Sean McDonough is in his second year as senior associate athletics director for advancement, having joined the UIC staff in June 2024. He leads all fundraising initiatives for UIC Athletics, including annual giving through the Flames Athletic Fund, support for student-athlete name, image & likeness (NIL), sport-specific fundraising initiatives for the Flames’ 18 varsity teams, oversight of the varsity Letterwinners Association, and other donor engagement activities. A member of the UIC Athletics Senior Leadership Team, McDonough also is the sport supervisor for the Flames' volleyball program, following similar assignments with the UIC baseball and women's golf teams.
A Chicago resident for much of the past decade, McDonough has extensive experience as an intercollegiate athletics development officer. From 2017-20, he was director of development at Loyola University, helping the Ramblers surpass their fundraising goals for three consecutive fiscal years (FY18-20) and deliver a 116-percent increase in fundraising from FY17-19. In addition, he closed on three $100,000 gifts during his time in Rogers Park after the Loyola athletics department previously had just one such gift of that size.
Prior to his time at Loyola, McDonough served as associate director of development at DePaul University from 2013-17. The cornerstone of his time with the Blue Demons was the implementation of a priority points seating system for the men’s and women’s basketball programs, a platform that raised $1.4 million between season tickets sales and philanthropy. He also helped generate more than $250,000 in gifts for DePaul Athletics during FY17.
McDonough most recently served as senior campaign manager at The Steier Group in Omaha, where he served for six years (2006-10, 2022-24) and helped raise more than $75 million, highlighted by a $51-million campaign for the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin. This came on the heels of two years as vice president for development at Mount Carmel High School in Chicago, where he created the school’s first full-scale development office and helped raise more than $7 million, including nearly $3 million for the school’s annual fund.
McDonough started his career in intercollegiate development at Western Illinois University from 2010-13, serving as assistant athletics director for external relations. While in Macomb, Ill., McDonough secured the largest unrestricted gift for WIU Athletics ($250,000) in more than 40 years. He also helped increase corporate sponsorship contracts by at least 40 percent in both 2011 and 2012, while his efforts led to WIU’s football and men’s basketball ticket sales growing by more than 115 percent during those same two years.
A native of Boston, McDonough graduated from Marquette University in 1991 with his bachelor’s degree in journalism. He went on to earn his master’s degree in health, physical education and recreation (emphasis in sports psychology) from Murray State University in 2003.
McDonough started his professional career in intercollegiate athletics as an assistant men’s basketball coach (most notably UT Martin from 1995-97 and Stephen F. Austin from 1997-99) before being named head coach at Carroll College (now Carroll University) in Waukesha, Wisconsin, in 1999. He spent three seasons as head coach at Carroll while also handling sports information duties and creating an athletics marketing department. He finished his coaching career in 2002-03 as coordinator of men’s basketball at the University of Houston.
