Implement AVC Fundraising Efforts

In addition to helping an AVC financially, regular fundraising provides complementary benefits. The planning and execution of fundraising efforts help a local chapter develop a case for support, engage new volunteers and grow local programs.

Develop your case for support
The fundraising planning process helps an AVC and chapter develop their value proposition in the form of a case for support. Asking people for money forces us to consider why we matter as an organization. Even more, solicitations require us to understand and articulate why our cause is worthy of consideration alongside other nonprofits. 

Your case for support should communicate three main points: the mission of your organization, how you fulfill that mission, and why someone should contribute. An AVC must ask whether their case for support is as strong as a youth orchestra’s or a community center’s. If it is not, that doesn’t mean that the value proposition is weaker. Instead, it means that your case for support is underdeveloped. 

A case for support should allow an advocate of your chapter to articulate what SigEp provides undergraduate men on your campus in a way that resonates with alumni, parents, universities and community members. All of these constituent groups can be donors and advocates for your chapter if approached properly with the right case for support.

Engage new volunteers
Many organizations see a current lack of volunteers as a barrier to entry with fundraising projects. Fundraising can actually help engage new volunteers through momentum and energy in your volunteer ranks. When 100 percent of your current volunteers are also donors and can articulate your case for support, it is easier to generate interest in fundraising and identify volunteers capable of leading larger efforts. Fundraising presents opportunities for alumni and parents geographically removed from your chapter to volunteer. 

A misconception about fundraising is that you need an experienced and fulltime campaign chairman leading the effort in order start raising money. While strong leadership is essential to capital campaigns—high-dollar, project specific fundraising initiatives—an ongoing annual campaign can begin as a grassroots effort. 

Grow local programs
Your case for support will help you identify the programs that most significantly impact your mission. Typically these are tied to a chapter’s scholarship, Balanced Man, or Residential Learning Community programs. The ability to put money behind programs that matter helps a chapter strengthen its value proposition for potential new members, parents, alumni and universities. We attract, develop and retain better men when we offer well-funded programs and deliver a stronger case for support.

The growth of national leadership events like EDGE, CLA, Tragos Quest to Greece, Life After College, Ruck and Conclave are all the result of donations to the SigEp Educational Foundation’s Annual Fund. At a national level, we are seeing the gap widen between SigEp and other fraternities as they struggle to offer the same level of programming that our members enjoy. You have the ability to create a similar gap at the local level if chapter-specific fundraising supports the programs that matter.

Each chapter has a fund established with the SigEp Educational Foundation for its specific use. Alumni can make tax-deductible donations to these funds and receive thank you notes as well as documentation of their gift. For more information on chapter-level fundraising, read our article on annual fundraising, contact your District Governor or Volunteer Services Director Beaux Carriere.

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