The Stellar Impact Crowdfunding Campaign is a new innovative way to raise capital for the athletics department,” said Director of Athletics Jim Sarra. “UIS athletics is coming off of its best year in school history, but we must continue to get better. Donations will have a significant impact on the student-athlete experience, and coaches can continue to meet our goals of a building a championship culture.”

   Crowdfunding campaigns are typically run over a short period of time, and it raises gifts from a large number of people through the internet. Social media is normally the number one source to spread the news about the campaign, and help it raise money.

   The Stellar Impact campaign is designed to help UIS student-athletes to excel on and off their competition sites. Specifically, it will help each program in the four areas of performance, experiences, impact projects, and student-athlete success.

   Each UIS sports program has a dedicated webpage that the student-athletes and coaches can share with their friends and family. The programs each have the goal of raising at least $5,000, and there will be leaderboards for a friendly competition between the programs to see who can raise the most money and who can have the most donors.

   UIS supporters can help by selecting one of the sports programs and assisting them with their individual projects with a donation. They can then share the news about the UIS crowdfunding with their friends and family through Facebook, Twitter, and email, and encourage all of them to donate as well.

   The Stellar Impact Campaign is starting after the most successful season in UIS athletics history in 2017-18. The Prairie Stars finished fifth in the GLVC Commissioner’s Cup, an improvement of eight spots in just one year. Baseball and softball both won regular season conference championships, and those two programs, along with women’s golf, advanced to NCAA postseason play. UIS student-athletes had 3.31 GPAs in each semester, and set a record with 134 players earning GLVC Academic All-Conference honors. In the community, the athletics department had over 2,000 hours of community service.

With great support throughout Stellar Impact, UIS student-athletes can continue their competitive success, academic achievements, and having an impact in the Springfield community. This will move UIS athletics closer to its vision of being the premier, public NCAA Division II in the Midwest Region.