House Association Fundraising
 

Hey all,

I am on HA for my chapter. We are going to be 10 in a few years and we are thinking about ways to build a fund for a new house or to build onto our house. Since the chapter isn't that old, we don't have older alumnae to donate thousands of $$$... so if you have ever been on a board trying to build a new house... could you share ideas on how you built the fund up?

For being such a young chapter, you should be thankful having a chapter house at all. My chapter is 13 years old. There is no way our house corp. could raise enough money for a house. We live in dorms and probably will be for quite some time.

We are very grateful to have a house... it was part of the deal with the college though since we can't own property off campus. We aren't looking to build tomorrow... just wondering how to go about starting a fund to either get a new house or build onto the current house. The college requires that the chapter contribute to the building of a new house or building. So I am just looking into ways of starting this fund.

To be truthful, you have chosen a tough road to travel. Just 10 years old and with little Alum backing as GTown is not that big a school.

You may actually be a little premature in hoping for this.

If the current chapter house is workable, it may be better to try to build Alum participation and chapter numbers for down the road first.

My Chapter is 41 years old and rented our first two houses before we bought the first, then bought a small house behind us to give us a 3 lot corner.

We just built a new house after these long years with @ 600 + members.

But remember, out of these 600 + njhumbers, some die, some graduatte and do not care any more so it usually boils down to the 10% doing the work, time and money.

I suggest that you concentrate on more current things.

Keep the house nice and clean, fill the house and make a bank roll for later but keep the organization very solvent, do not over expand yourselves.

Thanks for the advise. We have no plans, just wondering how others have even started the bank rolls.

Hi there...we are getting ready to kick something off for the HCB...not 100% sure what it will be yet, but we have the need identified and the target amts., etc., etc. Our first chapter house was a rental from the campus and then we had one built in the 60's (I think it was the 60's). Anyhoo...we need to do some renovations. It never ends :)!! I will keep you updated and share what we are doing over email, etc. :)

While it may be early to start a fundraising, I would suggest you create a 10-20 year high level annual forecast of cash inflows and expenses. Create it such that you can enter in each year your expected number of members and have it all calculate automatically leaving you with an estimate of annual excess funds or deficiencies requiring alumni donations.

Then you can create another 10-20 year sheet with your project number of alumni based on the numbers of actives from the first sheet and year of graduation.

From there, estimate some goals for fundraising per alumnus per year- and you can at least get a vision of what your potential fundraising might be based on chapter size and growth.

I am working on something similar for my old chapter right now. PM me if you would like me to email you the Excel template once I am done with it. Then you just have to drop in numbers and all the data will calculate automatically.

Hi Gtowngirl, I think you are very wise to begin planning and saving now. It takes a LOT of dollars to build a house, and you probably won't still be in school when it happens. But you've got to start somewhere, and the earlier the better. Probably the best thing is to simply set up a savings account that is strictly for a new house. As you build the account, you can purchase CDs with larger amounts. Your board will want to promote this fund ALL THE TIME to both the active membership and alumnae, because actives become alums, right? The money is there, too, when you have to make repairs or redecorate the current house. EE-BO has excellent suggestions for projections and plans. Maybe you've got some alums who are finance, banking or accounting people who can help plan - get them on your board. Good luck, girl!

Many chapters charge new initiates a one-time building fee. Everyone pays it the semester after you are initiated and it goes into the special savings account set aside for purchase or renovation.

So if every new initiate pays $100, that starts to add up.

Alpha Gam probably has a whole set of information on how to go about doing it.

This is an intersting concept. I had never heard of it before and it may make a lot of sense.

My only thought, is if people can pay for it in the economic front as we are in.

Many times, new PMs are lost because of money.

They think they cannot afford to be in a Greek Organization and on the outset, it seems maybe not.

But, if a GLO doesn't make to many things that Actives/PMMs have to pay out and it is a cut the Budget to get it done, it would be a great idea.
:D

Olwie33, thanks for a neat idea.:)

Building a new house in todays prices is never cheap.

Our new house was set up for 15, 2 men only with rooms and conecting baths, but then two more rooms were added in the basement moving it to 19. It is 3/4 Mill. $$. Remember the per bed cost when the beds are not full.

I know of what EE-BO is talking about as we talk often!:) Oh, FYI, We are in Different Fraterniies but we try to work together for boths betterment.

I know AGD is going to gear up for a New house at My Alma Mater, but their Alum base needs to be built up to acheive it. Well, they have been there for a long time but have little backing as of yet.


It will come as I know the new House Corp. Presidnet as I am sure you do too!:)

This is the exact reason it's not a new member fee - when comparing costs of joing sororities, this isn't going to be during the new member period, when you pay most of the other "one-time" costs (badge fee, initiation fee, etc.).

So Susie isn't going to say - wow BBB is $100 more than TTT. That NM period is very stressing financially to a lot of PNMs.

Anyway - it's worked well for us. :)