with our national teams, and with the World Baseball Classic that you really can't experience without being a part of or a member within USA Baseball. So, the biggest thing was, really being intentional about what you're offering and make sure that it's not something that people are just receiving,” Sacenti explained.
He noted that he’s been consulting with several of the staff at USA Baseball to put Our Pastime’s Future Fund together. Paul Seiler, USA Baseball’s Executive Director/CEO, David Perkins, the Chief Operating Officer, and Ray Darwin, the Chief Financial Officer, have all been working in close cooperation with Sacenti in building the plan for Our Pastime’s Future Fund from the ground up.
“It came from the direction of Paul, David, and Ray. The idea was that we've got a growing need for philanthropy and other contributions, and really didn't have an avenue to make it happen at the time. Moving forward, I got hired in April and things first started with doing research from the other national governing bodies, then bringing that to Paul and David and saying, ‘Here's recommendations that we have for that might work, or something that we're not thinking about,” Sacenti outlined. “That parlayed into working directly with Paul and David to figure out what was doable, and what makes sense. I think when you're looking at what works well for USA Soccer, maybe that doesn't work well with USA Baseball. So, I think in the sense of what we ended up with in the form of the tiers, what the levels are, it was a full team effort.”
Returning to the differences between running an annual fund with USA Baseball compared to at a university, the next challenge after creating and launching the fund is actually getting donors to become involved. Bringing alumni in for football and basketball games at their alma mater is one thing; encouraging others to donate to the national governing body for baseball in the U.S. is another. So how do Sacenti and the team at USA Baseball behind the fund plan to perform outreach and secure donations?
“The biggest thing is going to be showing the need, right? We don’t have government funding. Everything that we do, there's a need for it. Our goal is to be able to enhance the lives of athletes who we come in contact with, and a lot of the fund is going to be making enhancements for the current budget, or the Collegiate National Team, or even going into youth programming to fund the costs associated with all of that,” Sacenti highlighted. “As we continue to want to grow the game, the best way to do that is from the community and youth engagement side. So being able to enhance budgets and enhance opportunities for the youth is certainly something that we're thinking about every day in regard to the future fund.”
Sacenti outlined how the launch of Our Pastime’s Future Fund would be a collaborative effort on multiple fronts, primarily through social media and communications. Generating interest and highlighting why the fund is impactful, along with the potential benefits that come with donating, are top priorities to ensure early success. On that front, he’s ecstatic about how the rollout plan has come together within the USA Baseball office.
“We're doing a really good job of making sure that we're going to be hitting all of our possible targets. That begins with reaching out to our Board of Directors, our USA Baseball alumni, general fans and supporters, and from there a lot of it's going to be word of mouth and our staff reaching out to those excited about it,” Sacenti explained. “We’re being very strategic about who we're targeting and what our messages look like. Our hope is that our messaging is strong enough to get folks excited about wanting to help support USA Baseball, especially leading up to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.”
Bringing in donations that provide valuable support to USA Baseball, and all that falls under the USA Baseball umbrella, will be an obvious indicator of the fund’s success. But it goes deeper than that for Sacenti, who outlined what he believed a perfect launch would look like.
“I think being able to execute on a fulfillment side is something that’s going to be extremely important in the sense of, when we get a $1,000 donor, how quickly are they getting a thank you letter and how quickly will their benefits be rolled out to them?” Sacenti said. “I think success is going to be defined, at least for this first year, more as a stewardship and fulfillment opportunity. Obviously, I think this is going to be a very successful fund. But this first year, we're going to be doing everything possible to be able to make sure that these donors understand how much their support means.”
For Sacenti, the opportunity to support baseball at the national level through USA Baseball and the Our Pastime’s Future Fund has been something special. It’s a feeling he wants future donors of the fund to experience as well, being able to see the impact they have on the game and the players and organizations who make things possible.
“The opportunity to work on and be able to make an impact here with USA Baseball and creating, whether it's a new annual fund or a new foundation, some kind of impact on the game that we all love is certainly very meaningful for me,” he highlighted.
Now, Sacenti hopes that the opportunity to make this kind of impact on baseball in the U.S. will hopefully be just as meaningful for many more people as well.
