This event went a lot differently than expected. Because the lanterns were so cheap to purchase and chapters could purchase them as whole, we expected to sell around 75 lanterns. However, we unfortunately were only able to sell ten lanterns to chapters. After knowing that the sale of the lanterns were not going well, we decided to make the event another way to try and raise awareness for domestic violence. In addition to chapters releasing their lanterns, we had all of our sisters line up down 15^th Avenue to release purple balloons, the color of domestic violence awareness. On this day, April 14^th, we also hung up the philanthropy banner that was made previously this semester for Hera Day.

            Although this event did not provide the results that we had hoped in making a large enough profit to donate to Gracehaven Women’s shelter, we did our best to still make it a successful philanthropy event by trying to still do something to support our cause. I believe we will still try and do this event again next year and there are some improvements that can be made. The event definitely needs to be advertised more and earlier than was done this year, even if it is just by another week. We will need to have more follow-up with chapters too by email or from relationships members may already have with others from other chapters to try and sell more lanterns. We did not really encourage a lot of people to come out for the event unless they purchased a lantern. Even if chapters do not buy anything, they should still be encouraged to come see the release of the lanterns and balloons to support the fight against domestic violence. Below are a few photos that were taken during the release and the banner displayed outside of the Alpha Chi Omega house.

            This event may not have gone as anticipated, but it still ended up having an impact on our chapter. This event, along with the other two events done this summer, was a nice reminder of why we do what we do. Although raising money is essential for the organizations that we work for, at the end of the day, our philanthropy is to raise awareness for domestic violence. In the past few years, we lost sight in that and only worried about the numbers and trying to beat last year’s total. This semester, we were able to make an impact and reach out to others about the issues that occur right here on Ohio State’s campus.

            The hygiene collection week also ended up being very successful as we were able to receive a significant amount of donations. Some examples of donations given were: shampoo, canned food, toothpaste, and feminine hygiene items. All items were collected during Greek Week, which is week that highlights philanthropy and service across the Greek community. Below in the first picture is a box of items that we have collected thus far. We totaled around 550 donation items that we can place into individual bags for those who have been affected by domestic violence.

            Our goal for this week was to have a bag creation day for our sisters and the Greek community to make for victims. Although we collected enough items to make 50 bags, we wanted to exceed this limit to be able to provide to the shelter. In the fall during Homecoming Week, we will be holding the same type of drive to collect the same items in hopes of doubling the donations already collected. We will then have a bag creation day to donate to STARR house to hopefully donate at least 100 bags (enough to usually get through a week at the location).

            Although we were not able to donate these particular bags yet, we were able to donate different bags to the house. In the second picture are bags that were donated to the chapter from Cosmopolitan magazine. Enclosed in the bags are razors, sanitary wipes, lotion, and coupons for free panties. Instead of members being dispersed these items, they were donated to the shelter. Fifty were sent to the chapter, which met our initial goal that we wanted to send this semester.

            We did receive the outcome that we wanted; however, when realistically looking at how many bags we could make, we wanted to make a bigger impact for the shelter. We wanted to provide enough that would be sustainable to reach out to the maximum about of victims affected as possible. We did not want a single person to not be able to receive a large donation bag just because we were not able to create enough. I definitely learned from this experience that collaboration is extremely critical in being success for receive a sufficient amount to donate at this large of capacity. If we had not reached out to Greek Life members to donate to the cause, we would not have received as much as we have already. In the future, I would definitely like to see more advertising of the event in hopes of receiving more donations.

            Because of how much fun Alpha Chi Omega sisters had from the “Stop the Silence, End the Violence” campaign, we are now implementing this event every year to fall on our service day, Hera Day. With getting an exact count of 412 signatures on the banner, we were able to reach out to Ohio State guests in the Ohio Union about the issues and prevention of domestic violence for college students. Getting the supplies and human resource to host the event were extremely easy because the majority of the impact of the event came from those tabling the event and relaying the information to those who came through the Union.

