Culver-Stockton College has many different student organizations on campus, ranging from Greek Life to the Black Student Union. Each of these organizations has different events and drives behind them. An important part of keeping these organizations running well is fundraising, both for a chosen philanthropy, or to raise funds for the organization itself. Here at Culver-Stockton, there is a small, but effective use of fundraising, mostly by Greek Life.

Fundraising is a good opportunity to build rapport with charities, and even raise money for your own organization. Here on campus, we see more of the student-led groups raising the funds for outside organizations rather than using the money for themselves. As for the success rate of on-campus fundraising, Bill Boxdorfer, the Director of Student Engagement states, “I really think it depends on each organization and their goals are in the awareness.” Boxdorfer believes that each fundraiser has its own level of success. While it is uncommon for groups outside of fraternities and sororities to have fundraisers, the ones that we do see manage to raise at least a small amount of both awareness and funds for the organization or philanthropy that they are trying to raise money for. 

When it comes to trying to set up a fundraiser for an organization, some advice that Boxdorfer gives is “Have a game plan, have a good marketing campaign, have a good list of volunteers that can help. I think those are just what is really needed to have a good plan in place to move forward with the successful fundraising activities.” Here on campus, in order to start a fundraiser the group, students, or organization needs to see Boxdorfer in order to get permission. There is a form called “Approval of Fundraising” that they need to pick up from him. The campus needs to make sure that the fundraising events are appropriate, and are not gambling. One form that Boxdorfer brought up that would be dismissed rather quickly are 50/50 tickets, as they are seen as a form of gambling. 

While Greek Life seems to be the biggest contributor to fundraising on campus, it is an excellent way for an organization to raise awareness of a topic that they are passionate about, and want to spread more information about it. Culver-Stockton also has some great resources through Boxdorfer in order to start these campaigns.