We wondered last week if the Hartman Fund accepting donations beyond the February 15th deadline was a sign of trouble, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Contributions are currently over 98% of what they were a year ago ($22.4 million vs. $22.7 million), and donations are still trickling in. Donations are still roughly $4 million below the high water mark set in 2008.

It’s interesting to note that the total includes first-time donations of over $1 million. A lot of people might see soft ticket demand as an opportunity to get their foot in the door for renewable season tickets.

It seems as though Georgia’s had to work a lot harder to keep donations up. Advertisements for the Hartman Fund aired during the football season, and campaigns via e-mail, direct mail, and other media continued over the past several months. Now we’ll see if season ticket orders follow suit. We should learn by the beginning of June whether Georgia was able to sell out its season ticket allotment again.

UGA announced today that all Hartman Fund donors giving at least $100 should receive a season ticket order form in early March. That does not guarantee that everyone, especially new donors, will actually receive tickets.