Fundraising
Policies and Responsibilities
- Request university funding for basic start-up chapter expenses. 100% of all fundraising activities must only support Unite For Sight's international eye care programs, and 0% can go to any other purpose. 100% of the fundraising efforts of Unite For Sight's volunteers provide poor patients with free eye care and sight-restoring surgeries.
- Fundraise at least $750 per year for international eye care initiatives and free cataract surgeries. Every dollar makes a difference, as the average cost of a cataract surgery is $50!
- The funds that a chapter raises must not be used to offset any expenses related to the fundraising activity. For example, if you hold a bake sale, the food that you sell must either be purchased using your university's student organization funding, or the food needs to be donated. You cannot, for example, spend $20 on food and then reimburse those food expenses. This is an organizational policy, and you may read more about Unite For Sight's financial ethics, efficiency, and resource maximization online at http://www.uniteforsight.org/what-we-do/financial-model
- Similarly, chapters cannot hold joint fundraisers with other student organizations and then split the collected funds. 100% of all funds raised by the Unite For Sight chapter must be submitted to Unite For Sight.
- Activate personal and chapter fundraising pages (all online) at the beginning of the year, and use the pages actively to request tax-deductible donations from family, friends, community members, etc.
- If a Chapter raises more than the minimum by the first fundraising deadlines, the excess will automatically count towards the fundraising requirement for the following deadline.
- All funds that each Chapter and Chapter Volunteer raises must be donated to Unite For Sight and to no other person or organization.
- All funds raised by each Chapter and Chapter Volunteer must be received by the Unite For Sight office within 30 days of the chapter's or volunteer's receipt of the funds.
Campus Fundraising Ideas
- Kaplan/Princeton Review/ExamCrackers Course Materials: This is the highest yielding on-campus fundraiser. You can request donated course vouchers from Kaplan, Princeton Review and/or ExamCrackers for the MCAT, GRE, GMAT, LSAT, and/or OAT. Most branches of the companies have course vouchers available. If you were to find that they do not have a course voucher available, you could request donated course books. However, the course voucher is much more highly valued and therefore can raise much more.
Upon receiving the course voucher, you would then auction the items via Facebook and university listservs, and 100% of the auction amount would be fundraised money for Unite For Sight. This fundraiser has been successfully used on many campuses, and the MCAT course voucher raises $1250-$1500. Whereas a student would usually need to pay approximately $2,000 in order to enroll in the MCAT course, they would be paying less in order to purchase the voucher through you. This is therefore beneficial to them, and an additional benefit is that 100% of their payment is fundraising money for Unite For Sight. You would request that the auction winner submit their payment directly onto your fundraising page, and then you would provide them with the course voucher. For example, you may see an example at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=142600992469206
When approaching Kaplan, Princeton Review, or ExamKrackers, it is most important to describe this as a great opportunity for you to advertise for them while also fundraising for charity and global health. During all of your on-campus publicity for the auction, students will learn, for example, about the MCAT course offered by the company. One student will receive the course voucher through the auction, while many other students will be likely to learn about the course and therefore enroll through the standard enrollment process through the company.
This type of fundraiser works well for undergraduate, graduate, and professional students who are fundraising for Unite For Sight. Those enrolled as an undergraduate, for example, can auction the course voucher among their classmates, while medical students can auction an MCAT course voucher among the undergraduates at their university.
- Percentage Profits at Local Restaurants: Contact local businesses and restaurants to donate a perceptage of their profits on specified days to Unite For Sight. Most all restaurants will coordinate this type of fundraiser. Your role is to advertise the fundraiser and concurrently bring awareness to the restaurant to your peers on campus. The restaurant then expects a large turnout from campus on the specified day. Since you have brought in the extra business to their restaurant, the restaurant will then donate the specified percentage to Unite For Sight. The higher the number of patrons on that day, the higher the restaurant's profits, and therefore the higher the donation to Unite For Sight. Jamba Juice, Friendlys, Unos, Buffalo Wild Wings, California Pizza Kitchen, Panda Express, Chilis, Cold Stone Creamery, Five Guys, and most chain restaurants are especially known to have formal programs for this type of fundraiser. Small local restaurants also are usually very enthusiastic about coordinating this type of event. You should plan at least one of these fundraisers per month, and it requires limited time and energy. For example, a chapter fundraised $215 via an Uno Restaurant fundraiser in February 2011, and another chapter fundraised $93 via a Panda Express fundraiser in September 2010.
