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Here, I will show you how to develop your own fundraiser to help a population of your choice. I have done this many times and if you put your mind to it, and put in plenty of time and effort, you can make thousands of dollars on a single fundraising event. Here is a list of guidelines to anyone interested. I wrote these guidelines, but I am not an expert by any means (I am a 24 year old with a B.A. in Biology). I just really enjoy the fundraising process and always get motivated to throw my next fundraiser when I see a population in need. I learned all of this stuff from experience alone and use it whenever I want to make an impact. I hope that some of you find this helpful! Remember that The Leadership Protocol can take the place of any EC, and it requires just as much (or perhaps even more) time as other EC activities. Importantly, you control the number of hours you spend each week, when you spend the hours, and how you want to break up your hours. This is a wonderful way to make a difference in the world on your own time and is perfect for working around busy school or work schedules.
The Leadership Protocol
1) Chose a population. Follow your passions, interests, to chose a deserving population or cause. Think long and hard about this. This is your project. Do lots of research. If you want to donate money raised to a company, use charitynavigator.org to chose wisely. I always look at ranking score before donating. Check the company's program and administrative expenses. If administrative expenses are 25% of total income, only $0.75 on every dollar is going to the cause that you choose. Feel confident about the charity you chose and be ready to talk about it and explain it to people who want to know where their money is going.
2) Decide on a method. Follow your head and business sense to chose a method of fundraiser (e.g. bake sale, raffle, whatever). Just come up with the basics at this stage. Think of who, what, where, when? Who is your target population (the people who will be giving you their money)? What kind of fundraiser would be most successful? What will make your charity of choice the most money? Where will you hold the event and how can you book it? When will your fundraiser be? Do you have something in your schedule to work around? Is there a holiday or special date that you can use to your advantage? I always measure success by profit. When deciding on a method, try to think of ways to optimize your income!
3) Recruit others to help. Friends, family, members of a club that might be interested (eg. pre-health club). This is your team. Don't have a team? I started my own club. Sometimes it just takes a little initiative. Bring a piece of paper and a pen and just go stop people as they walk to class. Introduce yourself and your idea and tell them that you are looking for a team to work with to help you carry out your plans. Get them to write their email down and then start your own listserv. Post a sign up in bathrooms, in the halls, etc. with a description of your idea and your contact information. A lot of people love this kind of thing and if you have a basic idea set up, people will flock to you if you simply let them know that you exist. Depending on how ambitious your goals are, shoot for a team of 3 to 6 people (not including yourself). This is a base team. If you need more people for a particular menial task, get your team to help you recruit friends. Your team is the life force of your project at this point!
4) Brainstorm with your team. Talk in a group with your team, but you need to keep structure. If you leave all decisions up to everyone else, nothing will get done, ideas will be too big, there will be no structure, no timeline, etc. Have a basic idea ready to propose to the team (aka steps 1 and 2) and simply ask for input and ideas. The more invested your team members feel in the project, the better things will be in the long run. However, too little structure makes people feel like there is too much work to be done. This step is all about having just enough structure to seem like the project will work, but just enough flexibility so that people can be creative and feel like they have played a part. I have gotten many wonderful ideas and suggestions from my team members by fostering this kind of atmosphere! My trick here is to make sure that everyone feels like they are important and appreciated and to give people very specific goals to fulfill. People will usually step up to the plate!
5) Delegate! This is your action move; get the project started! Give manageable tasks to any team member who volunteers, but don't be afraid to "assign" things to people (in a very cordial way, of course). If they don't want to do it, don't expect much from that person in the future. This is all about "feeling out the waters." If someone seems useless, don't throw them out or make them feel unwanted, try to get them excited. Who can you depend on? Who are your true partners and which of them can help in which ways? Everyone has special talents and connections. I often found that one or two people from my team (depending on the size) usually seemed to step up and take initiative whereas most people take a backseat. This is okay! Don't be afraid to use what manpower you have, but be aware that you are the only truly reliable resource for your project. If there is a very important task (like a deadline or a purchase), it is best to do it yourself.
