Philanthropy Success Stories?
 

Hey everyone. I'm the philanthropy chair for my chapter. We have a very successful annual philanthropy, but it is the only thing that we do. I was wondering what other campuses and chapters do for their philantropies.

Every year we set up ATO Softball. All of our guys coach a sorority in the single-elimination softball tourney. The money that we make come from t-shirt sales and registration. This year I tried very hard to get a lot of sponsors so that our profit would be a greater success.

Please, please e-mail or post successes that you have had, or even heard of...I know everyone reading these posts are here for the same reason...helping others

Thanks



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RudyOos
Alpha Tau Omega
Gamma Theta
Nebraska - Lincoln

Hey! I am an AXiD at UNC-Wilmington. We do an annual easter egg hunt that turns out really well. Our philanthropy is Choose Children, so we put on a free easter egg hunt at a local park. We ask buisnesses to donate prizes and get the media to put out ads or get us on the news. We raise money by doing pictures and donations. We have an easter bunny there to take pictures with the kids. We also do face painting but that is free. All the money raised goes to one organization or person that needs help. It turns out to be so much fun for the kids and the sisters, and it is not that hard to put together!
I would love to hear other ideas on projects to do! Thanks and I hope this helps http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif

Rudy, while we as LXA, always do a National Food drive and collect Tons of food, my House does a Hot-Tub-A-Thon with one of the local SOROS.

This last year we gave $3,400 to the Ronald Mc Donald House in Joplin ,Mo. Lot of Pruned Skin, oh by the way, this was in the winter with snow on the ground!!!!

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Tom Earp LX Z#1
Pittsburg State U. (Kansas)

At UC Berkeley, my chapter hosts an annual blood drive for the American Red Cross. But, we also require our actives to participate in 10 hours of philanthropy a semester...which makes my job (as philanthropy chair) hard...try getting enough events out there so everyone in your house can have the option of doing a philanthropy event.

We do smaller events too...such as Carwashes for charities (with Sororities, of course), soup kitchens (with Sororities, of course) and more.

My chapter was (is) very service-oriented. Our national philanthropy is the MacDowell Colony. We donate to the national fund for MacDowell annually.

Locally, we participate in the following pretty regularly as well (meaning once/semester or once/year at least):

• Interfaith Hospitality this is a local organization consisting of lots of churches (any denomiation) who house homeless families for a week at a time. During the week, volunteers take the parents to find jobs and play with the kids who are too young to be in school. A church across the street from my university does this about once a month, and we help set up the "rooms" for families and spend time with the kids
• Daffodil Days this is the American Cancer Society's fundraiser: we sell Daffodils provided by them and all proceeds go back to the Cancer Society. This is in the spring and occurs nationwide, I think
• Mid-Ohio Foodbank just like it says: a food bank. We donate food and often volunteer time as well
• Christmas in April this is a program that involves making minor repairs to homes in the community for elderly or disabled people

Those are just a few of our typical projects. We also vote on 3 charities/organizations each year to make monetary donations to: these are either arts organizations (like the Columbus Light Opera) or other charities (like the Alzheimer Foundation) that we feel are deserving.

Hope that gives you some ideas!


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SilverTurtle@greekchat.com

Phi Beta Fraternity
Phi chapter

As far as fundraising for a philanthropy goes, our chapter must be the experts! We raised $10,000 in 6 months for Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Here's what we did:
- Bucket Brigade (the Pi Kapps call it Toll Road): We stand at busy intersections and when the light turns red, we walk right up the cars and ask for money. I know it sounds awful, but we try to have pamphlets and info to hand out. And it's really successful. You'd be surprised at how generous people will be!
- Car Washes: Advertise a "Toppless Carwash" (you need to be doing it with a sorority to have it really work). Then, when you are washing the cars, clean everything but the tops...get it? Another thing that works for sororities is to do a car wash near an all-guys school or high school. We have the Citadel in Charleston, and the cadets will pay gobs of money if it means they get to talk to girls. The same goes for the high school boys - they are especially fascinated with college girls!
- Mr. College of Charleston pageant: We get local businesses to donate money or prizes for the winners. We also get money from ticket and tshirt sales. We get a local news crew to come just to raise awareness about the philanthropy in general (besides good greek publicity is always needed!). We open the pageant to all school organizations, not just greeks. Clubs and GLOs sponsor guys, and then of course they come to cheer on their guys, so it fills the seats, too. We raised over $5000 right there. The Sigma Nus followed suit and now have a Miss CofC pageant that is really successful, too.
- Dorm Penny Drive: We went to all the dorms, oncampus apartments, and greek houses and just asked for whatever loose change they had laying around. We got $300 in one night.

One thing that is always a good idea is to involve non-greeks. Not only does that mean more people to participate, but it helps a lot of people change their negative views about greeks.

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"Seek the noblest."
Zeta Love! <3

The greeks on our campus, Southwest Texas State, have started a biannual blood drive. It was started two years ago for a chi omega, from the University of Texas, that needed a special kind of blood type. A sister from my sorority helped start it and so far it has been VERY successful. She is currently working with many, many other universities in creating a national Greek Blood bank. It is turning out to be a great idea-- and the bank is available to all greks and family members. Her goal is to have the majority of the national colleges and universities involved in this over the next few years. She is graduating, but the greek system is a major part of her life and she is going to continue this project for as long as it takes. Who knows maybe you might soon be getting the blood drive on your campus. If you think your campus might be interested you can e-mail me and I can try to get you some info on it. This is really one success that can affect many of our brothers and sisters lives.

For our Philanthropy, we do a male pageant. We have 2 guys from each Fraternity and each sorority nominates 2 guys from other clubs on campus and the new members for that fall escort the contestants. Because independant guys are involved, more of the student body comes to watch. We raise money through the ticket sales, t-shirts and voting with change where dollars are negative and coins are positive. Its a fun event and we get a great turnout each year.

We got lucky this year and had the opportunity to do something great. One of our National Philanthropies is Children's Miracle Network. There was actually a girl in our community that was being supported by CMN. They held a big event to help raise money to help with the heart transplant they did. The event was a dance/auction/party. Everyone from our chapter volunteered to do something at the event, from face painting for the younger kids to working at the silent auction tables. It was a huge success and we actually got to help out not only with our national organization, but it provided many of our girls with a look at what CMN actually does!

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Michelle Alquist
Provisional Member Director
Phi Mu
Zeta Upsilon Chapter
Loras College

any other philanthropy sucesses lately?

This one isn't my sororities but ~

Two weekends ago Delta Delta Delta and Beta Theta Pi teamed up and had an inter-greek softball tournament (kinds like tri-delts "frats at bat"). each sorority was paired with a fraternity and had a single elimination softball tournament going from 9am-9pm. At the end of the night, the remaining team faced a team of "all-stars" from the Iowa City Fire Department and Iowa City Police Department. It was a lot of fun - and the event was highly publicized so the good things greeks do were out there for the community to see!

We have two major events every year -- First, in the fall, we raise money and attend the Annual Diabetes Walk in Los Angeles, CA. Our goal increases every year, next we'll be aiming for $1000 in one month's fundraising.

Secondly, we host a formal women's night during the spring, where we open our house to women of 18 years and older, they purchase tickets and they get fancy appetizers, dinner, entertainment (brother strippers!), excellent service at their beck and call, all they can drink (though those underage cannot touch the alcohol), and even the privilege of having specific brothers escort them to and from the house to home. So many women are already reserving their night for next spring that we probably can't hold them all!

-MK