Give until it hurts... literally

By: Michelle Anstett
Editor-in-chief

Does it seem as if, every time you turn around, there is another group on campus raising money for a good cause?

Sure, I support these causes as much as I can, especially the ones really important to me, but sometimes all the asking can get a bit excessive. We give to cancer research, breast cancer, AIDS research, suicide prevention, abuse prevention… The list goes on and on.
We are poor college students who barely have enough money to buy gas for a trip home in our cars, not to mention giving to every charity that needs money. If we give to everyone, we have nothing left for ourselves when we may need it most. However, since the ones asking for money are some of our closest friends, we can also be made to feel guilty if we do not, or simply cannot, give to the charity de jure.

While all charities are worthy of our donations (except maybe the “Derek Zoolander’s Center for Kids Who Can’t Read Good Fund”), perhaps cutting down the number of charities we’re asked, as a campus, to donate to yearly would be a good idea. If there were a few funds all groups on campus got together and decided to support, the amount of money raised for each could be larger. Relay for Life is a huge campus event, and it raises a lot of money on a yearly basis because it involves so many people from all over campus. If, perhaps, there were more efforts such as this, people would not always feel as if they’re being bled dry at every moment.

And, whatever happened to simply setting a can on a table and having people sit and collect money, or holding a bake sale? When did auctioning ourselves off to the highest bidder become an acceptable form of fundraising, no matter how noble the cause?
Several Greek organizations on campus participate in this type of fundraiser each year, and I find it to be going against all the principles they uphold themselves to on a daily basis. Believe me, as an alumna of a Greek organization who has friends in every single chapter on this campus and on many others across the country, I know it’s a challenge to come up with new and different ways to raise money each year; it’s hard to keep people interested in giving to your charity.

But is putting signs up all over campus with “Rent-A-Kappa!” (I only use this example because it is the most recent) emblazoned on the front a good way to keep people interested? To me, that would seem demeaning, as the person who decided I was worthy of their five bucks, or whatever was paid, would get to have me do chores, such as cleaning his or her room, for a predetermined amount of time. Not exactly my crowning moment in college life.

I, for one, would much rather be remembered for creating a fabulous fundraising dance whose admission profits went to funding a charity’s efforts. The planning, hard work and dedication are all the same, but the outward presence and the actual event is much more prestigious than saying, “I planned an event where I auctioned my friends off to the highest bidder.”

I know all the chapters on this campus are full of bright, talented, hard-working individuals who want nothing more than to make the world a better place. I just think these people with all these skills can come up with better ways to raise money than selling themselves.