10 Successful Philanthropy Ideas
All of these events will require planning and coordination between the university administration, your chapter and other organizations. Please make sure to plan and publicize all events well in advance in order to reach its maximum potential. Karaoke/Line Dance Competition "Save the Babies" Bed Time Stories
Karaoke/Line Dance Competition This event is very popular amongst universities with larger Greek systems but can easily be used on smaller ones too. You need to book a club that can hold your event and try to balance between distance from the university and price. Next, you need to heavily advertise it to sorority and fraternities to generate interest at least a month before. Karaoke or line dances are a lot of fun and you can even get some more buzz by having “celebrity” judges like administrators, athletes or local officials. Your chapter raises money from entry fees, admission into the event, t-shirts made and any food sold at the event. A sample price would be $25 per team, $2-5 dollars at the door, $10 for shirts and $1 for a slice of pizza or whatever kind of food you serve there. This event requires a lot of work but has the potential to raise a lot of money.
Have fraternities and sororities meet and bring over their best dishes to your chapter house or a common area of the university. Charge teams entry fees and admission to eat food at the event. All the groups bringing several dishes should be enough to feed everyone. If your chapter is feeling ambitious and have the resources, consider a live chili/food cook off on top of everything. Set up a couple tables, provide whatever supplies you can (cutlery, portable burner, cooking pot), set an hour deadline and have them bring the rest. This can make for a lot of fun for 5-10 people doing a live cook off and have some sort of judges: preferably administrators, athletes, town officials or someone else notable and unbiased. Doing the live cook off will be more work, would require an open area in the university, is more risky but can be a lot of fun and well worth the trouble in positive publicity. If you are doing the live version, make sure to have everyone sign liability forms and have someone constantly watching and assisting the cooks. This event requires a lot of work but has the potential to raise a lot of money.
Many chapters have already heard of our Dimes on a Line philanthropy. In this event, you go to a common area and ask for spare change to benefit March of Dimes. You then lay out double sided tape on the floor and put all the dimes in a row, to show that people have donated and to grab attention. Also, make sure to have posters saying where the money is going and information on March of Dimes at the event. A way to make it even better is to have one brother wrap his upper body in double sided tape and ask for donations by slapping the money onto his body. This really will generate an increase in donations as people can’t help but notice a man walking around with dimes taped to his shirt. This event requires a little work and has the potential to raise a decent amount of money.
This event is very popular amongst Universities’ who have a strong athletics and intramural program. Any team sport will do, like flag football, soccer, basketball and so on, and you have teams pay entry fees, charge admission and sell t-shirts at the event. Have teams sign up several weeks before and make a bracket to award an eventual champion. No matter what sport it is, make sure to open it up to sororities and fraternities and have a women’s and men’s champion if you have the time and resources. The events that usually make more money are the ones that are unique sports. These can include: dodgeball, four square and even doing high school style powder puff with fraternities cheering on the women. This event requires a lot of planning but has the potential to make a lot of money.
This event requires confidence in your brothers but is a very good PR tool and can raise a lot of money, especially from the women. For one week, brothers wear a “sympathy belly” to support March of Dimes. Every time the brothers are out with the bellies, they make sure to announce in classes and even set up a table in a common area one or two days out of that week asking for donations. Every brother who has a belly must also carry a jar and information about March of Dimes which can be obtained through your local March of Dimes chapter. This event requires little planning and has the potential to make a decent amount of money.
This event should last 24-48 hours and take place in a common area during the week. Brothers take shifts living in a card board box to sympathize what it’s like to be homeless. Make sure to have lots of publicity before and after this event so students will realize what you are doing. Also, make sure to make posters and flyers to hold up and hand out during the event to increase awareness and donations. The event requires little planning and has the potential to make a decent amount of money.
This is an old-school way to raise a lot of money. Although it is not as glamorous or fun, many chapters have made thousands of dollars this way. All you do is partner up with the organization you are sponsoring (March of Dimes, Children’s Miracle Network, Relay for Life, etc.) and work with them to make up a donation letter. Have every brother send them out to 5 people, whether it be immediate family or friends, it doesn’t make a difference. Make sure to work with the organization to have your recipients donation be tax deductible. They will be more likely to donate this way and if every brother’s recipient donated $20 on average, that could be upwards of $5,000 for some chapters. This event takes little planning and has the potential to make a lot of money.
Have each brother in your brotherhood take shift bouncing a ball for 24-48 hours straight. You will want to have this in a high traffic area with other brothers holding posters and giving out flyers. You should get sponsors to support the charity and in return the brotherhood will keep the ball bouncing. This event requires a lot of planning for sponsorships and has the potential to make a decent amount of money.
Have each brother in your brotherhood take shifts sitting on top of a pole non-stop for 4-5 days straight. People will donate to the charity to support the continuance of someone sitting on the top of the pole. This gets a lot of media attention if done right and can raise lots of money especially if you get sponsors/endorsements and requires a decent amount of planning.
“Save the Babies” Bed Time Stories Coordinate with sororities to have your entire brotherhood show up wearing pajamas to read their entire chapter bed time stories one night of the week. Chapters who have done this event got a great response because of how unique it was. Basically, everyone is dressed for bed, and the brothers read 3 or 4 stories to the sorority. It should be set in advance that the ladies will donate $2 for each women present for the activity. For the last story of the night the brothers should act out the story. Make sure to do several sororities, possible one every day of the week. Also, make sure to pick good, clean stories as everyone should be invited out including the house parents if they have any. This event requires a lot of planning to contact and organize with sororities but has the potential to make a decent amount of money and have fun.
*For an added touch: If you are doing this during any sort of holiday, it’s recommended that you serve traditional food (milk and cookies for Christmas, candy for Halloween and Easter) and possibly have someone dress up as a holiday character.
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