Fraternity fundraising can be an enriching experience, or it can be a disaster. And honestly, even when things are going your way, something will go wrong. Something always goes wrong. When it comes to fraternity fundraising campaigns, brothers should always expect the unexpected and be ready to roll with whatever happens. Because at the end of the day, successful fundraising will be defined by the setbacks your chapter is able to overcome along the way.
We know you’re all pretty much used to adversity. Fraternity men are tempered in the fires of honor and brotherhood, and what doesn’t kill them always makes them stronger. You’ve grown from boys to brothers ready to face any challenge together. Whether it’s volunteering to help a charitable cause, recruiting a stellar group of new brothers or kicking butt at midterms, you’ve been through it all and come out the other end with stronger bonds.
Why should fraternity fundraising be any different? The fact of the matter is that adversity teaches fraternity brothers not only to work harder toward their goals, but to work smarter. Sometimes that means using fraternity software to help you streamline your goals and to be as efficient as possible.
When it comes to large-scale fraternity fundraising campaigns, efficiency is the name of the game, as you could be raising hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of several years in order to complete projects such as costly fraternity house renovations. There’s a lot that goes into such a project, and you want to get things right the first time or you may delay or even sink your fundraising efforts.
That’s why Pennington & Company would like to help you through your fundraising struggles and chat about some of our favorite Fraternity Fundraising Software that Pays for Itself.
Put yourselves in the shoes of your alumni when you approach them for donations toward a complex, expensive project that is, more than anything else, an investment on their parts. If it were you, would you invest in a risky project that’s doomed to fail? Our guess is probably not. Also, would you give if your investment options were limited and inflexible? What if you were told you needed to give everything you would invest over the course of the project up front, with no guarantee of a successful return?
That’s why you not only have to put in your due diligence while planning your fraternity fundraiser, but you also need to give your alumni options when it comes to giving. One way to do this is with recurring and automated alumni donations. Essentially this means that alumni won’t be forced to give large sums up front, which may be a deterrent for some. Not all alumni will be willing to give all at once in sizable amounts; in fact, only a handful of alumni will make up the majority of your fundraising campaign goal. Also, if alumni give a lump sum and your chapter needs more later on, it will be difficult to get them to give again because they feel like they’ve already contributed as much as they were planning to give.
Recurring donations give alumni the ability to feel engaged over the long haul of a fraternity fundraising campaign project, so that they can give smaller amounts at regular intervals, and can set up automated payments as well to minimize the work they have to put in toward their contributions. Essentially, the fewer barriers between alumni and their ability to give, the better.
Fraternity fundraising software is a great platform to set up recurring and automated payments. There are a number of programs out there to help centralize and track payments for your fundraising efforts--whether alumni choose to utilize recurring/automated payments or not--and research shows that giving alumni these fundraising options will increase your campaign’s revenue by a significant percentage.
To begin with, you’re going to want a chapter website that’s well designed and easy to navigate, a dedicated page for your fundraising campaign project and an effective, alumni-focused fraternity chapter newsletter. With those essential elements in place, the next step is using communication software dedicated to keeping your chapter, housing committee, national advisors, alumni volunteers and other key people in the loop with your fundraising efforts.
This kind of software depends on your specific needs, but a software platform like Slack is a good place to start for business-conference-styled online communication. Whatever software you use, you’ll want something comprehensive enough to cover various separate conversations about different aspects of your project, share files and images and host voice and video conferences when necessary, saving all this information in a central location that’s easy to access. Adaptability to connect with other apps and software you’re using for your fraternity fundraising is a huge benefit as well.
Using this communication software will keep everyone on the same page and truly engaged with all aspects of your fraternity fundraising campaign, and give you a leg up on being able to quickly and efficiently plan through your project.
Of course, major projects like chapter house renovations or purchasing a new chapter house often reach beyond the abilities and time constraints of undergraduate fraternity chapters, even with the use of fraternity fundraising software.
That’s why it’s important to consider how a professional fraternity fundraising company can help you reach your goals. As far as fundraising software and the digital aspect of alumni giving, a good fundraising company will likely be able to help enhance these aspects of your campaign and guide you to a realistic goal and outcome for your project. When fraternity chapters’ resources are strained between various projects and goals, as well as academics and personal lives, hiring professional fundraising consultants to have your backs can be a huge asset. They can guide you with aspects of your project such as planning and execution, engaging alumni donors and collecting donations, reporting, record keeping and many other aspects that will free brothers up for other tasks.
Any fundraising tools or software a fraternity chapter utilizes are ultimately there to bring out the best in you. After all, you’re the brothers of this rag-tag campaign that, done right, is sure to succeed.
Has your chapter used fraternity fundraising software? What has worked for you in the past? Tell us all about it in the comments below.