The 2015 Holiday Bowl will now be known as the National Funding Holiday Bowl thanks to USC alum David Gilbert, who founded the company in 1999, and stepped up as the title sponsor when his Trojans accepted the invitation to play Wisconsin on December 30 in San Diego.
"When the spectacular USC versus Wisconsin matchup was announced last Sunday I noticed there was a title sponsor void," said Gilbert, who graduated from the Marshall School of Business in 1997. "For years I've appreciated the tremendous impact the Holiday Bowl has had on our community. I saw this as an opportunity to really help out an important community endeavor."
Click here for Holiday Bowl tickets in the USC section.
"We are so grateful to National Funding CEO Dave Gilbert and his team for stepping in to be title sponsor of this year's Holiday Bowl," said Layton. "Unquestionably, they are the 2015 hero of our non-profit effort. What a great and generous community-minded partner!"
Gilbert, whose wife is a Trojan as well, started National Funding in 1999 as one of the first players in the alternative lending space. Even during that time, he recognized that banks were not deploying microloans (under $100K) to small businesses. He wanted to provide easy access to critical growth capital. Now, 16 years later, National Funding has loaned over $1B to small businesses and its revenue has surged 172% over the past three years. In the past year alone, it has added 50 employees.
Click here for more on National Funding.
The mission of the non-profit National Funding Holiday Bowl is to generate tourism, exposure, economic benefit and civic pride for San Diego and its citizens by producing the nation's most exciting and entertaining bowl game and festival of events. Since its inception in 1978, the organization has generated $730 million in economic benefit for the San Diego region.
University Southern California Trojans
Wednesday, July 08
Wednesday, July 08
Monday, July 06
Monday, June 29
