Need Sorority Girl Opinions!!!

[mongrel]

Hello~
So I'm working on a philanthropy and I need some female perspective.

How do girls respond to the week long philanthropies based around sorority vs sorority competition? Sick of them? Think they're great? Wish they were longer/shorter? Wish there was more emphisis on _____?

Any and all opinions welcome.

[FSUZeta]

a fraternity on my daughters campus just wrapped up their weeklong phil. event . something was scheduled every night of the week. her sorority did not require the members to participate, but some of the other sororities did require their members to participate in a certain # thruout the week. there was great resentment from the members who had to participate, and even resentment from the sorority members who were not forced to participate-but that is a sorority problem, not your problem.

another fraternity at her school is planning an all day phil. event . teams of a certain number of members(can be greek, non-greek, all male, all female or mixed) pay an entry fee. the fraternity gets different business and restaurants to make donations. they have other fun activities besides the main competition and the whole campus looks forward to this event.

based on these 2 examples i would say go with a one day event, and don't just limit participants to only sororities, or just greeks. after all, the object is to raise as much $$ for your phil. as you can, so the more teams that can participate, the more $$ you bring in.

[33girl]

I will say one thing above all else.

If you're going to give the crown to the girls in the sorority that you hang out with all the time, or the sorority whose pants you want to get in, don't bother putting this on. It's going to be pretty transparent and everyone will bitch about doing it.

Either make everything so that the amount of $ raised is all that determines who wins, or if you're going to have things that are opinion based on who wins (i.e. lip sync, beauty pageant etc) bring in judges who are going to be impartial, like your advisors or alumni.

We had only Derby Daze on my campus, but this was the most pervasive problem.

Oh, and if women are slutting it up in an effort to win - don't go along with it. Give them negative points, not positive.

[mongrel]

This philanthropy is being held at the University of Washington. Large campus, 40,000+ students. 29 Fraternities, 14 Sororities. As far as I know there is only one other week long philanthropy held by a fraternity, Sigma Chi Derby Days (and a few others held by sororities in spring.) We have done this philanthropy in the past, but it's getting a drastic overhaul this year. It's being held in the fall.

So here is the general rundown of ideas I have. The event is called "Old School Days" and it's based around the 90's. Our charity is Northwest Child, a local charity in Seattle read about it here. ==> http://www.northwestchild.org/mission.aspx

During the whole week, a jug will be set in each house living room or dinning room, just to collect change for more fundraising. Also t-shirts which I'm currently designing are going to be sold for profit, where the proceeds go towards the charity as well. Both jug money raised, and t-shirt sales give the sororities points.

(I thought about adding a raffle too, where would that be too much?)

Monday: This is the day most greek houses are closed and have chapter out here so nothing happens that day.

Tuesday: The founder of the charity is going to make an appearance for kick-off of the event to talk a little about Northwest Child. The event is a simple competition that will take place on our basketball court outside.

Wednesday: Simple competition again.

As far as simple competition, do you think I should do one or two for both Tuesday and Wednesday, and the competitions I'm deciding between are: 4 square, limbo, tug of war, hoola-hoop, water balloon toss. Can you think of any other, more appealing? Which of those do you like?

Thursday: Dodgeball competition. (Has had the most excitement around it in the past)

Friday: This is the day we gather all fundraising jugs, t-shirt sales, and total all points from events. The founder speaks just a little more about the charity and then presents a trophy to the winning sorority. Do you think a prize might be worthwhile? If so what would kind of prize would a sorority like to win? (It takes money from the charity to give a prize so it can't cost a lot)

Also two nights of the week I was thinking about a campfire 90's trivia competition and an "unofficial" Old School Days party. What days should they be on? I like the idea of doing the party Friday night after the philanthropy, but Thursday's are the popular party nights here. (People go home on the weekends)

[LetsGoFlyAKite]

One thing that worked well at my school is for fundraising jugs...they make it into a competition. Each sorority has a different jug. You get points for the change you put in yours and points taken off for every dollar that is in your jug (because it was put in by a girl for another house). It get's really competitive, but ends up raising a ton of money.

[AlphaXi_Husky]

Originally Posted by mongrel

This philanthropy is being held at the University of Washington. Large campus, 40,000+ students. 29 Fraternities, 14 Sororities. As far as I know there is only one other week long philanthropy held by a fraternity, Sigma Chi Derby Days (and a few others held by sororities in spring.) We have done this philanthropy in the past, but it's getting a drastic overhaul this year. It's being held in the fall.

So here is the general rundown of ideas I have. The event is called "Old School Days" and it's based around the 90's. Our charity is Northwest Child, a local charity in Seattle read about it here. ==> http://www.northwestchild.org/mission.aspx

During the whole week, a jug will be set in each house living room or dinning room, just to collect change for more fundraising. Also t-shirts which I'm currently designing are going to be sold for profit, where the proceeds go towards the charity as well. Both jug money raised, and t-shirt sales give the sororities points.

(I thought about adding a raffle too, where would that be too much?)

Monday: This is the day most greek houses are closed and have chapter out here so nothing happens that day.

Tuesday: The founder of the charity is going to make an appearance for kick-off of the event to talk a little about Northwest Child. The event is a simple competition that will take place on our basketball court outside.

Wednesday: Simple competition again.

