skip navigation

Brees Endowment Fundraiser

Drew Brees helped “kick-start” the Joe TIller Chapter Endowment by providing sideline passes and tickets for the New Orleans Saints-Cincinnati Bengals game on Nov. 11. He socialized with our NFF group and posed for pictures during a “Meet and Greet” follo

Chapter raises $27,000 from Drew Brees offer, starts scholarship endowment

Thanks to the offer from former Purdue quarterback Drew Brees and the wonderful response from Boilermaker fans and supporters, the NFF’s Joe Tiller Chapter of Northwest Indiana has successfully launched its Scholarship Endowment.

The endowment started with a “deposit” of $30,000 in December 2018 and will live at the Community Foundation of Greater Lafayette, where the annual interest will be used to help support our chapter’s scholarship commitment. The goal of raising $500,000 to honor the legacy of Joe Tiller remains a lofty target, but we will continue to work toward that. 

Drew’s incredible offer helped “kick-start” the project by providing sideline passes and tickets in the stands for the New Orleans Saints football game at Cincinnati on Nov. 11. That offer netted $27,000 for the endowment and spurred a bus trip to Cincinnati to “celebrate” with Brees at Paul Brown Stadium, where the Saints pummeled the Bengals, 51-14, as Brees completed 22 of 25 passes for 265 yards and three touchdowns. He also rushed for one TD. 

Needless to say, Brees was a happy man as he socialized with our group and posed for pictures during a “Meet and Greet” following the game.

But, this is just the beginning for the endowment. Tax-deductible donations may be made at any time via a check to the Joe Tiller Chapter of NFF (note: Endowment Fund) and sent to the attention of Jim Vruggink, the chapter’s executive director, at 3672 Farnsworth Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47906.

“Raising enough money through the endowment to offset our scholarship commitments each year would be a tremendous relief for the chapter’s next executive director,” says Vruggink, who has been in that role since the chapter started in 2004. “The fact that we’ve distributed more than $229,000 in our first 14 years as a chapter is indeed a great tribute to the generosity of our football fans in Northwest Indiana, but generating the funds to keep that pattern going is an ever-growing challenge from year to year. Having a consistent stream of funds flowing from an endowment program, would be a huge benefit.”

Currently, the chapter depends on raising money through donations, sponsorships, advertising in the annual NFF Honors Dinner program and a series of fund-raising events (golf outings, concerts, dodgeball tournaments, silent auctions and raffles).