The metrics used to attribute how successful the event was came from numbers and feedback from those who came to spoke to us at the table. Our initial goal was to reach out to 200 people passing through the Union. We knew that since it was a Saturday, ended up being planned within a week, and was not advertised that we may not get as much traffic as we would during a busy weekday. However, we were able to get results that doubled our initial goal. 412 people were able to get the message about domestic violence, and we only hope that some of those individuals also reached out to family and friends about the things that he or she learned from our event and information that was taught.

For next year’s event, I think a few things can be improved upon. Since this was our first event, we wanted to see how many people normally came through the Union without advertising the event. Because we know a solid amount of people come through, we would like to get more people to come and sign our banner. We will register the event through Sorority and Fraternity Life so that all chapters know about the campaign and will come support our philanthropy and learn about the cause. We are also going to get a larger banner because the entire banner was filled by the time we left the Union. We would also like to make this an all-day event rather than just three hours. Prior to hosting the event, sisters will also be encouraged to attend a seminar through our VP of Philanthropy to become completely educated with facts about domestic violence, resources, and prevention.

            In the Action Plan is a photo of the middle of the event. And below is a photo of me at the beginning of the event with our first initial signatures.

1.)    Domestic Violence Campaign

We ended up speeding up the process for the campaign to align with our annual service date of March 1^st. We had a week to try and get this event planned to best suit Alpha Chi Omega. We were able to book space in the Great Hall to create an area for Ohio State students, faculty, and visitors to sign the banner. Our goal was to reach out to 200 people and speak about domestic violence issues for college students. The only resources that I had to purchase were sharpies, a banner, and paint to decorate. Three people were deemed appropriate to staff the table from 11-3.

After counting the signatures on the banner, we tabulated a total of 400 signatures, which was double what we anticipated. Although the campaign was rushed three weeks before it was supposed to occur, it ended up being a huge success and fun for the participants involved. The goal of the banner was to continue to raise awareness during the week of our benefit dinner. The banner was hung Monday of this week and will continue to hang until Friday the 21^st. The slogan is, “Stop the Silence, End the Violence.” From this campaign, we have also seen an increase in Benefit Dinner ticket sales already. Below is a photo of the campaign in action at the Ohio Union.

2.) Hygiene/Sanitary Item Collection Week & Bag Assembly Day

We have decided to continue to pursue the item collection week during Greek Week from March 30^th-April 5^th. On April 9^th, we will also host a bag assembly day that anyone can attend to put together “kits” for a local domestic shelter in the Columbus area. In order to make this event happen, we need to have women go around and do chapter walks the week of Greek Week to each chapter house to advertise and market that we will be holding the drive and event at our house.

We will need about ten women to properly distribute the amount of houses to each group that will go and speak. The only resources we will need to purchase as a chapter is paper bags, markers, and ribbon to decorate the bags with. Because this event has not been done in the past, we do not have an objective goal to compare to years before on how to improve. However, since it will be a first event, we would like to collect enough materials to realistically create 50 bags to donate to women. In addition to having the volunteers come and assemble bags, we would like to have information with statistics and facts about domestic violence on college campuses to also educate individuals about the community issue. We would like to see twenty people come to help assemble bags.

Chapter walks completed by: March 31^st

Bags completed by: April 9^th

Bags delivered by: April 11^th

3.) Lyres and Lanterns

Due to the unsuccessfulness of our past food events, we thought it was in our chapters best interests to pursue a different event that may attract Greek Life members more. We will be selling lanterns to chapters for $10 apiece.  Chapters will sponsor the lantern rather than members purchasing them individually and they have the opportunity to purchase more than one lantern. They will be released together on April 14^th. We have already had it approved by the university and fire department to do a massive release on this date. The fire department will be at the event ensuring that no fires will start from the release, so we have taken all necessary safety precautions.

