University of North Texas: Fundraising Adaptability in a New Era of College Sports
- Jason Chang
- 2 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Founded in 1890, the University of North Texas is a four-year public university located in Denton, Texas. UNT has an enrollment of 46,000 students. The Mean Green compete in the American Conference.
The Challenge
The landmark antitrust settlement from House v. NCAA, approved in June 2025, opened the door for universities to share revenue directly with student-athletes for the first time in college sports history. With distributions reaching up to $20.5 million per year, athletic departments around the country were left trying to figure out where this new budget line item was going to come from.
In response, UNT Athletics launched their new Green Lights Fund, naming it after the tradition of lighting the campus tower green after every win. The fund provides marketing opportunities and revenue sharing with student-athletes. But, with a new fund, they had to figure out how to create awareness and drive their supporters to action.
The Solution: Launching Fast with Paciolan Tools
Launched in the Spring 2025, UNT Athletics had a campaign vision to strategically inform, energize, and activate their base. This meant creating an integrated campaign that would reach their supporters as well as attract new donors. Being a Paciolan client made it easy to make their vision real.
The campaign started with making their fans and donors aware of the new Green Lights Fund (GLF). This was done via targeted emails through PAC Mail which allowed them to create segments of past and current supporters to target. For example, previous sport-specific donors received tailored messages: "You've supported basketball before. Here's how you can do it now."
Going further, they were able to harmonize their season ticket renewal campaign with the Green Lights Fund campaign by automating a follow-up email after fans paid their seat deposits. This tactic recognized their fans’ commitment and invited them to support their athletes and invest in future recruiting efforts.
The highlight of the GLF campaign was a challenge by Football Head Coach Eric Morris where his family pledged to match every donation up to $50,000. This inspired another major donor to add $25k to that challenge. The energy from this tactic drove 100% in support.
In another successful effort, supporters were invited to the Green Lights Chalk Talk event where Coach Morris shared the team’s vision and goals and gave a behind-the-scenes look at the program. Tickets to this special event were sold on their Paciolan ticketing website and included complimentary appetizers and an open bar as well as time to mingle with football staff and fellow supporters. Proceeds went to the Green Lights Fund.
All campaign assets linked to the Green Lights Fund campaign page, powered by PAC Live, Paciolan’s unified ticketing and fundraising website for fans. This allowed donors to give quickly and securely on the same site where they buy their tickets, improving awareness of the GLF. Further, having giving on the same site as ticketing leverages modern e-commerce conversion best practices, while also being familiar and trustworthy.
The Results
By leveraging Paciolan’s fundraising platform, UNT was able to quickly move from concept to execution. “The Green Lights Fund was a big project for us,” said Sabrina Lomosad, Assistant Athletics Director, Development - Annual Giving. “It was launched amidst a rebrand and we did a complete overhaul of everything. We had a solid campaign vision, and after consulting with Paciolan, we were able to work out the operational challenges of creating this new fund. It turned out to be a huge success and a great start for UNT in this new era.”
As of February 2026, the Green Lights Fund campaign had $800k in pledges with $500k received. Since this is a new fund there’s no year-over-year comparison, however, this is in context with their main initiative, the Mean Green Athletics Fund, being up 48% for commitments, versus the previous period. Funding isn’t just moving from one place to another. This represents genuine excitement amongst supporters through increased giving.
North Texas is thriving in the new reality of college sports. Having flexible, integrated tools is a competitive advantage for them. When the rules changed, UNT was ready to adapt.
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