Peace Corps/Community Service/Fight Cause afterschool club?

Question

Hello. I am a junior in a public high school. Both of my parents had been very active Peace Corps volunteers and I have traveled all my life. I've been to more than 20 countries and moved almost every year. The longest I stayed in a country was 2 years. Of course I lost some friends on the way, but I formed a passion to discover places, to contribute to a cause, etc. I want to form a club at school which concentrates on International Community Service. There are so many local clubs to help the local people in USA but I would like to reach out farther.. I want to make fundraisers to help the buying of a BreastCancer Cause machine in Bosnia. and other things as well. I am wondering how else I could help, and i am not sure if many people will sign up because few are aware of the world out there. I will post up fliers and ask permission from the school for this club. Do i need organization representatives or how do I carry out the club? I am not a great leader, but i hope to learn!

Answer 1

Fund raising a very gigantic and intricate subject. As your parents have a very vast experience across several countries, start with a small organisation with them to lead. You wiolol succeed. There are vultures all arounf, waiting for a pound of folesh, be careful.  Best of oluck.

Answer 2

One of the best ways I have found is to address groups of like-minded people with some incentive. In college, I started a club to raise funds for a local grief counseling center. I made announcements in all my classes, and one classmate decided that it was a worthy cause, so a bunch of her sorrority sisters adopted it. Now it is their official sorrority philanthropy. I would ask your teachers if you could make an announcement in your classes, perhaps if you have a teacher that you know will be a champion of your cause you could ask him/her to offer incentives (Like extra credit, etc) to get classmates to join. Teachers get paid extra to sponsor clubs, so I am sure that if you talk to your teachers someone will do it. They can extend this to other classes they teach as well.

Any club will have to have a few things to better organize themselves. Meeting times (after school on Tuesdays), specialized roles (secretary, treasurer, etc), goals (raise $10,000), and a timeline (by April 15). Then figure out what kind of fund raiser you would like to do. Popular fund raisers include car washes, bake sales, 5/10k runs, bowling/dancing marathons, etc. You can come up with your own, possibly something that relates to your school or the cause.

The next step is to find sponsors for your cause to give either money (in exchange for their name on the event) or in-kind donations (like a salon donating a free haircut to the first place race winner). If you are doing something like a race, you should also create advertising to get racers and set a price for entry or a pledge sheet. Good companies to target are those that can afford to give out small things for goody bags for in-kind (like coupons for services or samples of stuff) or larger companies that will donate sums of money (we got the electric co in Tallahassee to donate $3000). You could set different levels of sponsorship for different amounts (Gold=$1000, they get logo and name big as "main sponsor", Silver=$500, gets logo and name smaller, Bronze=$250, get small name)

The other thing that you will have to do is find out where you get this machine that you are looking for, and work with people that will be able to get these machines to Bosnia. Write out your objectives on paper. This will help organize your thoughts and goals and will give you more conviction, which make people more willing to help you. Getting more volunteers in your network will help you find these people (someone's dad knows a guy who knows a guy, etc.). Companies get tax breaks for charities, so these are good to target (especially in the beginning of the year before they have spent their budget).

Another suggestion is to talk to charities in your area that have similar goals (like Susan G. Komen foundation). By forming an affiliation you can help get more credit and find more sponsors.

Fundraising is probably going to be your best option, however since you are in DC there is a better chance for you than many people to meet politicians/lobbyists that will help you out. This is not something that you should count on, and if you do get to use this approach you should make sure that you know as much as you can about your cause. (Do this anyway.) The best offense for you will be to have great conviction and a lot of knowledge.

Good luck!