Fundraising for clubs | Graphic by Alexander Roberts | The Wright State Guardian
Clubs are something that keep the raider family connected. They often are given money to run, but a lot of time that is not enough. Fundraising is an essential way for clubs to raise more money, with many ways– creative or otherwise– to go about it in a positive way.
Classic fundraisers
There are a few classic fundraisers that a lot of clubs turn to. One of the most popular on campus is the classic bake sale.
A bake sale is when members of the group each bake something and bring it for the group to sell for profit. It is one of the oldest and can be the most profitable fundraising ventures.
Due to its popularity on campus, some students find that there is an overabundance of them and have trouble buying from them.
“I’m so tired of the bake sales on campus honestly, there were like six in one week just last month,” nursing major Laresa Abrams said. “It makes me feel bad when I don’t buy anything, but usually if I don’t buy from one, it’s because I bought from another. I could literally compare prices and choose which one was cheaper. It was so bad.”
So if the bake sale is too common, what else is there to do?
Another viable option for students is to sell candy bars of some kind. It was a staple fundraiser in elementary school and is still a cheap product to offer for donating to that club.
While the initial cost to buy the bars may seem high, students at other universities have done this fundraiser with great success.
One person includes former Ohio State University student Helen Washington.
“We tried a lot of things to raise money for our trips, but a method that really worked for us is selling chocolate. The only thing we really had to put down was the cost for the boxes, which if I remember right was about $150 in total. Each box had about 300 candy bars, so when we sold the whole box each, it's $300 for each person who has a box. We made a lot of money,” Washington said.
There are other options students can do too, like a car wash. Those have their issues though. In most cases, it has to be a little warm outside due to the nature of getting wet, so they are more barred for spring or summertime.
There are also several businesses that clubs can partner with off-campus to fundraise profits.
Local businesses
If the classic fundraising is not working out for your club, another option is partnering with local businesses. One of the most popular businesses to partner with at the moment is Chipotle.
The Chipotle Fundraising program is aimed to help the community. How it works is you apply for the program and pick a day. From there, Chipotle provides all of the fliers and marketing materials. On the day of the fundraiser, people can order online or in person to donate to the cause. Then the group gets 21% of the funds made.
The caveat of this program is that you have to make $150 in order to get any profit.
This program is one that a lot of Wright State University students go with due to the proximity of Chipotle on campus and the popularity of the restaurant. Clubs that have used this program claim that it is a wonderful program to work with.
Hannah Layton, the social media manager for the Ultimate Frisbee Team, explained how smooth the process is.
“Our event hasn’t come up yet, but so far Chipotle has been a really great company to work with. Just through word of mouth alone, it is shaping up to be a really good fundraiser for us,” Layton said.
There are many other restaurants around campus that do these types of programs. A comprehensive list can be found in this article by CharityAuctionsToday.
It is important for students to participate in these fundraisers, so that our clubs can effectively run and hold events on campus.