6) Involve the community. The community is separate from your team. Community is not involved in your planning phases, but is interested in helping in other ways (such as donating, volunteering, or participating in your event). Community support is the most important part of this process and is the determining factor for your project's success (again: success, to me, is proportional to total money raised). Target the community. The most common problems with projects at this stage in the game is if people don't know about your fundraiser. Where will the money come from if the community does not know that your event exists or does not know when and where it is being held? Always be extremely clear about putting up signage in the correct places. If you are targeting women and then putting signs up in the men's bathroom, nothing is going to get done. Be smart and think about how to reach your target community. If you are not sure, sometimes it is safe to just situate the event smack dab in the middle of a busy community area! This works, but it is not optimal because people often have places to go and things to do. Don't be afraid to remind people over and over. For example, tap into listservs to get the event information out. Another tip I have is that it helps to tie people into the event. For example, make people pay half of a fee for services now and half later, have people pay a down payment for an item, etc.
7) Keep records and control liability. Money raised? Always keep an eye on it yourself (or have a highly trusted friend help) and record all income. Items purchased? Keep the receipt. Make an excel sheet of the purchases and donations if they are extensive. Always remember that no matter how big your project gets, you are the one who is responsible for both successes and failures. Don't let the latter happen due to negligence on your part. If you are involving any members of the community in something that could be even remotely dangerous, make sure that you have them sign a waiver of some sort so that you are not responsible for mishaps! I used online legal forms and adapted them to my use.
8) Tout your success and make a name for yourself! Be sure to thank everyone who was involved in the fundraising process. Tell people who donated how much money was raised and be sure to show gratitude for them being a part of something so important to you. Is there some kind of tangible evidence that you can show to your team and community that highlights the success of the project? A photo of a underprivileged classroom with brand new calculators (thanks to your support). A letter from the charity thanking you for your contribution anything that will speak to the legitimacy of the work that you and your team have done. This is an important part of the cycle of fundraising... skip this step if you never want to fundraise again. This process involves community trust. If your community trusts you and remembers your previous fundraisers, they are more likely to support your cause once again. But, be aware of backfire; some of my annual fundraisers grew way out of control because I was not prepared for that kind of growth!
9) Start the cycle over. This is the part that is addicting. Once you complete this entire protocol, you will only want to do it again, this time bigger, better, more team members, wider community, higher goals. Inspire others to try it out too. For example, if you start a fundraising team or a new club at your school, make sure that you take some underclassmen under your wing before you graduate. Teach them everything you know; have them learn from you. Dont let the cycle burn out. It feels good when you see something you create thrive in your absence.
My past successful events:
I hope you all find some kind of inspiration in my outline. I hope it is not intimidating or that it does not look too complicated... it truly is fun if you have the motivation, if you work well with others, are a natural leader, and are willing to put in lots of work. I will now list three of the fundraisers that have worked for me in the past (feel free to steal and/or adapt any of my ideas)!!! I post these here to share my experiences and to make this process seem a little less daunting by giving real life examples that worked well in my hands. I tried to include a bit of detail to give you an idea of the types of specifics that you need to think about when planning your event. I picked these three examples because they are all adaptable, scalable, and variable. I think that they represent a nice range of your options and it would be good to brainstorm how they could be adapted to your goals.
Valentines Day Babysitting Night ($600 Raised) - Target population was faculty and staff with small children. The idea was to give them a Valentine's Day Night to spend going to dinner or spending time with a significant other without the kids. Super successful and fun! We had about 20 - 25 kids come in on that one night (we charged $20/1 kid $30/2 kid $40/3 kids for three hours). I rented out an auditorium at my school and organized a team of people to be 'babysitters.' We had toys, books, crafts table, story time, and movies playing... all organized into stations for differently aged kids. The kids naturally grouped by age with the older ones sitting quietly watching Shrek and with the little ones being adorable and playing with crafts and such. I made sure at least half of my babysitting team was first aid/CPR certified (I was myself as well). Parents signed waiver. This idea was really perfect for us; very little planning time, minimal set up, very little money down, the event was only three hours long. After the event, the faculty and staff came back to pick up their kids and the children literally did not want to leave. The parents thanked us and said that they wanted us to do it again next year. Unfortunately, this was planned my senior year, so I did not get the chance to repeat the event.
