With Penn State’s iconic THON online this year, Greek Organizations – who are always very involved in THON—had to improvise and find ways to raise money while not being able to fundraise in person. Fundraising is arguably better in person as it gets everyone feeling involved and just feels more motivating. So, since in-person fundraising obviously didn’t happen, how did greek life gather enough funds to reach their goals this year?
Truth or Dare…
It wasn’t uncommon this year to see sororities posting tablets on their stories with each donation amount corresponding to a dare they’d have to do. For example, if you donate $5, you could watch someone crack an egg on their head but if you donated $10, they’d jump into a pile of snow in short sleeves. Other entertaining dares included: post an embarrassing middle school pic, or The dares seemed to be a hit, hopefully, they stick. This is engaging for both the donators and the one’s fundraising as it forces them
Bingo!
Similar to the “dare tablets”, bingo boards are (and have been for a while) a popular method of raising money. It encourages people to donate because of the satisfaction they get from seeing their name pop up on the bingo board. These bingo boards aren’t new, they’ve been around year after year for THON, and given this year’s situation, they’re still perfect for fundraising. These bingo boards take other forms, too, such as a thermometer that’s “temperature” gets filled in higher every time a donation is made. It was a cool way to get creative.
Food… and More Food
Organizations teamed up with restaurants on-campus to offer discounts if students used certain codes at the checkout! All proceeds would then go to THON. I mean, discounted food for a good cause? Yes, please.
Going Go Puff Style
Similar to the previous point, some greek organizations paired up with local businesses to offer discounts for food and provide a contactless delivery service to the doors of anyone who ordered! In-demand foods like bagels were especially popular this season and some greek organizations would deliver breakfast sandwiches for one morning only! The perfect way to raise money and make people happy without coming into contact with them. This was also a smart move considering the prevalence of college food delivery services nowadays.
T-Shirts!
The craze for THON T-shirts is real! Especially this year when everyone wants to get their hands on one to be able to recreate the full experience on zoom. Since this year has brought us a lot of time, organizations have been getting creative and coming up with original and fun designs for these T-shirts to brighten THON up a little more. Then, of course, the profits get donated to Thon.
One good thing to come out of this was it showcased the creativity of all the organizations that worked so hard to raise money. What did you do to help raise money #FTK?
