A University of Oregon administrator will take over GW’s burgeoning sports marketing, fundraising and communications arm as the athletics department strategizes how to draw in more fans and donations.

Garrett Klassy, assistant athletic director at Oregon, will become the University’s senior associate athletics director for communication, the athletics department announced Monday. Klassy also helmed the Ducks’ athletic fund and ticket office.

An athletics department release touted Klassy’s credentials as a top fundraising, as he helped pump in more than $5 million into Oregon’s esteemed athletic programs over the last five years.

Of course, Oregon’s well-funded athletics programs – aided by a huge Nike partnership – run in stark contract with GW, which counted one of the smallest budgets in the Atlantic 10. But the move gives the athletics department a point-man as moves into the second year of an ambitious fundraising drive and tries to raise its visibility inside and outside of the GW community.

The addition also continues third-year athletic director Patrick Nero’s overhaul of the department. Nero has brought in several new coaches to lead top programs and hired his own communications leader since coming aboard.

Nero said in an interview last month that the athletics department would surpass its $1-million fundraising goal for the 2013 fiscal year, which ended June 30.

Klassy also has held athletics department roles at University of Alabama and Tulane University.