Rice athletic director Joe Karlgaard and the university's athletic department set a goal with their fundraising branch, the Owl Club.

They met that goal. Then they raised the bar.

When the fiscal year ended in June, it was a record-breaking one at Rice. The Owl Club saw its number of gifts and total donations soar. The number of gifts alone rose by 57 percent. The previous record number of gifts was set in 2009 at 1,430.

The goal the Owls set for the 2014-15 fiscal year was $2.2 million. They received $2.304 million, a 52.6 percent increase over the $1.51 million in donations they got the previous year. It even beat the program's record of fundraising of $1.81 million in 2013.

"We're obviously very pleased with it," Karlgaard said. "If you want to be successful, you have to arm people with tools to do their best jobs."

That $2.3 million went to helping the annual fund in support of Rice athletes via scholarships, new equipment, sports medicine and more.

Since arriving at Rice from Stanford, Karlgaard has tried to bring about a push to the athlete side of a Rice student-athlete. An education is still the standard at Rice. It doesn't take long to hear about its high graduation rate or APR score or placement rate after graduation.

But Karlgaard also wants the Owls competing.

It's another goal, the Top 25 goal. He wants any athlete who plays for Rice to experience a conference championship or a slot in a Top 25 poll at least oncein his or her career as an Owl.

The number of donors and the average amount of their donations rose by 47.3 and 3 percent, respectively.

"We firmly believe our future is bright, and our donors have generously demonstrated their support of Rice student-athletes in record-setting fashion through their gifts to the Owl Club," said Josh Thiel, Rice's senior associate athletic director and chief development officer.

The recruiting isn't just left up to the coaches. With the help of Karlgaard and Thiel, the Owls secured 582 new donors.

With construction projects such as the north end zone facility underway, Karlgaard's emphasis on donations going to improving facilities already is a reality.

Eventually, he said, he would like to increase the donations for endowments for coaching positions.

"It's great that we've grown so much, but we're by no means satisfied by how much we've grown," Karlgaard said. "We don't think we can kick up our feet and say that's enough. We have a long ways to go.

"You think about Rice athletics at its peak, back in the days of the Southwest Conference, playing in front of packed houses at Rice Stadium, and we're a long ways from that. We can celebrate and high-five each other, and then we have to get right back to work. It's the cruel thing about development."

Karlgaard believes this isn't the ceiling for the Owls, either. The goal for 2015-16 is $2.5 million.