Pendo back home

Gonzaga Athletic Director Mike Roth announced last Friday that David Pendergraft ('08) would be returning to the university as the new director of athletic giving for the athletic department.

"Our previous employee left to pursue other things, so we opened the job up," Roth said. "David contacted us early on after the job had opened and expressed his interest in the position. We interviewed a couple different alums in the process, but David shone through as being the right person for the job, so we made an offer, and he accepted. We're all really excited to work with him."

Pendergraft had most recently worked as a sales representative with Next IT, a Spokane-based software company founded by Fred Brown, a Gonzaga graduate and current member of the board of trustees.

"My work with Next IT was similar to what I'll be doing with Gonzaga, since there was a lot of traveling — a lot of ‘on the road' dynamic," said Pendergraft, who began his new job Monday. "I think this will be the same sort of thing. A lot of relationship-based work. I'll be trying to do my part to help the student-athletes at Gonzaga as much as possible.

"Getting started with this job, I'm just learning the ropes again. I'm working with Mike Roth, [Senior Associate Athletic Director] Chris Standiford, [Associate Athletic Director/Major Gifts] Steve Hertz — who's my boss, trying to get situated and figure out how things roll. It's been a fantastic two days so far."

A four-year player for the basketball team who graduated with a degree in philosophy, Pendergraft also served as a member of Leadership Northwest, a Christian nonprofit organization, since 2009.

"I'd gotten an invite from a board member, so I decided to join Leadership," Pendergraft said. "It's been a fantastic experience and an honor. You can learn so much from the people on that board. To be able to give your opinion for something as great as that organization was a great experience."

Roth said he believes that Pendergraft will hit the ground running with his new position at the school.

"He's a really skilled alumnus," Roth said. "That's a win-win scenario — when David speaks to a potential benefactor about donating to Gonzaga athletics, he can talk about his own experience, and those people know he's not making it up because they watched him play for four years on a really successful team.

"David graduated and was a good student, so he can talk about the demands academically as well as athletically at the school. He can also talk about our strength and conditioning or athletic training. There's a lot of different areas that he can talk about with his first hand experience," Roth said.

"The advantage that David brings is that people who are well aware of our basketball heritage here at Gonzaga are aware of David Pendergraft," Roth said. "His name, his demeanor, his persona will help open doors, and that will be a great benefit to us."

Roth cited Pendergraft's training in sales as having provided him with an excellent background.

"Those skills he's learned since he graduated working with sales do transition into fundraising. What you're trying to do with fundraising is sell Gonzaga to a prospective benefactor. One thing that he brought to Next IT, and that he'll bring to his new role with the school, is a tremendous personality. That ability to strike up a conversation with anybody, and be very comfortable in any setting — either individual or in groups."

Pendergraft will work with benefactors on both national and international levels. There are no boundaries to his work, Roth said.

 "I'm not sure where travel will lead me next," Pendergraft said. "There are some big events with basketball season coming up. The Gonzaga community gathers around both men's and women's basketball, so I'm looking forward to those, and meeting new people and talking about the business position. There's a lot of friendly people that I met through basketball that I can reacquaint myself with.

"People are on fire for the women's program. What they've been able to accomplish is amazing. They're always improving. The buzz within Spokane, and even within the Gonzaga community is deafening — everyone just fell in love with them and is ready for the new season."

Pendergraft noted how excited he is to work with all aspects of Gonzaga. Roth shared his sentiments.

"His focus in fundraising will be on all of our sports," Roth said. "What we try to do, and what David will try to do, is not try to convince a potential benefactor to give money to a specific thing — what he's going to do is try to convince a potential benefactor to give money to Gonzaga. If that goes to Gonzaga athletics, great. If it's to the School of Engineering, he'll help those people work with University Relations to facilitate that process. If it's to the men's or women's soccer or to baseball, he'll work with them there."

"There will be a lot of people who will be interested in talking to him, so that's an advantage. We want to utilize his abilities."

"He's new, so there's a lot to learn like in any job. We expect that he'll learn as he goes. We don't expect him to come in and turn the world upside down in the first couple of weeks. We understand it will be a process for learning how the university works and how the fundraising process works," Roth said.