Ski/Snowboard Club Fundraiser ($600 - $3,000 Raised) -- My freshman year of college, no winter sports club existed so I decided to start my own. The goal was to fundraise to make money to fund purchases in the club like going on small ski trips or buying equipment, etc. The club started small but we decided to organize a school-wide ski trip. First, I recruited the collaboration of a local ski resort. They made a deal with me that if I got a group of 20 people together, they would reduce the price per ticket by $20 and the price of rentals by $5 ... this was significant! The next trouble was a) recruiting, and b) transportation. This you would just have to figure out because it depends on the community you are in. I rented my school's bus, recruited like 25 people, and charged a "flat-fee" as the fundraiser income, which included rental, lift ticket, transportation, and a cute little snack that I made so people would have something to munch on for the 2 hour trip. Pretty much, we charged $100 per person but only paid $75 per person. It was fun, successful, lucrative, and got great feedback, so I decided to make it an annual event. The next year, we had like 50 people trying to sign up. The bus held a max of 40 people. I had to turn people down! Year three, I got two busses and had over 70 people come on the trip. By year four, it was totally out of control and I had to turn around 50 people down. I also increased the price from $100 to $125 per person simply because I could. Supply and demand!
Hope for Haiti ($3,400 Raised) -- When the Haitian earthquake hit, I was devastated by the images that I saw. But, what really got me was reading an article in the Globe about the Haitian people who were in Boston visiting relatives when the earthquake hit. Can you imagine not being able to get in touch with your family in Haiti... not knowing whether they were dead or alive... not being able to fly back home since all of the public airports were shut down? I started crying at work. Sorry, I just wanted to explain the kind of motivation that I had for this one. I felt very driven to create a successful fundraiser. This time, I was out of college and was doing research at a Harvard/MIT lab. I literally got up from my chair after crying over that article and took the elevator straight to Human Resources. I asked the people up there who was in charge of communications at the company. They directed me to a person who was vital in the entire project. I explained my motivations to her and she felt excited to do something as well! Her skills included: designing and printing advertising (she made really amazing and professional looking flyers for the event). I decided to hit this one with a sledgehammer: bake sale/raffle combined! After I set up my team and started planning specifics, I went to work getting the community involved. In this case, I had four subgroups of community "volunteer bakers," "volunteer sellers," "company donators," and "buyers." The first three provided the goods at no charge to my team and the latter provided the money! I was working hard on a publication at this time, but I spent time into the night making sure that this project ran smoothly. I contacted at least 100 companies in the surrounding area asking for physical donations or gift cards. About 30 of them ended up donating. In total, we collected over $1,300 in donations of gift cards, tickets, vouchers, etc. For ideas, here is a shortened list of companies that donated (just to you understand the range of companies to contact): Sebastians, ZipCar, Moodz Spa, Tommy Doyle's, Landmark Theatres, Kendal Theatre, Isabella Stewart, Gardner Museum, New England Wild Flower Society, Friendly Toast, Cosi, Cambridge Brewing Company, Liberty Hotel, Boston Duck Tour, Beaucage Salon and Spa on Newberry, Black Sheep Restaurant, New England Wild Flower Society. We did the raffle with these donations by organizing gift cards, etc. into themed packages. Examples: Hungry Human package contained 10 restaurants that had donated, the Pamper Me package contained a free night at a luxury hotel room and the spa gift certificates. We sold raffle tickets for $10 and had pots for each package. Instead of doing having only 1 winner, we did several winners from each pot so that people felt like their chances of winning something were higher. The bake sale just involved the recruitment of volunteers to bake (people were so kind and excited to be involved!) We had a date and a drop off location (aka drop off your baked goods in individually wrapped portions that can be sold for $3 each). My team didnt have to do much on this front; people made the cutest, most delicious foods! I probably ate cookies and cake and candy all day as I was running the event. Well, long story short, we had so many people volunteer to bake that I had to expand the event to the lobby of a second building as well. I did half of the day in one building and half of the day in the other building. Very successful and the team donated all proceeds to Partners in Health!
