From Engagement to Revenue: How Oregon State Athletics Is Building a Scalable Athlete Alumni Strategy

About Oregon State Athletics

Oregon State Athletics represents Oregon State University’s NCAA Division I athletic programs, supporting a community of current and former student-athletes across more than a dozen sports. 

Based in Corvallis, Oregon, the department is part of a nationally competitive athletics program with a strong tradition of success and a deeply engaged alumni and fan base known as “Beaver Nation.”

The challenge: Navigating a new era of college athletics

College athletics is in the middle of a fundamental shift.

Departments are facing a clear reality: either reduce costs — or find new ways to generate revenue.

At the same time, staffing is limited, expectations are rising, and traditional fundraising models aren’t built for scale.

At Oregon State, this pressure surfaced in a familiar way: maintaining meaningful relationships with former student-athletes was difficult — and largely disconnected from any long-term athlete alumni engagement strategy.

Like many institutions, engagement efforts were:

• Often deprioritized due to limited time and resources
• Inconsistent and difficult to sustain
• Dependent on manual processes and clunky tools
• Disconnected from fundraising efforts

Without a scalable system in place, athletic alumni engagement remained fragmented and the opportunity to build long-term relationships was largely untapped.

The solution: Building a foundation through consistent engagement

Oregon State adopted Athlete Network from Gravyty to create a more structured, scalable approach to an alumni engagement strategy with former student-athletes.

For Oregon State the platform wasn’t just another tool — it was a way to solve a long-standing challenge: how to stay connected with athletic alumni in a consistent, meaningful way.

The initial focus wasn’t fundraising.

It was engagement.

The goal was simple:

• Build consistent communication
• Strengthen relationships with former student-athletes
• Create a better, more connected athletic alumni experience

Athlete Network provided a centralized, data-driven hub to:

• Clean, enrich, and continuously update alumni data, creating a reliable foundation for targeted engagement and fundraising
• Communicate consistently with former student-athletes, supporters, and donors through one unified platform
• Segment and target outreach with precision, delivering the right message to the right audience at the right time
• Activate quick giving opportunities with embedded payment tools, enabling frictionless donations directly within communications and campaigns
• Promote events and drive participation, increasing attendance and strengthening alumni connection
• Facilitate career connections between athletic alumni and current athletes, adding tangible value beyond fundraising

From engagement to opportunity

As engagement became more consistent, something else started to happen.

Relationships deepened. Communication improved. Alumni became more responsive.

That foundation created a new opportunity, one the team hadn’t fully prioritized before.

Rather than launching large-scale campaigns, Oregon State began to layer in light-touch fundraising — introducing donation links within existing communications and testing what resonated.

Even at this early stage, the approach is already delivering a 10x return on investment, highlighting the power of building an engaged base of former athletes rather than starting from scratch.

The results: Stronger engagement, early revenue, and clear growth potential

Consistent, scalable engagement

• Weekly communication with alumni athletes during key seasons
• Increased participation in events and virtual programming
• Stronger reconnection between former teammates and the program

More efficient workflows for a small team

• Reduced reliance on clunky marketing tools and manual processes
• Greater control over communication timing and execution
• Ability to manage engagement despite limited staff resources

Early fundraising momentum built on engagement

• Embedded giving opportunities directly within ongoing communications, making it easy for supporters to take action
• Activated quick giving with integrated payment tools, removing friction and increasing conversion
• Achieved meaningful results without heavy campaign structure, proving the power of consistent, strategic engagement

Why it matters: Engagement is becoming a revenue strategy

For athletic departments today, the pressure is clear: Cut costs or generate new revenue.

But many athletic programs don’t have the infrastructure, staffing, or strategy to scale traditional fundraising.

Oregon State’s approach highlights a different path:

• Start with engagement
• Build consistent relationships
• Create the foundation for giving

Not by forcing fundraising—but by enabling it.

What began as an effort to reconnect with former student-athletes is now evolving into a scalable model for both engagement and revenue generation.

Looking ahead: Scaling across sports and unlocking full potential

Oregon State is just getting started.

The immediate focus is proving and refining the model within football, building a repeatable approach that can scale.

From there, the vision is to expand across all sports, creating a more unified and connected athlete alumni network.

With broader adoption, the potential grows significantly:

• Increased alumni participation across programs
• More structured and intentional fundraising efforts
• Expanded use of modern engagement tools like video and embedded giving
• Stronger alignment between engagement and revenue generation

What started as a way to reconnect is becoming something much bigger: A scalable, sustainable model for engaging athletic alumni — and unlocking new opportunities for growth.

Solution spotlight

Gravyty empowers institutions to deliver smarter, faster, and more personalized engagement at every step of the student, alumni, and donor journey. With solutions for 24/7 student support, alumni engagement, fundraising and stewardship, Gravyty helps teams scale their impact, break down silos, and provide always-on support without burning out staff.

Athlete Network from Gravyty empowers athletic departments and alumni associations to build strong, lifelong communities around their sports programs. With targeted communication tools, integrated giving features, and a centralized digital home, Athlete Network helps institutions like Texas Tech scale personalized sport-specific engagement and fundraising.

Get a personalized demo to see how Athlete Network from Gravyty can elevate alumni athlete engagement at your institution.