One of the things Wes Moore saw during his two days in late April as East Carolina University's women's basketball coach was how a program with a bigger budget could operate.
"I guess going through what I went through made me realize that I need to do something to try to make UTC women's basketball as big-time as we can make it," said Moore, who has led the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to 11 straight Southern Conference titles.
Moore is now on a mission to do just that. He and assistant athletic director Andrew Horton, who deals primarily in fundraising, have launched a five-year initiative called "Support-Her."
The goal is to raise $60,000 a year for the next five years, with the money going to travel, equipment and other operating costs. Whatever money is raised through donations -- with contributors giving a set amount for five years -- will be matched by Chattem, Moore said.
Dean and Mary Jane Heavener, longtime friends of Moore's program, already have committed to contributing -- Moore gave Dean the net from one of the goals after UTC won the SoCon tournament last season -- and Horton said several other supporters are interested.
"Economic times have been tough for everybody, and I just felt like something that I'm always concerned about is trying to stay within the budget, and at the same time giving your student-athletes a great experience," Moore said. "We want this to be the best four years of their lives, so you want to be able to do things the right way.
"I'm not talking about extravagant, but just talking about taking care of them in a good way."
As the UTC athletic department budget continues to shrink each year amid statewide budget cuts, coaches for all 17 sports are having to reach out to the community and alumni for financial help.
Athletic director Rick Hart said organized fundraising initiatives like the one Moore started eventually could be in place for all Mocs sports.
"I think it's the direction we're going and have been," Hart said.
One thing football coach Russ Huesman learned quickly upon taking over the program in December 2008 was that donations big and small are crucial. This spring, he sent out letters to all former football players asking them to help send some of his players to summer school.
About $28,000 was raised.
"People come up a lot and say, 'What do you need? What can I do to help you?' And there are always little things that we need," Huesman said. "Those little things happen all the time, and they really help the program."
Men's golf coach Mark Guhne spends as much time as any UTC coach raising money. Asking for help isn't something he enjoys doing, but it's necessary for the future of the program.
"It definitely takes a team effort for us or any of the sports at UTC to be able to survive," he said. "There's no doubt, we have to have good leadership, a community that wants to be behind us and coaches that don't mind going out there and asking."
Guhne said Hart and associate athletic director Matt Pope work hard to give UTC's sports programs all the resources they can, but "even when a budget stays the same you've backed up, because nothing else stayed the same. Travel got more expensive -- uniforms and everything else."
While he doesn't have a formal campaign like Moore's Support-Her, Guhne said he does have three-year agreements with some donors. If they commit to giving a set amount to the program each year for three years, he said, then "they know that for three years I'm not going to call and ask them for anything else except if they want to go play golf."
Hart said that each UTC sport is unique and fundraising approaches that work for one might not work for another. He said most of the non-facility fundraising being done now is primarily to meet the day-to-day needs of the programs.
"Our goal is not to maintain; our goal is to continually improve and advance and to be at the forefront," he said. "If you're going to do that, you're going to need more revenues and you're going to need to expand your resources; and if you're going to do that, you have to remain aggressive. You have to be innovative and try new things."