I am at a crossroads here. I have to send out a letter to alumni requesting donations. Unfortunately, we dont have a house, ergo no furniture, etc. Obviously I can't say, "hey can you get us a house?" I have two letters drafted and I'm not sure which one to send. In one, I start by saying that we've been going for 15 years, hope for many more, then say we lost our most recent house and need money because rushing will be hard, etc. In the other one, I explain why we lost the house and ask for donations/ help finding another one. I think a lot of alumni are at the end of their rope with us(we only had the house for 1 year) but there are a lot who have never been to the new house and dont know our situation. help!

slayer, can you obtain any help from your National Housing department and/or whatever you call your chapter support personnel? They may be able to provide you with a timeline, letters, volunteer recruitment tips, and general assistance for fundraising, etc.

You may want to send the initial mailing asking for help and NOT money. Now, hear me out :) Let them know that your chapter is currently unhoused, and you would like their assistance to locate a temporary/permanent new housing for the chapter. Let them know what your chapter needs, and ideally wants, in their housing and what they can do to help. Once you make that initial contact, FOLLOW UP. Personal contact makes a world of difference on the alumni level.

Without knowing more details it's hard to give anything but general suggestions, but I hope these help a little. Feel free to PM me if I can help with anything else.

Excellent advice.

And if need be, you may also want to request help with rush. That may be a more urgent need with it coming up soon.

And when you request help, especially monetary donations, be as specific as you can. i.e. "We need $100.00 for subs from El-Cheapo Sub place and sodas;" and/or "We need an alum to co-sign so we may reserve a conference room for rush at the Alumni House."

And please, please follow up and be sure to send thank you letters. As AOIIalum said, personal contacts go a long way with alumni.

An important thing for alumni to remember is to update your contact info if you move. You have no idea how many mailings we get sent back to us whenever we do alumnae newsletters, reunion invitations, etc. saying that we have an invalid address or that the person doesn't live there anymore. However, many of those same alumnae whom we can't get in contact with seem to be the ones that get mad when they don't hear about things. Funny how that works.

If you are looking to save money see how many alumnae would want email newsletters... ask in the next one and thats an easy way to keep in touch..

Personally I give $ to our national foundation each year and countless hours as a advisor.

When one of my chapters needed $$ it coincidentally came near our founders day they invited any alums and asked for X amount of dollars stating so much for the dinner, so much for the National foundation and so much for the chapter... while each alum paid like $$ 40. for the bruch it was done at the chapter house and university baquet hall for like 20 a person and they split the 20 between the chapter and our NHQ.... and the alums got a great campus tour, update on the chapter, and some fun sisterhood!!

Unforunitly, NHQ do not have the money to help as they will say.

I know from experience. So, where do you as an Active Chapter turn to? The Alums of course!

There must be reasons for Alums to donate Money to the Chapter.

Do you as a Chapter keep them informed of events and happenings? Important!

Do you envolve Alums in events, Homecoming, Founders Day ?



OKAY, You have certain things that are listed that you need money for, how many other times have you asked for Money?

We do an Auction at Founders Day and Home Coming. I have bought a lot of items and given many more for it. Guess who Bids, Alums, they feel good about over bidding on items and have a great time of it. Example, An Alum flew in from Island off of Wahington State, brought a glass mug. He Won it!:) Took it back with Him to Island.:cool:

So try to do things that make it fun for them to come back and bring the Family to have a good time.

Oh, if you have meetings that cannot be attended by wives, Have Something Planned for Them!

Ask a Sorority that YOU are close to and see if they will help!:)

Chapter Solicitations
 

My profession is fundraising so I have a little bit of experience here. Best advice is to make it easy to give and be sure to send a thank you promptly. Include self-addressed envelopes with a nice letter. The letter should detail, in specific, what you will use the money for. Last year, my collegiate chapter needed money for Homecoming to execute their Seasame Street theme--the list they sent detailed that Big Bird's feathers would cost them $20, among other things. Since I have a soft spot for Big Bird, I sent my check immediately. :) I would stick to projects rather than just asking for general funds--some alum might not be comfortable giving if they think its will be used for the beer fund (of course, some may.) In the end, they just want to know that their money will be used responsibly or the way it was intended.

I'd also advise including a list of chapter donors in your alumni newsletter if you have one--this will recognize those that give, and possibly shame those who don't into sending their check pronto. :) Possibly consider making a competition by class-- e.g. "The Alpha Class had 100% participation. Thank you!"

For my own giving, I give to my chapter and my org's Foundation annually. I volunteer for the Foundation. I have given to chapters I advise and I have supported projects at chapters other than my own, particularly new chapters. Generally, if I am asked, I give something.

Which reminds me, I need to pay my alumnae dues!

Oh totally. We had a ten year anniversary formal a few years back and we sent all the alums with addresses on our list formal invites.

Over HALF of the invites came back invalid. It was quite frustrating.

And it's especially frustrating that the alumnae programs and updates weren't managed very well early on, so we have people listed as alumnae that we've never heard of as well as those emailing us at random to say they are alumnae but were left off of the list.

We stick to email updates.