BSU At The Games Donor/Fundraising Plan Maddie McGarvey Lauren Harrison Lauren Alvarez Sidney Hoerter
1 Mission Statement BSU at the Games provides an intercultural learning experience for students to learn professional skills by showcasing the tradition of the Olympics. Situation Analysis As the BSU at the Games program reaches its first Olympic cycle, there continues to be a significant lack of financial support. At this point, the three week Olympic trip cost is $6,200 per student, with 35 students attending. A three week, cultural trip will take place in Brazil during July, which will take 15 20 students at $5200 a person. Select students will also have an opportunity to attend the Olympics Media Summit in May. Students are able to attend all three trips. In the past, the program has covered the 2012 Summer Olympics in London (how many students?) at a cost of XX and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi at a cost of XX (how many students?). These past trips gained support from a Ball State grant of $22,000 that has been put toward the use of technology and staff travelling expenses. Aside from this, there has only been one independent donor that has contributed to the program with a XX amount. Even with these contributions, there is still a large balance due for students to fund independently. Past students have used loans, scholarships, grants, personal online fundraising websites and more. Study Abroad Resources The Rinker Center offers two scholarships, the Yuhas Scholarship and the Rinker Scholarship, for students studying abroad under four weeks. The Yuhas Scholarship requires a 3.0 GPA and the Rinker Scholarship requires a 2.5. Both applications can be picked up in the Rinker Center and are due March 1, 2016. If you are receiving any Federal Loans, this money may be applied to a study abroad program but would then be deducted from your Fall amount. Unfortunately, the Pell Grant is not applicable for any summer program. Other options for financial support are private loan websites and private scholarships. For other scholarship opportunities, contact Dr. Barb Stedman bstedman@bsu.edu. Fundraising Tactics There are many ways to go about fundraising when looking in general and on Ball State s campus. The most popular ways to fundraise include dine to donate events, bake sales, and email blasts. All three of these methods target a wide array of people in a fun way. The most successful of these three fundraising tactics seem to be the dine to donate events, due to their minimal effort and simple process. Otherwise, on campus groups generally raise the most funds
2 through larger, campus wide philanthropic events. These events can take many different forms, but usually require teams that pay registration fees. These events serve as a form of entertainment for participants while gathering funds in a short amount of time. Another popular tactic on Ball State s campus and others includes social media campaigns. This is a great way to reach students and alum because almost everyone is on some sort of social media. It is very easy to promote an event or fundraising campaign through a short and straightforward social media campaign. Typically, this in itself does not raise funds on its own. But using social media to communicate fundraising goals and messages is a successful communication tactic. A great example of a social media campaign would be the ALS #IceBucketChallenge. This idea came from a man suffering with ALS and wanted to create a way to raise awareness, so he did this by dumping an ice bucket over his head. This spread so quickly through all forms of social media that the ALS Association made it an official charity and ended up raising $115 billion. One very simple and effective form of fundraising is online donation pages. Participants are able to share these pages with their friends, family and acquaintances with the click of a button. Companies utilize donate buttons on their webpages to make it easy for viewers to make a contribution. If you are going to rely on the online efforts, it is important to keep all forms of social media updated, and to be sure to include a follow up thank you. Tips on how to run a successful donation page: http://www.netministry.com/blog/post/the Most Effective Online Donation Page Ever Example: Donation page (GoFundMe) for Cyclone Winston in Fiji drew so much attention by being shared among people through social media that the page, so far, has raised $44,000 by 331 people in 8 days. Alumni After virtually interviewing alumni of the BSU at the Games program, it is evident that there has not been any financial support or campaigning for the past trips. The way alumni have been funding their trip has been through loans, parents and a couple of donors. Fortunately, these alumni were able to connect us with contacts for the Ball State Alumni Association and the CCIM Development Department. By meeting with these contacts, CCIM donors want to see success of students at Ball State. Through these departments, we hope to access potential or current donors that might be interested in funding the BSU at the Games program by providing them insights about the trip and program itself and testimonials from past students on how it has impacted their life today.