As far as simple competition, do you think I should do one or two for both Tuesday and Wednesday, and the competitions I'm deciding between are: 4 square, limbo, tug of war, hoola-hoop, water balloon toss. Can you think of any other, more appealing? Which of those do you like?

Thursday: Dodgeball competition. (Has had the most excitement around it in the past)

Friday: This is the day we gather all fundraising jugs, t-shirt sales, and total all points from events. The founder speaks just a little more about the charity and then presents a trophy to the winning sorority. Do you think a prize might be worthwhile? If so what would kind of prize would a sorority like to win? (It takes money from the charity to give a prize so it can't cost a lot)

Also two nights of the week I was thinking about a campfire 90's trivia competition and an "unofficial" Old School Days party. What days should they be on? I like the idea of doing the party Friday night after the philanthropy, but Thursday's are the popular party nights here. (People go home on the weekends)

I am coming in a little late on this, but thought I would give my two cents.

From what I remember during my days as a collegiate, weeklong events were fun, however also quite draining. It can be difficult to find people to commit to a bunch of events, especially during fall quarter when sororities are busy with their own events. On the flip side of that, there is often a lot of excitement during fall quarter (particularly within new member classes) which can make more people want to get involved. I guess this is neither here nor there as you've already decided to have it in the fall.

I think not starting on Monday is good - though an option may be to start on Wednesday instead of Tuesday, so it's a three day competition. Kick-off Wednesday, with some of the games you mentioned, Dodgeball tournament on Thursday, then gather the fundraising materials on Friday. Or maybe you could start the fundraising Monday/Tuesday and hold events Wed-Fri. Just throwing out options.

As for the events themselves, I'm pretty sure a tug-of-war is done at Derby Days, so you may want to stay away from that. Of the events you listed I think the hula hoop and water balloon toss sound the best. And about the party, maybe you could throw it Thursday and have it be part of the fundraising somehow? I'm definitely not suggesting a drinking competition, but maybe something to do with the fundraising jugs? Or have a dance off with the winner getting points? Not sure on this one.

Anyway, good luck to you - hope everything goes well with the planning and events!

[honeychile]

The jug, t-shirts, and raffles all classic examples of How Fundraising Fails. What you want to do is to get outsiders to collect money, not "cannabilize" your membership.

I would contact a past chairman of PSU's Thon. They raise literally millions for their charity, and everyone on campus - not just the greeks - enjoy it.

[Psi U MC Vito]

Yeah obviously I don't know that much about the University of Washington. However from what you are saying, the student population is huge. You should definitely try to get the whole campus involved. You would get alot more money for your philanthropy that way I think. Also another thing to remember Brother, is that by involving the whole campus, it makes sure even non greeks know how much Psi U cares about giving to people which is never a bad thing.

[AuburnTriD]

The money buckets always work well. At my campus we always did pennies and written checks count for you, silver change and bills count against you. This was always the biggest way to raise money! We used to go to the bank and cash $20, $50, and $100 in pennies...the bank tellers must have thought we were crazy!

[DreamfulSpirit]

Originally Posted by AuburnTriD

The money buckets always work well. At my campus we always did pennies and written checks count for you, silver change and bills count against you. This was always the biggest way to raise money! We used to go to the bank and cash $20, $50, and $100 in pennies...the bank tellers must have thought we were crazy!

Arizona State did this as a part of greek week between all the GLO teams.

[cocochica33]

Every greek organization on my campus has a week long event, but not necessarily something every night of the week. They usually have two or three small competitions leading up to that Saturday where the big event/competition is held and scores are tallied. The winning group gets a trophy, and I know most houses get crazy intense trying to win every one. Maybe because we are a small school this is effective, but I know a lot more money is raised this way than compared with if it was a one day event.

[phimubabycorn]

we have one called Kash For Kids that benefits Children's Miracle Network, which was basically a penny wars. We had a table set up in our student union, and the first two days were great, almost the entire chapter was there at somepoint in time, but by the end of the week our girls we tired of sitting there, and it was the same maybe 5 sisters sitting at the the table.

it can work, but its very tiring, and our girls don't really respond to well. keep things short and sweet they have the best results.

[ausoror]

for the grand prize yall could just have a catered dinner for the winning sorority, or dinner that your house cook makes and then a social or house party after

[Kissmekate227]

I participated in Derby Days at Ohio State and each sorority would elect a "derby darling" That woman was the main rep for the chapter. I had the privilege of serving as my chapters so here's what I remember:
First we had to put together a scrap book page with info about ourselves and our chapter. At the end of the event the gentlemen made a little book of it and gave it to each chapter.

Each Chapter had 2-3 coaches appointed to them for the week

On Monday the derby darling had dinner at the house before her chapter meeting.
I don't know the exact order for the rest of the week but I do know that Saturday there was a flag football game between the sororities,
Sunday at the beginning of the week they had a sand volleyball tournament (they had a court at their house)
Saturday wrapped everything up and they did a big concert/party at the house
Also through the week they had hot tubs delivered to the house that sat outside all week, everyone seemed to flock to them
They had a few themed parties through out the week as well

I think that one thing that helped them is they always had it the week following greek week so everyone was all hyped up coming off the week and usually participated and it was right near the end of school.

[loveandAOE]

Senior day's for all the house's at my school are always a week long with competition every day. Everyone is encouraged to participate and it's always fun, but get's tiring because of all the schoolwork we also need to do.

As long as it's well organized it usually works pretty well.