We have found affordable lanterns to release online. Lanterns will cost us $5 to purchase, which will give us a $5 profit per lantern release. We will market this event during the same chapter walks of the hygiene collection week to advertise both events at once. Chapters will then have the opportunity to make purchasing decisions for two weeks before the release. The human resources needed for this event to occur is the women for the chapter walks (10) and our chapter members to attend the event, which will be mandatory, as it is our spring philanthropy event. The other resources the chapter will have to pay for are the lanterns and a means to light the fires in the lanterns for the release. Again, because we have not done this event in the past, we have to create our own objective goal for sales. We hope to release an initial number of 75 lanterns. We will purchase 100 to give us wiggle room and then use the remainder lanterns for next year.

Chapter walks completed by: March 30^th

Lanterns purchased by: April 7^th

Event: April 14^th

            Provided the situation at hand, my overall objective for this project is to create philanthropic activities that Alpha Chi Omega members can leave this university knowing that they made a difference in the Ohio State and Columbus community. My vision is to create a more enhanced experience for members by actually raising awareness of domestic violence, rather than the issue be briefly discussed and have a check sent the next day.

            I have three objectives that I would like to accomplish by the end of my semester, in hopes that the events will continue to occur after I graduate from this university. After collaborating with the VP of Philanthropy, we have decided upon three events that will help the Ohio State community. We will first begin with a domestic violence campaign that will take place in the Ohio Union and/or the Oval. Approximately 3-4 Alpha Chi Omega members will be in charge of tabling the shift throughout the day and will be in charge of speaking to Ohio State students, faculty, and visitors that pass by about domestic violence issues that are prevalent on campus and in Columbus. Fliers will be passed out, and we will also ask students to sign a large banner to pledge to stand up for domestic violence. This banner will be displayed at our benefit dinner to show that the Ohio State community is also standing up for those who have been affected by domestic violence and hope to prevent future incidents.  Since this is the first event we have done like this, we will not have any means of comparing the success rate. However, we will set a goal of 200 signatures and passing out 500 fliers throughout the day. We will record this data so that in the future, we will hopefully be able to increase this goal and receive more participation from the community.

            Another event we would like to take place among the Greek community is hosting a drive for personal and hygienic items throughout the week of March 30^th through April 5^th. This week is Greek Week, so we are hoping to have increased collaboration from fellow Greek organizations. Following the drive, we will be holding a bag assembly day on Wednesday April 9^th that will be open to the public for people to create bags with inspirational messages to survivors of domestic violence with items that he or she may need. Because we have also never hosted this type of event before, we do not currently have benchmarks to assess the successfulness of the event. However, we are hoping to have enough items to create 100 bags to donate to STARR house located on 16^th Avenue, the local firm that we work with.

            Lastly, we think that it is essential for our organization to bring back the food event that we normally host every year. Because we have been normally known for hosting the Flapjack Frenzy, we would like to stay consistent and bring back this event again. We hope to host the event on April 15^th, 2014 at our house. In the past, we have hosted it at the Wexner Center Plaza, but have found that we did not raise a lot of money from the event. Bringing it back to the house will make it more comfortable to members and the amount of traffic from students passing the house will hopefully be an increased number. At this event, we are also asking workers of the STARR House to attend the event to provide expert knowledge to those who attend the event about domestic violence issues. Our benchmark for this event is to compare numbers to two years’ old event. At the last hosted event, we only raised $500 to donate. This year, we would like to set the goal to $800 to improve and make up for the last two years. We will also have a donation jar so that in addition to purchasing pancakes from the event, people have the opportunity to donate more than the minimum expected from the purchase.

            Although hosting three events in one semester may seem to be overachieving, we believe that it will significantly change the experience members currently have with Alpha Chi Omega’s philanthropy. In addition to individual experience, we want to bring the Greek community together as well by providing the necessary education and resources about domestic violence issues.  