Where to Start
Maybe this should have been put at the beginning, but I figure that if you have read this far, you are actually interested in doing something great. This entire process is wonderful for many things:
a) Personal development
b) Management and leadership skills
c) Truly helping a population in need
d) Tightening up that resume!
I am a pre-medical student applying this round (2013) and I use the strategies that I outlined here simply because I learned that they worked well. I believe that passion for this kind of planning and fundraising can show medical schools many things about you. If anything, it gives you a great bang for your buck. Yes, the amount of time and effort that you need to put into the project leading up to and immediately before the event can be enormous (depending on what exactly you are doing). But, I enjoyed every second of it! If you want to do run-of-the-mill volunteering and that fulfills you, then go ahead. I think that is great, too. If you want to optimize your time spent on ECs and show initiative, leadership, volunteering, personal development, and dedication to those in need all at the SAME TIME try this out.
I feel so fulfilled every time I organize another fundraiser it is honestly so exhilarating and it feels so good to depend on others (especially when they pull through for your event and it turns out successful)!
Start with a small project if you are just beginning and dont know how to initiate your ideas. You will get the hang of it. If the whole thing seems too daunting, try taking a split-leadership role. I usually prefer to lead this stuff because I am a bit of a perfectionist and I want things to move at my pace so they will get done when I need them to be done. However, if you know of one or more people who might be willing to help you push things forward, it is certainly an option to plan the whole thing together. It can be especially good because you can play off of each others strengths and weaknesses. The game is inherently political when you are working as a leader of a team, but the key is to grow yourself while growing others (this ties into step 9 of the Protocol)!
In the end, it doesnt really matter how you end up volunteering your time. Just help people any way you can, and in the best way that you can!
Feel free to ask me any questions about any of the strategies I have laid out here!
Happy fundraising!
The Leadership Protocol
1) Chose a population. Follow your passions, interests, to chose a deserving population or cause. Think long and hard about this. This is your project. Do lots of research. If you want to donate money raised to a company, use charitynavigator.org to chose wisely. I always look at ranking score before donating. Check the company's program and administrative expenses. If administrative expenses are 25% of total income, only $0.75 on every dollar is going to the cause that you choose. Feel confident about the charity you chose and be ready to talk about it and explain it to people who want to know where their money is going.
2) Decide on a method. Follow your head and business sense to chose a method of fundraiser (e.g. bake sale, raffle, whatever). Just come up with the basics at this stage. Think of who, what, where, when? Who is your target population (the people who will be giving you their money)? What kind of fundraiser would be most successful? What will make your charity of choice the most money? Where will you hold the event and how can you book it? When will your fundraiser be? Do you have something in your schedule to work around? Is there a holiday or special date that you can use to your advantage? I always measure success by profit. When deciding on a method, try to think of ways to optimize your income!
3) Recruit others to help. Friends, family, members of a club that might be interested (eg. pre-health club). This is your team. Don't have a team? I started my own club. Sometimes it just takes a little initiative. Bring a piece of paper and a pen and just go stop people as they walk to class. Introduce yourself and your idea and tell them that you are looking for a team to work with to help you carry out your plans. Get them to write their email down and then start your own listserv. Post a sign up in bathrooms, in the halls, etc. with a description of your idea and your contact information. A lot of people love this kind of thing and if you have a basic idea set up, people will flock to you if you simply let them know that you exist. Depending on how ambitious your goals are, shoot for a team of 3 to 6 people (not including yourself). This is a base team. If you need more people for a particular menial task, get your team to help you recruit friends. Your team is the life force of your project at this point!
