Northridge Fund Drive Tops $100,000

Cal State Northridge’s six-week athletics fund-raising drive ended Thursday with its mission accomplished--barely.

When pledges and checks were added, the sum was $100,910--a little more than the $100,000 goal--but significantly more than had previously been raised by the school for athletics.

And that figure could grow. Several four- to five-digit pledges are still to be collected.

“When we hit close to 60 (thousand) last year I was drained,” said Ran Railey, CSUN’s director of athletic development. “But this year I know there’s more out there. It’s just a matter of going out and collecting and talking to a few more people.”

Ballooning along with the school’s athletic scholarship fund was the enrollment in CSUN’s Athletic Assn. Membership swelled from 310 to more than 500 during the drive.

Donations were taken for the general athletic fund but they could be earmarked for specific sports. Railey said that football, soccer and track appeared to be the big winners.

Almost $28,000 was raised by phone solicitation of parents of athletes, alumni and others.

“The phone-a-thon was a gold mine for us,” Railey said. “This is the first year we’ve done anything serious like that. I guess it proved we should do even more.”