            I joined the Alpha Chi Omega sorority in January of 2011 as a freshman, which now has made me a three year active member. One of the main reasons I joined was because I fell in love with the philanthropy of raising awareness for domestic violence. Personally, domestic violence has been prevalent in my family and I wanted to be a part of an organization that helped stop this tragedy that affects many people’s lives and families. While in the organization, however, I have noticed that Alpha Chi Omega has not taken an active role in being involved in our philanthropy, and I want to be able to leave my legacy knowing I was able to change this ongoing behavior.

            Throughout the year, Alpha Chi Omega hosts various events to raise money for the Alpha Chi Omega Foundation and local domestic violence shelters. The main events put on by the organization include Buckeyes at Bat and Benefit Dinner. Buckeyes at Bat is a sporting event that allows Greek and non-Greek members to create a team for a softball tournament. Each year the goal is to increase the amount of teams to participate in order to receive more money to be donated. The largest event hosted is the Benefit Dinner that has occurred every winter for the past three years. Members of the organization pair with one another to create a basket that is auctioned off at the dinner. In order to attend the event, people can purchase a dinner ticket of $40 and then have the option of purchasing a basket throughout the evening. After dinner is served, participants get to listen to a speaker that is an expert of domestic violence through experience or helping others who have been affected. About 200-300 people attend each year and have the opportunity to learn more about domestic violence, signs of abuse, and resources to help solve the situation for the victim. The organization used to host a food event every year in the spring, but has unfortunately gone away the past two years.

            While raising money for domestic violence awareness is essential for prevention and helping victims, members of Alpha Chi Omega have not experienced taking an active role in actually raising awareness for domestic violence. Hands-on experience at shelters has been extremely minimal, and members have had no experience even teaching fellow students at Ohio State the severity and frequency that domestic violence occurs for college students. As members, we have been accustomed to attending events and cutting a check at the end of the day. This unfortunately does not raise awareness for domestic violence and is not making an impact in our community. Because we attend such a large university, the members of Alpha Chi Omega have a huge opportunity make a significant outreach and to make a difference in the lives of college students.

            In other sororities at Ohio State’s campus, members have the opportunity to have hands-on experience. Because domestic violence is such a sensitive and serious matter concerning safety, many shelters are kept a secret for the security of the victims involved, so we are not able to enter a shelter and provide volunteer hours. However, there is so much more that our organization can do to help improve this issue. This semester, I am making it my responsibility to enhance members’ experience in getting involved with the philanthropy.

I have met with the Vice President of Philanthropy several times this semester and have narrowed down three realistic goals to achieve this semester. Before our Benefit Dinner, we are hosting a pledge campaign in the Union/Oval, whichever is available the week before the event. During this time, we are asking Ohio State students to sign a pledge that they will stand up against domestic violence. We are using this opportunity to reach out to student explaining statistics and handing out fliers with resources on how to address issues that occur. We will be hanging the banner of the pledges of students at the Benefit Dinner to show the support that Alpha Chi Omega has from Ohio State students. In addition to this, during the month of April, we will be hosting two events. The first will be a domestic violence shelter kit assembly day. We will be asking other Greek organizations to collect personal and hygiene items for victims at the shelters. We will then host an event for any Ohio State to come and decorate and assemble a bag with the items that were collected. These bags will then be donated to STARR House located on 16^th Avenue. Finally, we would like to bring back the food event that we have not been doing the past two years. In the past, we have hosted a Flapjack Frenzy, which serves pancakes and collects donations from those who attend the event. The VP of Philanthropy and I intend on keeping this concept, but are also open to hosting a different food event.

I am extremely excited for the opportunity to enhance the philanthropy that the Alpha Omicron chapter of Alpha Chi Omega currently has. Over the past three years, I have felt very disconnected from the philanthropy that is very near and dear to my heart. I want to create a legacy for future members so that they do not have to experience the emptiness I have had from this chapter. I know that changing the events and involvement will make a significant difference on the individual members of the organization, as well as The Ohio State University community.