4) Brainstorm with your team. Talk in a group with your team, but you need to keep structure. If you leave all decisions up to everyone else, nothing will get done, ideas will be too big, there will be no structure, no timeline, etc. Have a basic idea ready to propose to the team (aka steps 1 and 2) and simply ask for input and ideas. The more invested your team members feel in the project, the better things will be in the long run. However, too little structure makes people feel like there is too much work to be done. This step is all about having just enough structure to seem like the project will work, but just enough flexibility so that people can be creative and feel like they have played a part. I have gotten many wonderful ideas and suggestions from my team members by fostering this kind of atmosphere! My trick here is to make sure that everyone feels like they are important and appreciated and to give people very specific goals to fulfill. People will usually step up to the plate!
5) Delegate! This is your action move; get the project started! Give manageable tasks to any team member who volunteers, but don't be afraid to "assign" things to people (in a very cordial way, of course). If they don't want to do it, don't expect much from that person in the future. This is all about "feeling out the waters." If someone seems useless, don't throw them out or make them feel unwanted, try to get them excited. Who can you depend on? Who are your true partners and which of them can help in which ways? Everyone has special talents and connections. I often found that one or two people from my team (depending on the size) usually seemed to step up and take initiative whereas most people take a backseat. This is okay! Don't be afraid to use what manpower you have, but be aware that you are the only truly reliable resource for your project. If there is a very important task (like a deadline or a purchase), it is best to do it yourself.
6) Involve the community. The community is separate from your team. Community is not involved in your planning phases, but is interested in helping in other ways (such as donating, volunteering, or participating in your event). Community support is the most important part of this process and is the determining factor for your project's success (again: success, to me, is proportional to total money raised). Target the community. The most common problems with projects at this stage in the game is if people don't know about your fundraiser. Where will the money come from if the community does not know that your event exists or does not know when and where it is being held? Always be extremely clear about putting up signage in the correct places. If you are targeting women and then putting signs up in the men's bathroom, nothing is going to get done. Be smart and think about how to reach your target community. If you are not sure, sometimes it is safe to just situate the event smack dab in the middle of a busy community area! This works, but it is not optimal because people often have places to go and things to do. Don't be afraid to remind people over and over. For example, tap into listservs to get the event information out. Another tip I have is that it helps to tie people into the event. For example, make people pay half of a fee for services now and half later, have people pay a down payment for an item, etc.
7) Keep records and control liability. Money raised? Always keep an eye on it yourself (or have a highly trusted friend help) and record all income. Items purchased? Keep the receipt. Make an excel sheet of the purchases and donations if they are extensive. Always remember that no matter how big your project gets, you are the one who is responsible for both successes and failures. Don't let the latter happen due to negligence on your part. If you are involving any members of the community in something that could be even remotely dangerous, make sure that you have them sign a waiver of some sort so that you are not responsible for mishaps! I used online legal forms and adapted them to my use.
8) Tout your success and make a name for yourself! Be sure to thank everyone who was involved in the fundraising process. Tell people who donated how much money was raised and be sure to show gratitude for them being a part of something so important to you. Is there some kind of tangible evidence that you can show to your team and community that highlights the success of the project? A photo of a underprivileged classroom with brand new calculators (thanks to your support). A letter from the charity thanking you for your contribution anything that will speak to the legitimacy of the work that you and your team have done. This is an important part of the cycle of fundraising... skip this step if you never want to fundraise again. This process involves community trust. If your community trusts you and remembers your previous fundraisers, they are more likely to support your cause once again. But, be aware of backfire; some of my annual fundraisers grew way out of control because I was not prepared for that kind of growth!
