Brodie Remington has seen two significant college sports achievements during his career as a fundraiser -- the University of Oregon's Rose Bowl visit in 1995 and the University of Maryland's 2002 national championship in men's basketball.

"In both cases, there was a significant boost in the number of donors to the university [beyond athletics] and, apparently, in the amount of dollars contributed," Remington, now vice president for university relations at Maryland and president of the University of Maryland College Park Foundation, wrote in an e-mail.

Many factors influence the dollars given to a school, including the economy and whether the university is running a capital campaign. It's impossible to determine how much influence "a specific factor had," he wrote.

Still, as West Virginia University's basketball team plays in its first Final Four since 1959, officials believe the run could help the school and the WVU Foundation reconnect with alumni and attract more donors.

"The visibility of WVU is raised to the national stage," said Wayne King, president and CEO of the WVU Foundation. "The national attention given to West Virginia University is at a much higher level."

Going to the Final Four after a long drought brings out alumni and other friends of the university who otherwise might not connect with the institution, according to Remington.

"We had wonderful opportunities to establish new relationships or strengthen existing ones with people of influence and affluence," he wrote. "The benefits lasted years. Hard to measure the specific results, but I know the institution benefited."

Final Four experiences

Before he came to the WVU Foundation, King worked for 10 years at the Oklahoma State University Foundation. The school's basketball team reached the Final Four twice -- after which, he said, the foundation had more donors, and those donors gave more.

"Academics benefits, as well," King said. "There's certainly an understanding and a belief that the increased giving does spill over into academics."

Like Remington, King said it's difficult to say why a single donor gives to the foundation. For instance, it's tough to say that so many people gave money largely because West Virginia beat Oklahoma in the 2008 Fiesta Bowl.

But King doesn't sell short the great pride the Final Four experience instills in the university community and West Virginia residents. "That benefit just really permeates the entire institution," he said.

Remington agreed, saying that Maryland's tournament experience greatly increased the alumni's pride, interest and enthusiasm in the university.

"Many alumni associate winning sports with winning academics," he said.

WVU President Jim Clements agreed that, by reaching the Final Four, a university's fundraising usually goes up -- along with its image.

"The excitement is huge for this state, this university," he said. "For us, it's big. It really is big."

Clements was at Towson University near Baltimore when Maryland reached the Final Four in 2001 and won the tournament the following year.

"It was unbelievable for the institution," he said. "The whole state benefited from the Final Four run and the national championship."

WVU's success allows Clements to use athletics to spotlight the university's academic side at speaking engagements, where he'll say, "You know what? We have great research. We have great academics."

King agreed, and noted that athletics have been called the "front porch" of a university.

"That's how people learn to be excited about the university," he said, and then they discover more with a second look.

In the wake of Maryland's national championship, Remington said the foundation's donors went up at least 15 percent in just one year, adding thousands to its base of about 32,000 eight years ago. The number of total donors has increased to about 40,000, he said.

"And then we sustained it. That didn't fall off," he said. "But it was a big jump. We also got a big jump in applications for admissions."

Many donors offer small gifts, he said, but people just want to contribute.

"Both at Oregon and the University of Maryland, we did our best to take advantage of that attention with our marketing and recruiting and Web site efforts," Remington said, "and I think it worked."

New media

Chris Martin, WVU's vice president for university relations, said officials already took advantage of a digital billboard in New York City's Times Square during the Big East Conference championship tournament.

In a sort of "big and obvious way," a 32-second compilation of images introduced WVU to an audience of people who really don't know the university, Martin said.

WVU officials like to grasp the national spotlight they get for athletics and shine a light on the university's academic achievements, such as its history of Rhodes, Truman and Goldwater scholars, she said.

The compilation, called "Every Day," is just one of the new-media strategies WVU will continue to use beyond the Final Four. One big goal is to drive people to the WVU Today Web site, which Martin says is a tool to tell the university's stories.

Often, the university and West Virginians are cast in the underdog role, with reporters using words like one that irks Martin -- "hardscrabble."

She prefers "innovative" and "hardworking." This week, Martin took notice of a broadcaster who referred to WVU and Duke as the two Goliaths left in the NCAA tournament.

"My ears perked up and I thought, 'Wow, we're a Goliath,'" she said. "We're not an underdog. We have biometrics and nanotechnology.

"We're good at basketball and we're good at the university, so it's nice to be able to say that."

Reach Davin White at davinwh...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1254.