How I raised $5,600 for Peaceful Paths

If you know me well, you'll know I'm ambitious by nature. My latest project greatly exemplifies this, especially as I set a somewhat impossible goal of raising $5,000 for charity. This adventure all began when I was elected VP of Philanthropy for UF's Alpha Chi Omega (AXO). This job requires me to plan service events for 250+ members and host our spring and fall philanthropy events.

We host Purple Rain, a 5v5 paint dodgeball tournament to advocate for Domestic Violence Awareness each spring. Each team is required to pay a $25 registration fee and then we fundraise additional on top of this for Peaceful Paths. Peaceful Paths is a women's shelter for survivors in the Alachua Country area. This was our sixth annual Purple Rain event and the most successful one in the past raised $3,350. I had originally set a similar goal to raise $3,000, but a friend challenged me to go above and beyond. With no realistic expectations, I upped our CrowdChange goal to $5,000!

I asked each member of our chapter to set a goal of fundraising $25. To build incentives, I offered prizes to the first four girls who raised $100, an overall top fundraiser prize, and curated two ultimate raffle baskets. For each $10 that was raised, a ticket would be added to our raffle for one of two baskets. The first one was donated by Claire Burford and contained $200+ worth of hair products and a Beachwaver curling iron. The other included an exclusive coupon book and over 15 high-quality t-shirts. All of these incentives were a huge hit to get girls and their families donating! Additionally to this, I created bingo cards for social media stories that anyone could upload and ask for Venmo donations.

Now, asking a bunch of busy college students to go out of their way can be asking a lot at times, especially right before finals. When we hit a wall and only had $1750 fundraised the week before the big event, I decided to create an email list to reach out for donations. I sent around 300 emails to parents, donors, and AXO alumni. This helped tremendously and some adults were able to have their companies price-match their donations.

Team registration was due Sunday night before the Thursday event. Unfortunately, I checked the Google Form and only had 8 teams signed up Saturday night. This was rather discouraging, but I learned a valuable lesson. College students procrastinate greatly ;) By Sunday at 7 PM, we had doubled our total with 16 teams signed up! My Monday morning, we had over 27 teams sign up!!! Each team member is provided a white t-shirt because the paint can get rather messy, so I had to do a huge bulk order of white shirts from Amazon that day. No complaints from me, of course...the more the merrier.

With so many teams signed up, I knew I needed to get my act together. I hired and confirmed an amazing DJ for the event and made sure all the proper supplies were ordered. Each team had a captain and two coaches who also helped make posters and cheer them on. I had so many teams that I was scrambling to find enough volunteers to do so. In the end, it all worked out and we had over 60 coaches & captains helping me out. Additionally, I had 8 people on referee and field directing duty, 25 on the setup crew, 4 on bracket keeping, 6 at our check-in table, 15 station managers, 4 photographers, and 20 on the clean-up crew. Purple Rain would not have run as smoothly as it did without each incredible young woman's help. Below are the group chats I pinned to communicate with them throughout the week and during the event.

The night before the event, I received the best email I have ever gotten. I definitely shed a tear as I read we had reached our goal. With girls inputting their bingo card money and teams paying their registration fees, we began to exceed this rather ambitious goal. What I perceived to be impossible was actually possible with determination and hard work. We ended up with a total of $5,605! This also meant that we fundraised $2,250 more than in previous years. I think my positive reinforcement and encouragement definitely helped the process altogether, but I obviously can't take all the credit.

We had letters to pose for photos at the event and we DIYed some medals for our tournament winners. I was lucky enough to grab some pictures with friends (peep everyone in our matching tanks I ordered) and the winners of both the girl's and boy's brackets.

Again, I cannot express how thrilled I am to have hosted a successful event with an equally successful fundraising total. I cannot wait to drop off this check at Peaceful Paths later this year. It has been an honor being elected as our VP of Philanthropy and I look forward to keep making the most of my position.