9) Start the cycle over. This is the part that is addicting. Once you complete this entire protocol, you will only want to do it again, this time bigger, better, more team members, wider community, higher goals. Inspire others to try it out too. For example, if you start a fundraising team or a new club at your school, make sure that you take some underclassmen under your wing before you graduate. Teach them everything you know; have them learn from you. Dont let the cycle burn out. It feels good when you see something you create thrive in your absence.
My past successful events:
I hope you all find some kind of inspiration in my outline. I hope it is not intimidating or that it does not look too complicated... it truly is fun if you have the motivation, if you work well with others, are a natural leader, and are willing to put in lots of work. I will now list three of the fundraisers that have worked for me in the past (feel free to steal and/or adapt any of my ideas)!!! I post these here to share my experiences and to make this process seem a little less daunting by giving real life examples that worked well in my hands. I tried to include a bit of detail to give you an idea of the types of specifics that you need to think about when planning your event. I picked these three examples because they are all adaptable, scalable, and variable. I think that they represent a nice range of your options and it would be good to brainstorm how they could be adapted to your goals.
Valentines Day Babysitting Night ($600 Raised) - Target population was faculty and staff with small children. The idea was to give them a Valentine's Day Night to spend going to dinner or spending time with a significant other without the kids. Super successful and fun! We had about 20 - 25 kids come in on that one night (we charged $20/1 kid $30/2 kid $40/3 kids for three hours). I rented out an auditorium at my school and organized a team of people to be 'babysitters.' We had toys, books, crafts table, story time, and movies playing... all organized into stations for differently aged kids. The kids naturally grouped by age with the older ones sitting quietly watching Shrek and with the little ones being adorable and playing with crafts and such. I made sure at least half of my babysitting team was first aid/CPR certified (I was myself as well). Parents signed waiver. This idea was really perfect for us; very little planning time, minimal set up, very little money down, the event was only three hours long. After the event, the faculty and staff came back to pick up their kids and the children literally did not want to leave. The parents thanked us and said that they wanted us to do it again next year. Unfortunately, this was planned my senior year, so I did not get the chance to repeat the event.
Ski/Snowboard Club Fundraiser ($600 - $3,000 Raised) -- My freshman year of college, no winter sports club existed so I decided to start my own. The goal was to fundraise to make money to fund purchases in the club like going on small ski trips or buying equipment, etc. The club started small but we decided to organize a school-wide ski trip. First, I recruited the collaboration of a local ski resort. They made a deal with me that if I got a group of 20 people together, they would reduce the price per ticket by $20 and the price of rentals by $5 ... this was significant! The next trouble was a) recruiting, and b) transportation. This you would just have to figure out because it depends on the community you are in. I rented my school's bus, recruited like 25 people, and charged a "flat-fee" as the fundraiser income, which included rental, lift ticket, transportation, and a cute little snack that I made so people would have something to munch on for the 2 hour trip. Pretty much, we charged $100 per person but only paid $75 per person. It was fun, successful, lucrative, and got great feedback, so I decided to make it an annual event. The next year, we had like 50 people trying to sign up. The bus held a max of 40 people. I had to turn people down! Year three, I got two busses and had over 70 people come on the trip. By year four, it was totally out of control and I had to turn around 50 people down. I also increased the price from $100 to $125 per person simply because I could. Supply and demand!
