Question and possibly some help...

SCarDelt3 · #1 08-06-2006, 02:51 PM

Hey guys, new to the forum but so far it seems like a great way to get in touch with a lot of different Delts from different chapters and the like. I'm a Delt at South Carolina (Theta Eta) and we have one REALLY big project going on that has been going on for quite some time now. Some of you may have heard about it but at USC (my USC) a Greek Village was built several years ago for fraternities and sororities. Every fraternity had to come up with their own funds for the houses, which, for the chapters that have been around for 100 years or so was not a problem. However, Theta Eta was just re-chartered in 1999 so needless to say we don't have that type of alumni base for funds. While we've raised an extraordinary amount of money in the short time we've had, our time is running out. The lots in the Greek Village are limited and we needed the remainder of our money YESTERDAY (a figure of speech, but it should have already been in). We've exhaused every effort to come up with it and are at somewhat of a standstill with fundraising. My question is this, have any of you had experiences with this type of large-scale fundraising and if so, any ideas or suggestions?? This is critical to the future of Theta Eta and quite frankly, without a house, there's not much of a future at all for Delts at the University of South Carolina. I hate to put it that way, and it would be sad seeing as how we've been a Hugh Shields chapter 3 out of the last 4 years. Recruitment is near impossible having to compete with other fraternities with these multi-million dollar mansions to use as a selling point, and our numbers are dwindling fast. We're still somewhere around 60 brothers strong but can't keep up those type of numbers without this house in the Greek Village.

Brothers, any help you could offer we would love to hear. Thanks!!

NebraskaDelt · #2 08-07-2006, 11:56 AM

ScarDelt, try contacting Andy Longo at the Central Office. He may give you some ideas including a loan from the fraternity or education foundation.

It seems odd that the universitty built these large buildings for the greeks but want you to each pay for them. Seems unreasonable to me. Who owns the house after you make these payments.

Also try the schools education foundation or alumni association to see if they provide loans. Your house corporation should be looking into getting a loan from a bank if these other avenues do not work. Even though some of the other chapters are 100 years old, my guess is that they also had to get loans to help pay for the costs of these buildings so everyone would be in the same boat. If your chapter folds, the house corporation would still own the building and could rent out the house until the Delts could return to South Carolina. Hope that helps. Good luck.

SCarDelt3 · #3 08-07-2006, 09:18 PM

Sorry if I mislead you earlier Nebraska, I didn't mean to imply that the University built the house for us, they simply provided the land and the layout for the Greek Village. However, every fraternity that had been there before us has already gotten the funds necessary for their house to go up. Also, we're already planning on a loan from a bank in Columbia, what we're trying to raise is the minimum amount required to receive the loan. As far as I know, the other chapters on campus got loans also, and the guys staying in their houses are basically footing the bill for the mortgage and such. I'm not sure how the ownership stuff works, but I would assume it would be us. Unfortunately, we would have to FILL the house at all times to afford the mortgage on such a shelter so I don't think the "waiting it out" procedure would work. Our House Corp is still trying hard, and we're always open to new ideas, thanks.

NebraskaDelt · #4 08-10-2006, 04:36 PM

Now that you mention it, I do recall an advisor of yours at the Denver Karnea talking about this.

I guess I would do everything I could think of in order to pull it off. Your rewards will make up for your work and every little amount will help out in some way.

I would try and get students to sign up for credit cards. I remember my fairly small chapter on a small campus did this and got about $2000. With a larger campus you should be able to pull in at least double that. We also have hooked up with someone's mom who sold avon or arbonne or some chick thing like that. We were able to sell stuff to sorority girls, our moms, aunts, sisters and grandmothers, and other guys for their girlfriends. She would give us the complete profit from our sales. I don't recall how much we raised, but we didn't do very well because the guys were not motivated. I believe if you were motivated you could do very well and it could possibly be used for a per semester thing.

Although not very profitable, you could do the traditional selling of candy bars or sell stuff on ebay. Something that might work is ask your parents if there is stuff they would want to give away and then hold a fraternity house garage sale. You can sell stuff but also ask for donations. Invite alumni, sororities, etc.

If you do a bunch of little projects and carefully use and invest the money you should put a pretty good dent into whatever you need.