Banding Together to Support a Common Goal
Posted by Sean Donegan on Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Having a background in agriculture and global health, I have the utmost admiration for organizations like Share Our Strength that pioneer and fund long-term solutions to childhood hunger in America.
Because of their commitment to such a noble cause, I decided to repurpose my semesterly Charity Dinner to one that will always benefit Share Our Strength. A large amount of the work and planning was done by myself and Seth Hoffman, the Philanthropy Chair of the Sigma Phi Society and founder of the Share Our Strength collegiate chapter. Together, we decided to host a dinner involving a total of seven Greek Chapters.
We found great success obtaining corporate sponsorship and utilizing cost-effective marketing tools, such as our campus announcements and of course, Facebook — which allowed us to disseminate the event’s information to over 1500 students. We also took advantage of our Greek network. We used the Fraternity/Sorority house chefs to cook for everyone at a cost much lower than that of a catering company. In addition, the seven Greek Houses were responsible for selling tickets.
The benefit dinner took place at my fraternity house, Alpha Gamma Rho. Each ticket cost $15 and gave the guest access to a formal dinner and silent auction in which one of the Philanthropy Chairs, Dan Krenitsyn, of Psi Upsilon, auctioned off merchandise from our corporate sponsors to donate directly to Share Our Strength. After it was all said and done, 345 tickets were sold bringing in roughly 300 attendees.
Overall, the Share Our Strength Charity Dinner was a great example of the Cornell Community banding together to support a common goal. In one night, we were able to bring in $6,100. As my time at Cornell draws to a close, I hope this event will inspire other college students across the nation to host similar events to raise money for Share Our Strength and other worthy causes.
If you have any questions about this event, please leave them in the comment area below.
November 22, 2011 | 1 comment(s) | Tags: charity dinner, college, Cornell university, no kid hungry, youth
Comments
1 reader comment so far.
What an exceptional example of student initiative! It's young adults like these that really give me confidence in the mission.
Posted by Damien Kingston on March 25, 2012
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