- Cartridges For Kids: This is an extremely easy, environmentally friendly fundraiser that you should hold on an ongoing basis throughout the academic year. Contact Christian Buck (CYB@accessftc.com) at Cartridges For Kids to receive the free Cartridges For Kids materials. You will receive a colorful bin into which people can donate print cartridges, cell phones, laptops, iPods, PDAs, video games and consoles, scientific graphing calculators, digital cameras, DVDs, and GPS devices. You should place the Cartridges For Kids bins in locations that utilize a lot of prin cartridges. For example, administrative departments at your university will usually throw away used cartridges. You can instead ask that they put their used cartridges into the Cartridges For Kids bin in their office, and your chapter will then raise funds for each donated item. Cartridges For Kids will submit a check to Unite For Sight for your chapter's fundraising. You should be sure to mail the donated items to Cartridges For Kids at least once every six weeks.
- Donation Collection Event: Organize a donation collection event at well-populated locations such as the gymnasium, dining hall/cafeteria, or sports events.
- Penny Wars: Organize Penny Wars competition between dorms, dorm floors, or classes. The game's objective is to get as many points as possible. The ideal number of days for the project is 5 consecutive days. Each dorm, dorm floor, or class has a large, enclosed container such as a 5 gallon bottle water jug. Students from each dorm, dorm floor, or class place pennies in their container. One point is received for every penny in the container. Classes, dorms, and dorm floors may put other coins and paper currency into the containers of their competitors. Each silver coin or bill reduces the number of points from that container by the amount of the coin (for example, a dime reduces the points by 10, a dollar by 100, etc). The containers should be emptied and counted daily, and the totals for each group should be posted to encourage friendly competition.
- Bake sale: Organize ongoing bake sales on campus with donated baked goods from local bakeries and restaurants.
- Car wash
- Social Events: Organize a fun social event (local restaurant, club, or bar) with admission. You could also organize a bowl-a-thon with sponsors for each person who participates.
- Sports: 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament
- Dance benefit
- Benefit Concert: Invite campus music and dance groups to perform at a Unite For Sight concert, and charge admission to attend.
- Midnight Run: Hold a 1 mile run at midnight and request $5 donations from participants
- Service Auction: Organize a service auction, in which students donate their talents and expertise for charity. Whimsical donations can range from tutoring services to yoga lessons and cooking lessons.
- International Dinner: Organize an international dinner with food donated from local eateries. Charge $5-$10 admission.
- Student-Faculty Event: Organize a student-faculty benefit sports match
Personal Fundraising Tips With The Chapter Online Fundraising Page
- Email your fundraising webpage link to all of your friends and family to encourage them to donate on your behalf
- Personalize your email message. Convey your enthusiasm about Unite For Sight's mission and remind your donors that 100% of their donation provides eye care to patients living in extreme poverty
- Send periodic reminder emails
- Ask donors to forward your fundraising webpage link to their family and friends
- Use Facebook, your email signature, listserves, local newspapers, and other sources, to publicize Unite For Sight and your specific involvement at home or abroad, as well as encourage donations
- If your birthday is approaching, ask your family and friends to donate in honor of your birthday. Suggest that others do similarly.
- If you are a student involved with a student organization at your university, encourage everyone in the organization to donate $5 or $10, or more
- Encourage your donors to ask their employers to match their gifts. Many companies have a matching gift program.
- Organize a "dress down day" at work where donors may wear jeans in exchange for a $5 or $10 donation through your fundraising web page.
- Ask places that you frequent for a donation: hair stylist, doctor, gym, coffee shop, restaurant
- Always send a personal thank you note to all donors
- Don't forget that small donations from student colleagues ($10 or $15) can add up quickly!