Philanthropy Ideas
 

Hey everyone! I am an active sister of Zeta Tau Alpha and a member of my chapter's philanthropy committee. Breast cancer education and awareness is very near and dear to my heart. Unfortunately, I don't think my chapter is utilizing its full potential. Our chapter is very large but we don't raise much money for our cause. We do a few events in October, but other than that we are not very active. Does anyone have any advice on how we can breathe new life into our philanthropy? Also, do any Zetas from other campuses have examples of great philanthropy events that raised a lot of money and awareness?

Thank you!

When I was in college my chapter did the following philanthropy, which you could easily adjust for ZTA...

My chapter did a legendary legs contest. They got some frat guys on campus willing to let us take pictures of their legs. We put the pictures onto those little RMH pop tab containers. We set up a table on our "mall" and people put money into the containers. The money was their vote. The coins and dollars were in positive and negative points. I can't recall which was which. Each coin and dollar amount was a different point value. If there were legs you liked you would want to put more of the positive into it, but if there was a pair of legs you hated, you put negative amounts in, to bring their point value down (hope that makes sense).

One of the sisters was able to secure round trip airfare tickets (2) for the winner. Obviously that wouldn't work for every chapter, but just something for the winner.

To encourage guys to sign up for our contest, we went and serenaded the chapters.

It seemed to be a pretty successful philanthropy. The time I sat at the table, a lot of people came up and put money in.

The chapter I used to advise, they arranged a run on campus. I believe it was a 5k. They were able to get the campus police to help out and arranged for the campus to allow us to use it. The philanthropy chair advertised with the military (as the school was in a military town) for people willing to run the race. I don't remember what the prizes were, I do remember that they were donated though. The philanthropy chair and the president went around, asking companies to donate stuff. On the shirt we had made, I believe the "sponsers" were put on the back, but I don't quite recall.

If I can think of any others I'll post. I may not be a ZTA but philanthropy is HUGE to me and as my paternal aunt is a breast cancer survivor, I'm all about breast cancer research.