Earlier this week, the first documents from a proposed $229 million increase to Virginia Tech Athletics' budget over the next four years were released ahead of the upcoming Board of Visitors meeting on September 30th. This included $120 million over four years from philanthropy, or donors to limit confusion.
While there's plenty to be excited about, some have assumed that most or all of the $120 million would be already accounted for by September 30th. As I've asked around, it does not appear that is the case.
As of now, "maybe a small amount" of the $120 million has been "lined up" ahead of the September 30th BOV meeting but "not the entire amount" per source to me.
This shouldn't come as a major shock given how recently this proposal came together following Whit Babcock's presentation to the Board of Visitors just last month. This source also shared that this task was recently given to Tom Wamsley to lead the charge in securing the $120 million per source.
Wamsley was just hired by Virginia Tech this summer as the Senior Vice President for Advancement, replacing the recently retired Charlie Phlegar.
Wamsley was previously the Vice Chancellor for Advancement at the University of Illinois-Chicago and the Senior Vice President of the University of Illinois Foundation. According to Virginia Tech's press release on his hiring, Wamsley led the university's recent $750 million campaign and helped the fundraising campaign exceed that number by $50 million.
When we reached out to Wamsley's offices for comment, Virginia Tech's Interim Vice President of Marketing and Communications Mark Owczarski provided the following comment.
"Tom Wamsley is our senior vice president for advancement which includes university marketing and communications, alumni engagement, and fundraising. As such, Tom will play an integral and critical role in all future efforts to raise funds in support of athletics.
And he has a very strong foundation from which to work. Consider:
- Virginia Tech’s Advancement Division is considered among the top 75 advancement programs globally.
- Virginia Tech alumni, friends, students, parents, and partners from corporations and foundations combined to make nearly $241.6 million in new gifts and commitments to the university during the last fiscal year. The amount was the second-most ever given to Virginia Tech in a fiscal year and a 7 percent increase over 2023-24. It pushed the five-year average for new gifts and commitments to an all-time high of $232.2 million.
- Virginia Tech’s Boundless Impact Campaign, which launched in 2019, had raised nearly $1.877 billion and engaged 117,162 alumni as of June 30, 2025, surpassing its raised goal of $1.872 billion two years ahead of schedule.
As noted before, future philanthropy in support of athletics will be a shared commitment between the university and its alumni (and other supporters). As has been demonstrated many times in the past, our alumni have consistently stepped up in support of Virginia Tech. There is much “in place” from which to build from."
It should not come as a shock that Virginia Tech doesn't have the $120 million in philanthropy lined up just yet. The fact that this plan just was rolled out and came together over the past few weeks doesn't really provide much time for actually doing the fundraising work necessary to deliver on this $120 million philanthropic boost.
That shouldn't impact the merits of the plan but should also lead to more cautious optimism given the fundraising task that Virginia Tech must take on to deliver on its significant goals. Having this type of vision though and laying it out there in public should raise confidence in donors that Virginia Tech's leadership understands what is required for VT to compete at the level fans and donors expect.
If they can show that they can actually deliver on those goals, then Virginia Tech certainly will see their football head coach and general manager openings receive greater interest from a higher caliber of candidate moving forward.
