Dance Marathon
 

Perhaps this belongs in the Community Service/Philanthropy thread, but it's really more of a general question.

For six or so years, my chapter has been doing the same philanthropy each fall to raise money for our national philanthropy. This event, however, is getting old, and we've decided to scrap it in favor of a new one: a dance marathon. Our VP Moral came up with it, and our exec. absolutely loves the idea.

While we're really excited about it, we're feeling overwhelmed. We want to involve the WHOLE campus and make it a massive event. I'm from beautiful Holland, Michigan, and I suggested that we pattern our dance marathon after the one held at Hope College each year. I'm including a link to the page for anyone who is interested. :)

However, we need more ideas! If anyone on here has suggestions on how to run a successful dance marathon event or mini-events to include into the day, please let me know. :) We really want to make this a successful event!

The marathon at Penn State is an excellent model - the largest student-run philanthropy in the world raising $3.5 million each year for "The Four Diamonds Fund" for kids with cancer.

But it didn't start that large. You might be interested in reading its history . Also, you could probably contact someone from Penn State directly now that this year's marathon is history. I'm sure they would be delighted to talk to you about it, talk about what goes into organizing, etc. - they've got the whole thing down pat - organizing committees, kick-off dinners, the works.

It seems to me that a key aspect is strong campus-wide support for the charity - the first few years Penn State's charity varied, but once they focused on Kids with Cancer at Hershey Medical Center (translate - kids on our own state with cancer), things really took off. It's easier to raise money when people know where it's going, know it's going to something local, and can feel that they're making a difference. So perhaps a literacy organization in your state? An after-school program in a local city?

i dont have time to talk right now but i go to penn state and i'm involved in THON so if u have any questions, pm me

Don't take this the wrong way, but you probably actually don't want to model yours after Penn State. Yes, there's is by far the most successful, but you also have to realize that they've spent over 25 years building it up to the greatness that it is today. Reading the history is a good idea, but also try and look at schools who haven't been doing it at long, and are still successful. UT's a good one... they raise a lot of money, but have only been doing it for about 8 years. Also, and I'm biased, but I can let you know how we run ours at U of S. Carolina. Mainly because that's the one that I'm familiar with. Unless you're just a miracle school and have sponsors coming out of the woodwork, you aren't going to raise millions of dollars like Penn State, so it might be a little disheartening to model yourselves after them at first. Try to look at websites of Dance Marathons at schools comparative to yours. For the first year, though, you're probably looking at about 100 participants and $50,000.... generalizing, of course. CMN also has a "getting started" video that they show schools who are thinking about starting it. We have a copy if you can't get your hands on one, but they should just send it to you. It shows how most schools model their Dance Marathon.

Some basics: Penn state uses fraternities paired with sororities, and it's a competition for who wins.
Other schools do it this way: You teach a line dance that the morale captains make up. The participants are responsible for raising a certain amount of money. Here, they raise $150. This year at UT, they raised $175... but a couple of them also said that this was a bit high. The event is held in celebration of the students who raised the money. They learn the line dance, stay up all night... A lot of starter schools do it for 12 hours... We do ours for 24, most do theirs for 36, and a couple (Penn State being one) do it for 48 hours.

I really have way too much information to put down here. It takes a LOT of planning. We have 30 people on our exec and about 40 morale captains... UT has about the same amount of people on exec and I think 60 or 70 on morale. Don't put the date within 6 months of when you start planning... We start planning in April for a February event, but we really push hard starting in October.

Go visit some websites, though. Ours is www.sa.sc.edu/dancemarathon It shows a little about the Letter Writing campaign, too... which is DEFINITELY a good idea that we stole from UT. There's also a national convention in the summer that you can get ideas from. Also, check out UGA and UT's websites as well... I don't know the url's off the top of my head, but theirs are very informative, and different in ways.

If you decide that you like the way Penn State does it better, that's great, and no skin off my nose, but I really would suggest looking at the things they do and scaling down your first year a bit.... I think you'll find that it takes a lot more planning than you expect. And of course, I'm always here to chat about it!

PS-I looked at the Hope College site, and it does actually look like a good one to model after. They actually raised almost as much as us, but they still aren't a huge power house Dance Marathon like Penn State, so it's a good school to aim for first year.

Wow - a video on how to start a marathon - what a great resource. And lots of models to choose from.

The one thing you can take from Penn State's marathon - if you read the history - is that whatever the model you choose, it can grow and change over the years. So other than not allowing yourself enough time ahead to plan, there's not a WRONG way that your school is then stuck with forever. Find something that works for your situation, then the people who follow can adjust it in the following years.

The key thing is, how cool is it to start a tradition? What a great way to leave your mark on your institution - both your sorority and your university.

i'm sorry but i don't have much time to post, but if you would like more information on how to get a Dance Marathon started at your campus, or how to format one on a smaller level, feel free to PM me and i'll get back to you ASAP...

This is the 7th year for DM at my school, and considering we're a commuter school, i think we're doing pretty well for ourselves: Last year our total surpassed $100, 000.00!! :)

DM '04 is less than a week away (April 3 & 4th)... wish us luck!

FIU Dance Marathon

We have a fairly large Dance Marathon. We just had it this past weekend and raised over $250,000. If you want you can check out our website at www.floridadm.org! Good luck.