Denson Hollis

In August, 2022, the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation announced Denson Hollis as Chief Executive Officer / Sr. Associate Athletics Director for Development.

In his career at Ole Miss, Hollis has raised over $160M leading record-breaking fundraising teams in academics and athletics.

In this role, Hollis leads all development and fundraising operations for the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation (“OMAF”), including campaign oversight, major giving, the annual fund, premium seating, endowment and planned giving, donor stewardship, event hospitality, and coordination with all other areas of University development including the OMAF board.  Additionally, he is a member of the Ole Miss Athletics department’s executive team, the senior staff team and also serves as the sport administrator for men’s basketball.

Denson Hollis’s second year as CEO, OMAF again had historic success raising over $53.5M, the third highest total ever.  In the past three years at OMAF, his teams have raised over $150M for Ole Miss Athletics resulting in the newly renovated Archie and Olivia Manning Performance Center (football) and current construction of the new softball stadium.  Placing a strong emphasis on donor experience, Hollis’s leadership of OMAF has vastly increased all of its current giving platforms, most notably a current membership of 772 members of the Vaught Society spanning 36 states across the country.  As college athletics continues to evolve, Hollis’s team at OMAF continues to find new sources of revenue for the athletic department including concerts inside Vaught Hemingway Stadium and additional premium areas in our venues.

In his previous position as Chief Development Officer, the OMAF major gifts team flourished under Hollis’s two-year leadership. The 2021 fiscal year saw his team raise $23 million, the third-highest total in OMAF history. Hollis’s team shattered that number during the 2022 fiscal year, when it raised an all-time record $31.7 million in addition to launching the $175M Champions. Now. capital campaign.  Lastly, under Hollis’s leadership, Vaught Society hit a then record 530 sustained members that same year.

Prior to joining OMAF, Hollis worked in the UM Office of Development from 2009 – 2020, where he ultimately served as the Executive Director of Principal Gifts.  In that role, Hollis was responsible for establishing the first-ever principal gifts program at Ole Miss. The mission of principal gifts program was to create philanthropic collaboration among all areas of the university, including academics, athletics, alumni and the University of Mississippi Medical Center. During his tenure with university development his fundraising efforts touched every corner of campus, including securing major gifts for every school on campus, athletics and numerous cultural arts areas.

Hollis, a native of Clarksdale, earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Ole Miss in 2001 and a master’s degree in sport management from Georgia Southern in 2004. Hollis lives in Oxford with his wife, Lauren, a 2004 Ole Miss alumna and their three daughters, Eloise, Marian, and Vivi. Hollis is a third-generation Ole Miss alumnus and is one of 18 people in his immediate and extended family to attend Mississippi’s flagship university.