PLANNING A SUCCESSFUL PHILANTHROPY RECRUITMENT ROUND

The following post was written by guest blogger Catherine Barber, Gamma Delta–Auburn University.

Prior to this summer’s International Convention, a Philanthropy Recruitment Round Expo was held during pre-con events. If you missed out on the Fraternity’s Golden Convention, don’t fret! Check out all the tips below on how to make your philanthropy recruitment round a success.

Each campus is different when it comes to Primary Recruitment—and levels of allowed décor can vary. Regardless if your campus is low frills, medium frills or high frills when it comes to recruitment, you can and should intentionally include fighting hunger in your theme.

High Frills
Florals and greenery speak for themselves, so pick a color scheme and make a statement! When it comes to inspiration, Pinterest is your best friend. Use marketing materials that continue your color scheme and overall theme to highlight local hunger information to discuss with PNMs.

If you want to take it a step further toward fancy, consider using charger plates to display marketing materials. Using one charger of a different color can highlight how one in eight North Americans struggles with food insecurity, as the photos below show.

Medium Frills
Cluster empty aluminum food cans of varied sizes as a callback to our philanthropic mission. Cleanly remove the label and tie with a bow for an easy, affordable tabletop decoration. Be sure to use empty cans, as removing the wrapper will make it ineligible for donation.

If Primary Recruitment rules prohibit the use of floral arrangements, use real or faux greenery sprigs placed in small jars to add height and color to the room. A simple greenery ring can also spruce up a table or wall space, as shown in the photo below.

Low Frills
Adhering to a Low Frills recruitment doesn’t have to mean plain or boring. Utilize the philanthropy toolkit to print hunger statistics to supplement simple décor. Remember, pictures speak louder than words, so be sure to include photos of your chapter sisters serving the community together.

Looking for activity ideas? Consider these:

• Partner members with PNMs to answer a prompt printed on stickers and place the sticker on a banner, available for purchase from the Alpha Gam Boutique. Prompts may include:
  • What fills your plate…
  • What fills you up…
  • With a full plate I can…
  • I inspire the world by…
• Stuff birthday cake bags. Part of being food insecure can mean forgoing special occasion good, such as a birthday cake. Spread some birthday joy by placing the following Items into bags:
  • Cake mix
  • Icing
  • Candles
  • Happy birthday card
• If you don’t have enough time or space to stuff bags, opt to decorate empty bags your chapter can use later to fill with canned goods for local hunger-relief organizations.
• Before taking on specific food donation activities, be sure to talk to your local food bank to ensure they can accept these items and inquire about any special requirements.
• Design or decorate pre-made cards for upcoming holidays to be distributed by Meals on Wheels. Even if your recruitment falls in August or September, you can still make Halloween or Thanksgiving-themed cards to be distributed later. Contact your local Meals on Wheels to see when and where to deliver finished cards.

Display Table
Utilize a world map and add pearl push pins to indicate where sisters have served across the world. Make an even more powerful statement by using moss numbers in floral or greenery arrangements to highlight statistics about food insecurity.

Water Table
Looking for a unique and subtle way to spark conversations with your PNMs? Place flags on your straws to highlight statistics and philanthropic words.

If you used one of these ideas during your recruitment or have other ideas you’d like to share, send your photos to socialmedia@alphagammadelta.org. What a joy it is to promote our philanthropy to thousands of PNMs each recruitment season!