Donations
 

I didn't want to hijack the other thread but I was thinking about this.

On my campus, it wasn't enough that we paid dues. We also were required to give a certain amount for every philanthropy we did within our chapter, AS WELL as a panhel fundraiser that went towards summer recruitment events and formal recruitment. (btw we're commuter so our recruitment starts May 1) I don't exactly have a Greek-friendly family, so it pissed me off when I asked where I was supposed to find all this money and a partner participant for our Panhel Bowl-a-Thon (which was $20 a person, so we were in charge of getting $40 a person) and some people said "Go to your family members". No. It doesn't work like that in everyone's family.

So my question is, when required to get donations for whatever, where did you find them most? I'm especially curious about those on commuter campuses.

lol I just remembered that I'm alumni now so I don't have to worry about this stuff anymore!!!

Usually I just go to my parents or my grandma. When I used to do the March of Dimes walk in my high school (it was a really popular philanthropy for everyone to do) I'd ask my friends and they'd usually give me like between $1-$5 or something like that. Lots of times I put in a lot of my own money. For Relay for Life, I asked my cousin who's my age and several of my friends to donate, and a lot of them did. A couple of people at my mom's work who lost relatives to cancer also donated.

Now you are going to be hit up for donations!

I used to go to alumnae (ususally older ones though) and ask for money for CMN. Now my younger sister comes to me asking for money to help fund Jump-a-thon and Karaoke for Kids, St Jude's Up til Dawn.... It is easy for me to give $10 and every bit helps toward those goals.

As an alumni, I often worry about not having control over any money I donate and was wondering if anyone else feels the same...

-Rudey

Our tuition was so high we avoided doing things that cost a ton. We ended up fining people who didn't serve enough hours of philanthropy (the money went to Pine Mt Settlement school our Nat'l Phil.) BUT...if you have the guts going to the mall or grocery store, FACULTY, I'm glad we never did that stuff. (we tried it once and it failed)

This is a subject that has been bothering me since I served as a Province Finance Specialist for Alpha Gam. So often, I see that the philanthropy projects that chapters do end up being money out of the sisters' pockets. Raising money for our Foundation shouldn't be just donations out of sisters' pockets. If you're going to do that, you may as well just have everybody write a check and skip all the work and effort that goes into the event. I also think alumnae are the wrong people to target. They receive numerous requests throughout the year directly from the Foundation and are eligible for their own forms of recognition for donating directly to the Foundation. If they write a check to the chapter, it's not tax deductible. If they write a check to the Foundation, it is. All of the organizations should focus on getting donations from OUTSIDE their own group. Sell things on campus, do canning at local stores, etc. Get donations from faculty, other students, etc. Which brings me to my next beef...

On many campuses, the GLOs have philanthropy projects for the individual GLOs during Greek Week. They require entrance fees and a certain percentage of attendance from each GLO for the GLO to get full Greek Week points. So, our chapters are just writing checks to each other during that week. If there are 15 sororities on a campus and they each write a check to each other for $300, then they each end up with the same amount of money going out as coming in. They might as well just write a check to their own Foundaitons out of their own checking accounts. AND, not all of them get to do their philanthropy as part of Greek Week, so support for the other events isn't as strong because it isn't part of winning a competition. While I do think, as individuals, it's great to support each other's philanthropy projects, I don't think these costs should be coming out of the operating budget. If you have an event and want to charge admission, then it's great if lots of members of GLOs go to the event and pay out of pocket, but it just shouldn't be required or an official Greek Week event. Greek Week philanthropies should be generic, contributing to the local community, not to each organization's own philanthropy. Then they can be required/expected/part of the competition.

I'm not sure I made my point clear, so if you need clarification, please ask!

Dee

You should go to community businesses. They love to contribute to local causes, especially if it will give them cheap advertising. If you are having a softball tournament or something, ask local business for a donation and get their business cards and put them in a program. Charge people who attend for the programs (or include it in an entrance fee). Everyone is happy because that way, the business gets the advertisement and the write-off, and your charity gets more money from the donation plus the program.

Re: Donations
 

I know this isn't what you were asking, but I brought this fact up during our Alumnae Volunteer Conference earlier this year. I was clearly reminded that even when we become "alumnae", ESPECIALLY if we choose to participate in an Alumnae Association, we ARE expected to also participate in community service stuff because community service events are part of our obligations of a "lifetime" of sisterhood. Problems that a lot of orgs run into on the alumnae level is that people use the fact that things "aren't mandatory since they aren't in college anymore" as an "excuse" to get out of community service. Thoughts anyone?

Kappa has a strict policy regarding assessment and prohibits any type of chapter activity not funded by dues. A budget is prepared for the year, dues are set, and that is what the chapter lives by. No sister is asked to contribute for a philanthropy, party, event, etc.

Optional purchases are for t-shirts, favors, pictures, etc., but those are not required and are therefore not covered by dues. Kappa makes sure that each chapter's programming is included in the budget. If it's not in the budget or there is not enough money, the event does not happen.

Re: Re: Donations
 

This is what I personally practice when fundraising! Sure, it does take a lot of time and effort but it's well worth it. I did learn this when hitting up local places is if their customer percentage when up after the philanthropy event they are more apt to donate more and more often later :)

ETA: Also, I've learned to hit up politians :)

Do you mean to the philanthropy, the chapter or the national?

If you're worried about where it's going in the chapter, write a check to the thing they need instead of to the chapter in general - i.e. if you are giving them money for house costs, write a check out to the electric company directly instead.

If it's one of the other two...try to do something similar if at all possible, and if you can't and you still aren't comfortable, just don't. I know that's not a very good answer, but it's the only one I've got.

As far as the original topic of the thread, I think this is why it is so important that we have philanthropies that are about doing, not donating. Plus, when you think about the fact that nowadays there are Greek org members that have thousands of $$ in student loans and multiple jobs...sometimes I think some of the receipients of our philanthropies are probably financially better off than the donors (if not physically/mentally so).

If you are fearful about how the undergrads would use the money, give to the house corporation instead. Then the undergrads would need to petition the house corp. for use of funds. They would have to have a legitimate purpose and the directors of the house corp. would vote to see whether it's a good idea or not.

I tend to donate items rather than money to the collegiate chapters. I feel confident about where the money goes when I donate to our Foundation. I would rather buy the chapter what they need than just write a check. I gave them a squirrel clock for one house (which did disappear when the housing situation fell through :( ) My own chapter has been working on a new housing situation and I saved some stuff that I couldn't sell in a garage sale (silverware, pots and pans, etc) to give to the house when they get it together. I would rather bring food or decorations to a recruitment event than just write a check. I do try to "treat" my presidents to a little souveneir or candy at Conventions, as is tradition among our province directors. More than money or items though, I donate my time.. an increasingly large amount of time! Which, as an alumna, is more important to the success of our chapters than anything else, in my opinion.

Dee