The Interview: Eric Schimmoeller

Talk to Eric Schimmoeller and you can still hear a hint of his sports announcer past. He’s encyclopedic, dropping sports knowledge with ease. Now, he leverages his fandom for college culture to raise funds for UNLV, bringing gifts large and small across the finish line.Two years in as senior director of gift planning in Philanthropy and Alumni Engagement, he spends his days meeting with donors to help them plan their estates to take care of the people and causes they care about after they pass away.What did you do before you came to UNLV?I spent 10 years in the South at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and then Clemson University in South Carolina, working in gift planning at both institutions. At UT, I was part of a team that successfully completed a billion-dollar capital campaign with more than $430 million in planned gifts. I also worked in planned giving for Purdue University, where I learned a lot from veteran fundraisers.Tell us about your adventures in sports journalism.I...