Before USA Rugby announced that it would be experiencing another substantial financial deficit in 2020, the USA Women’s National Team (WNT) was in crisis mode. The 15s program’s immediate future was in jeopardy and the onus to launch a diverse fundraising structure, independent of USA Rugby, had arrived. In early 2020, the XV Foundation introduced itself and Be The Impact, the player-driven initiative for individual donations, put the Eagles’ circumstances in front of the public.
RELATED: XV Foundation Website
“Team funding has always been in limbo. I don’t think it’s ever been consistent since I’ve been in the player pool,” USA 7s and 15s Eagle Kristine Sommer lent some background. “The consistency of receiving or not receiving per diems, or maybe having to pay for your flight for camp, is not really streamlined through the current platform for the women’s 15s side. So it’s tough for new players who come in and ask what’s expected of them financially, and I don’t know if I could answer them based on current projected revenue or budget.”
“2017 was a good year,” USA 15s Eagle Alycia Washington said of recent history. “It was a World Cup year, we were full-time training in San Diego for the summer. We didn’t have per diems during training but we had them in Ireland, which was awesome. Same in 2018 when we went to England and Ireland. We assumed that progress had been made, but through 2019, we didn’t receive any stipend, as players had to pay for every camp. So in real time we were watching the union taking steps backward. ‘How do we stop this? This is unacceptable.’ We’re never going to be a better rugby country if only the privileged survive through the camp system.”
During the November 2019 Can-Am Series in Chula Vista, USA Rugby Women’s High Performance General Manager Emilie Bydwell led a team meeting to explain USA Rugby’s financial outlook for 2020 and the support the national governing body could offer the Eagles. It was grim, and emergency action was needed. The players broke into groups to brainstorm ways to immediately fund the Eagles for the upcoming year, and beyond.
“We were looking at the Golden Eagles model of the fundraising effort and thought that could be something we could follow and keep in our control, because we knew there were a lot of, I’ll call it, ‘PR issues’ within the community [and USA Rugby],” Washington said of the thought process behind Be The Impact. “We knew if it was a player-led initiative, it’d probably get the most traction and the most donations.”
Bydwell followed up with Sommer and Washington, who took responsibility for developing Be The Impact. The founders got to work in creating a website, talking to sponsors and donors, meeting with USA Rugby for its endorsement, and getting teammates on board.
Be The Impact addresses the Eagles’ immediate financial needs, and it’s one arm of the newly formed XV Foundation’s mission to sustain the USA Women’s National Team in perpetuity. Other teams focus on a variety of funding options, from corporate sponsorships, to federal grants, to in-kind donations, and more. Sommer and Washington are the only current Eagles involved.
“We’re basically a separate entity designed to bring in additional revenue for the women’s 15s program,” Sommer elaborated. “[The Golden Eagles] do that for the 7s program. … They’re not technically non-profit, neither are we, but the idea behind it is that we go out, approach funding, reach out to donors and ensure to the best of our ability that money is directed only to the women’s 15s program.”
“We want to make the environment for the players much more positive so they only have to worry about playing,” Washington said. “Kristine and I are lucky enough to have salaried positions so when we take time off it’s not detrimental to our finances but most of our teammates work hourly. So when they take three weeks to a month off for an assembly they have to do a whole lot of planning to prepare for that. We just want to make sure that the players are taken care of – the beginning and end of our mission.”
Sommer during ’17 World Cup reception / Photo: Colleen McCloskey
The pay-to-play model is the status quo, but Sommer and Washington want to set the bedrock for a professional era for the women.
“We have this mindset that if you’re a female and you want to play high-level rugby in America, then you’re going to need a discretionary fund of $10,000 a year. Although that is the current reality, if we want to retain the players coming up through the youth, high school or the USA pathway, that is not a sustainable mindset,” Washington said. “We’re already losing players. Some of our teammates have dropped out because they can’t afford to be at all these camps. Getting a new pair of cleats every few months – it adds up. And we can’t sustain this anymore if we want to be a top tier nation.”
The goal for 2020 is $350,000, and then the process restarts for 2021, a World Cup year. As the Eagles request donations, remember that USA Rugby CIPP dues do not support the national teams.
“We want to be super apparent and make sure everyone’s informed as to what our mission is,” Sommer said. “We completely understand that there are trust issues with donating to USA Rugby at this time but the USA Women’s team is just without options, which is why we exist. … There are a lot of things that could and would dissolve if this didn’t pick up a few months ago.
“It’s so important for the women’s program to continue to be competitive on the national and world stages,” Sommer added. “It’s not funding to get us going so we get a paycheck. It’s so we can afford the new tours and new World Rugby structures and World Cup cycle, because right now that’s not happening. We’re in need.”
To learn more about the XV Foundation and Be The Impact, visit https://xvfoundation.com/.
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