Hope for Haiti ($3,400 Raised) -- When the Haitian earthquake hit, I was devastated by the images that I saw. But, what really got me was reading an article in the Globe about the Haitian people who were in Boston visiting relatives when the earthquake hit. Can you imagine not being able to get in touch with your family in Haiti... not knowing whether they were dead or alive... not being able to fly back home since all of the public airports were shut down? I started crying at work. Sorry, I just wanted to explain the kind of motivation that I had for this one. I felt very driven to create a successful fundraiser. This time, I was out of college and was doing research at a Harvard/MIT lab. I literally got up from my chair after crying over that article and took the elevator straight to Human Resources. I asked the people up there who was in charge of communications at the company. They directed me to a person who was vital in the entire project. I explained my motivations to her and she felt excited to do something as well! Her skills included: designing and printing advertising (she made really amazing and professional looking flyers for the event). I decided to hit this one with a sledgehammer: bake sale/raffle combined! After I set up my team and started planning specifics, I went to work getting the community involved. In this case, I had four subgroups of community "volunteer bakers," "volunteer sellers," "company donators," and "buyers." The first three provided the goods at no charge to my team and the latter provided the money! I was working hard on a publication at this time, but I spent time into the night making sure that this project ran smoothly. I contacted at least 100 companies in the surrounding area asking for physical donations or gift cards. About 30 of them ended up donating. In total, we collected over $1,300 in donations of gift cards, tickets, vouchers, etc. For ideas, here is a shortened list of companies that donated (just to you understand the range of companies to contact): Sebastians, ZipCar, Moodz Spa, Tommy Doyle's, Landmark Theatres, Kendal Theatre, Isabella Stewart, Gardner Museum, New England Wild Flower Society, Friendly Toast, Cosi, Cambridge Brewing Company, Liberty Hotel, Boston Duck Tour, Beaucage Salon and Spa on Newberry, Black Sheep Restaurant, New England Wild Flower Society. We did the raffle with these donations by organizing gift cards, etc. into themed packages. Examples: Hungry Human package contained 10 restaurants that had donated, the Pamper Me package contained a free night at a luxury hotel room and the spa gift certificates. We sold raffle tickets for $10 and had pots for each package. Instead of doing having only 1 winner, we did several winners from each pot so that people felt like their chances of winning something were higher. The bake sale just involved the recruitment of volunteers to bake (people were so kind and excited to be involved!) We had a date and a drop off location (aka drop off your baked goods in individually wrapped portions that can be sold for $3 each). My team didnt have to do much on this front; people made the cutest, most delicious foods! I probably ate cookies and cake and candy all day as I was running the event. Well, long story short, we had so many people volunteer to bake that I had to expand the event to the lobby of a second building as well. I did half of the day in one building and half of the day in the other building. Very successful and the team donated all proceeds to Partners in Health!
Where to Start
Maybe this should have been put at the beginning, but I figure that if you have read this far, you are actually interested in doing something great. This entire process is wonderful for many things:
a) Personal development
b) Management and leadership skills
c) Truly helping a population in need
d) Tightening up that resume!
I am a pre-medical student applying this round (2013) and I use the strategies that I outlined here simply because I learned that they worked well. I believe that passion for this kind of planning and fundraising can show medical schools many things about you. If anything, it gives you a great bang for your buck. Yes, the amount of time and effort that you need to put into the project leading up to and immediately before the event can be enormous (depending on what exactly you are doing). But, I enjoyed every second of it! If you want to do run-of-the-mill volunteering and that fulfills you, then go ahead. I think that is great, too. If you want to optimize your time spent on ECs and show initiative, leadership, volunteering, personal development, and dedication to those in need all at the SAME TIME try this out.
I feel so fulfilled every time I organize another fundraiser it is honestly so exhilarating and it feels so good to depend on others (especially when they pull through for your event and it turns out successful)!
Start with a small project if you are just beginning and dont know how to initiate your ideas. You will get the hang of it. If the whole thing seems too daunting, try taking a split-leadership role. I usually prefer to lead this stuff because I am a bit of a perfectionist and I want things to move at my pace so they will get done when I need them to be done. However, if you know of one or more people who might be willing to help you push things forward, it is certainly an option to plan the whole thing together. It can be especially good because you can play off of each others strengths and weaknesses. The game is inherently political when you are working as a leader of a team, but the key is to grow yourself while growing others (this ties into step 9 of the Protocol)!
In the end, it doesnt really matter how you end up volunteering your time. Just help people any way you can, and in the best way that you can!
Feel free to ask me any questions about any of the strategies I have laid out here!
Happy fundraising!
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