3 SWOT Analysis: BSU at the Games Fundraising Strengths Immersive learning grant received to limit the cost for faculty Some grant and donor support for the program Program is recognized by the Rinker Center, study abroad funding may apply The addition of a PR and video teams in the program structure Weakness Large expense for students to go Lack of financial support from donors & community Limited number of students can afford to go No previous donor foundation for the program Opportunities Capability to grow in size(faculty, students and administrative support) Growing connection with the Ball State Alumni Foundation The opportunity to educate students on alternative fundraising efforts (toolkit) No standing traditions/guidelines to follow when fundraising Threats Lack of established relationships Limited time between now and the trip Competing department/university programs worth funding Competing Olympic programs with more funding Goals Raise $15,000 to lower the overall price for students to go to Rio through program donations, scholarships, grants and create tools for individual student fundraising. Establish connections with a group of passionate supporters to ensure the longevity of the program. Develop direct relationships between donors and the students they support. Objectives, Strategies and Tactics Objective 1. Increase student comprehension of personal fundraising three months prior to the trip. Strategy 1: Create a fundraising toolkit. Create a fact sheet on personal fundraising Write a FAQ about GoFundMe Write an sample letter to send to potential donors
4 Share mock buzzfeed article of 13 ways to fundraise Strategy 2: Hold a toolkit meeting with traveling students at Rio meeting on Tuesday, April 26th at 6:30pm. Create a toolkit presentation Print copies of the toolkit Make available on BSU at the Games website Objective 2. Increase communication with CCIM donors by the end of the semester. Strategy 3: Promote program success in order to gain financial support. Draft fundraising letter to send to Alli Badgero Director of CCIM Development Create a document regarding communication with Alli Strategy 4: Promote online donation capability through BSU at the Games webpage. Upload short testimonial/highlight video. Create content to explain the need for donations and the allocation of the funds. Objective 3. Increase communication with BSU at the Games alumni by the end of the semester. Strategy 5: Promote program loyalty in order to gain financial support. Create list of BSU at the Games Alumni Draft email for Ryan to send to BSU at the Games alumni Create incentive outline (T shirt for every $40 donation) Objective 4. Increase institutional donation base by communicating with foundations and other programs in the U.S. to by the end of the semester. Strategy 6: Diversify our financial foundation and increase our program s brand awareness. Research related foundations/programs Compile spreadsheet of a list of deadlines and application process for foundations Objective 5. Increase BSU at the Games support base by uniting stakeholders during the Olympics. Strategy 7: Increase stakeholder involvement in BSU at the Games program. Hold viewing event of Summer Olympics at local Muncie/Indianapolis bar or restaurant. 1. Implement a dine to donate fundraiser eating at the restaurant gives % of meal price to the next BSU at the Games. Objective 6. Increase BSU at the Games support base by communicating with donors and stakeholders within one month after the trip. Strategy 8: Build the relationship between students and their supporters. Upload student testimonial videos to the website Hold a video screening event in the fall 1. Invite both students and shareholders
5 2. View the Sochi and Rio wrap up videos Key Publics Our primary public for fundraising will focus on: National foundations & programs Traveling students CCIM students connected to trip go ers Parents of trip go ers Parents of past trip go ers CCIM donors CCIM faculty Alumni of previous trips Involved Alumni (card comm alum, speakers, etc.) Our secondary publics for fundraising will focus on: BSU Alumni Muncie community members with an interest in study abroad/olympics/journalism Ball State students/faculty with an interest in supporting study abroad with an interest in the Olympics GoFundMe Target Friends, family, classmates, etc. of the students going on the trip Key Messages BSU at the Games is an exclusive program that sets Ball State apart. Support students on an incomparable educational experience. This program creates culturally aware, career ready students. It s more than just a donation. It s a part of the legacy.
6 Evaluation Eval. of Ob #1: Measure the reach of our events/fundraisers. Strategy #1: Did we complete the toolkit 3 months prior to the trip? How many of the students that went on the trip created GoFundMe pages? How many of the students read the FAQ and Ways to Fundraise articles? How many found them useful? Strategy #2: How many students attended the informational meeting? Did students find our toolkit meeting to be helpful? Did they visit the toolkit information on the BSU at the Games website? Eval. of Ob #2: Did we increase communication with CCIM donors by the end of the semester? Did we get any CCIM donations? How many letters did we write? How many people were reached by the Sochi video? Were there any interactions with the video on social media? Did CCIM donors mention it at all when donating? How many people visited our donate page on the BSU at the Games website? How many of those clicked on the donate button? How long did they stay on the page (were they reading our content)? Eval. of Ob #3: Did we increase communication with BSU at the Games alumni? Strategy #5: Did we gain more financial support? How did we promote program loyalty? Did we draft and send an email to Ryan? Did we revise that draft and send out to alumni? How did we implement our incentive outline? Eval. of Ob #4: Did we increase institutional donation base with foundations and other programs in the U.S. to by the end of the semester? How many foundations did we reach out to? How many responded? Did we get any financial support from this? Eval. of Ob #5: Did we increase BSU at the Games support base by uniting stakeholders during the Olympics? Did we hold a viewing party? How many students/donors attended this event? What was their feedback?
Eval. of Ob # 6: Did we increase BSU at the Games support with donors and stakeholders within one month after the trip. Did we upload student testimonial videos to the website? Did we hold a video screening event in the fall post Olympics? 7
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