February is the perfect time to get your fundraising efforts off the ground for this semester. Eating Disorder Awareness Week is held February 23 – 28 and Valentine’s Day (as we all know) is coming up on February 14.
Here are two ideas to raise awareness and funds in February.
Restaurant fundraisers: Talk to local food joints that are located around your campus to see if you can host fundraisers. Normally, you do not need to pay anything for these fundraisers. Here’s how it works: you do some marketing for the event, get a large group of people to eat at the specific place you chose (let’s say you chose Subway) and because of the large influx of customers, the shop gives you a percentage of the revenue they make in the hours designated for your fundraiser.
All you need to do is post on social media, print out posters and spread the news through word-of-mouth to make sure as many people as possible go to the specific Subway at the specific times you decided on and say “Active Minds” before paying.
To make sure this happens, you can arrange for some chapter members to stand at the entrance of the Subway shop and tell customers to remember to say Active Minds before they pay.
Valentine’s Day: Everyone loves to feel loved — whether it’s by a significant other, a roommate or a friend. Spread the love on your campus and raise funds for mental health awareness.
- Candygrams: Use websites like OrientalTrading.com to buy large quantities of candies and valentines that you and your chapter can turn into candy grams. Set up a table in a visible place on campus and sell grams for about a week. When selling them, make sure the sender gives you the exact address of the person they want it delivered to and a time frame in which they know the person will be there. On Valentine’s Day, organize your chapter members to distribute the grams!
- Musicgrams: Consider teaming with one of the music groups on campus (a cappella groups, bands, etc.) and offer musicgrams. Sell people a one-song-gram, in which they provide the phone number of a loved one and choose a song for the music group to play or sing over the phone. The money that you make can be split 50/50 between your chapter and the music group.
You can turn almost any fun activity into a fundraiser. Before you panic, because you have no idea how to raise money for your chapter, stop for a second and think: What abilities do you or your friends have that can be used to host an event? Do you know someone in a leadership position in a company, organization or even another group on campus that can help you brainstorm or donate a service for an event?
For more information about all things fundraising, make sure you check out our website.
