New fundraising leadership for Rutgers Athletics

There’s a new (deputy) sheriff in town.

Rutgers announced the appointment of Carly Northup as Senior Associate Athletic Director for Development and Associate Vice President for Athletics Development and will report dually to Athletic Director Pat Hobbs and Rutgers University Foundation Vice President Chris Needles.

Northrup most recently served at Virginia Tech where she worked as Assistant Athletic Director for Development and External Engagement since 2014. Prior to that, she was at Missouri between 2008-14 as a member of Missouri‘s development team that raised $84 million towards Mizzou’s “Going for Gold” campaign. That overlaps with Deputy Athletic Director Sarah Baumgartner’s time at Mizzou where she was the Associate Athletic Director for Development and led that team of development officials.

“We’re incredibly excited that Carly Northup is joining our team,” said Hobbs. “She sees that we are building something special here at Rutgers and will bring her full energy and talent to our advancement efforts. She’s had success at every level and every stop along the way. She has the leadership skills we need to drive a successful development program on par with our Big Ten counterparts. I’m delighted to have her as part of my team behind our teams.”

Having staff who have worked at the highest level of collegiate fundraising would seem critical for Rutgers as it faces the constant challenge of closing funding gaps, not only within the university but also within the Big Ten.

Northup will oversee 11 athletic fundraising staff members, with five major gifts personnel and additional staff in support of annual fund, events and stewardship. The team is further supported by Foundation resources.

The fact that she is also a part of the University Foundation is, in my view, significant. It firmly ties together athletics with the rest of the University and seems to coordinate the effort to use athletics as the proverbial “front porch of the university” and to engage more donors.