Mizzou Athletics Welcomes Assistant Athletic Director Austin Collard
7/25/2019 11:30:00 AM | General
Collard will work with the department’s Tiger Scholarship Fund to secure funds in aid of Mizzou’s 550 student-athletes
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Mizzou Athletics has named Austin Collard to serve as the Tiger Scholarship Fund's Assistant Athletic Director, announced today by Director of Athletics Jim Sterk. Collard will work alongside Executive Associate Athletics Director Ashley Moore and the TSF staff to develop and secure funding for Mizzou's 550 student-athletes. The Springfield, Mo., native joins the Mizzou team after a successful five-year stint at East Carolina.
"We are excited to have Austin join our team," Moore said. "He has a proven track record of fund-raising success at both East Carolina and Air Force, and with his incredible passion for Mizzou, I'm excited to see what he can do here in the coming years as we continue to grow our TSF membership."
A True Son and Mizzou graduate, Collard earned his degree in communications with a minor in business in May of 2011 before securing his Master's Degree in Sport Management from Ohio State. While in school, he worked as an intern in both schools' athletics development offices, which led to a full-time opportunity at Air Force, where he spent two-and-a-half years as a development coordinator.
At Air Force, Collard was part of a two-person team that increased total giving by 75 percent from the year prior. He raised the bulk of the funding for the Air Force Football program's premium seating area, and was the lead fundraiser for the annual giving program for eight of the school's varsity sports. The latter required collaboration with head coaches and senior administration to create and execute development plans for their respective sports. He also managed stewardship efforts for the annual fund while at Air Force.
Collard then continued his career at East Carolina where he quickly made a name for himself. Over three-and-a-half years, he worked his way from the development office's assistant director to Director of Development by April of 2019. He led the initial cultivation and solicitation of the largest individual gift in ECU Athletics history and was a member of a development team that raised a record $32 million during the 2016 calendar year. In addition to securing gifts, Collard also spearheaded a strategic five-year plan for a donor acquisition campaign and managed a donor portfolio of 400 donors, accounting for more than $3 million in annual gifts.
While at ECU, Collard also worked to secure funding for the school's football stadium renovation and directed the executive board for the Student Pirate Club, the nation's largest student fundraising organization.
Collard's wife Erin, who is also a Springfield, Mo., native graduated from Mizzou in 2012 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and went on to earn her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Ohio State four years later. The couple resides in Columbia.
