College can be expensive; adopt smart budgeting habits and avoid financial debt.

Many of you are college attendees or graduates; therefore you know what it means to stretch a buck and what it feels like to have a bank account balance of $9.00 until financial aid is released for the semester.  A lot of us do not make the effort to research smart budgeting methods and/or execute these practices. 97 Ways to Save Money in College is a article posted on MRI Technician Schools blog site. I have chosen what I believe to be the top ten tips from this article that students can easily adopt and benefit from, financially, while attending college. Consider it a gift as I suspect many of you are currently headed into another semester of school and needless to say –another semester of spending.

10. Rent Movies From the Library: Public and school libraries alike often rent movies for free.

9. Take Advantage of Public Transportation: In larger cities with reliable public transportation or smaller towns conducive to walking, ditch having a car and all its associated expenses.

8. Barter With Friends: Figure out ways to trade goods and services with other students in order to get things done without ever having to spend a penny.

7. Buy Store Brand Goods: Store-brand goods are almost always as good as the name brands, and many stores offer additional savings when buying store brand products while using store discount cards.

6. Buy International Editions of Textbooks: In the occasional instance where used books are not available, buy international editions of textbooks online. They are usually much cheaper and contain the same content in the same language as the domestic.

5. Drink Tap Water: Ditch the bottled stuff and drink straight from the sink. You’ll save tons of cash.

4. Set Up a Definitive Budget: Budgeting money ahead of time is one of the best financial decisions anyone – not just college students – can make.

3. Apply for Scholarships: Apply to as many as possible to help defray some tuition expenses.

2. Eat at Home: Sometimes, the cost of a meal at a reasonably priced restaurant can be used to prepare 3-5 meals at home.

1. Save the Credit Card for Emergencies Only: Use your credit card only when faced with an absolute financial emergency…and sorry, but needing that adorable Coach purse does not qualify as a dire situation.

For more ideas on how to save money while in college visit 97 Ways to Save Money in College.

Student Organizations Find Co-Sponsorship Opportunities by Networking with Other Organizations Using OrgSync

This past semester, I, Jessica Reyes, attended a meeting at the McComb’s School of Business as a representative of Alpha Kappa Psi. The meeting was held to discuss the recent student org budget cut for the 2009-2010 school year due to the business schools exclusion from receiving any monetary sponsorship from the University Coop.

As students, we knew the University Coop’s budget cut would lead to the end of many of our organizations’ events due to inadequate funding.   At this meeting we broke up into several groups to brainstorm different ways we could work this problem out effectively.    We found that each organization created and funded its events without collaboration of other organizations.  We came to the conclusion that greater communication amongst all business organizations was needed and that it would be best if the organizations could co-sponsor events so that the funds could benefit more than one organization.  This not only would spread the student org funding evenly, it would also inspire greater event attendance among business organizations with the benefit of networking with others.

The next question to ask is how this communication could be implemented with such a large amount of students involved.  With the advent of OrgSync on campus, organization leaders could create a group to facilitate the planning of their events. Other organizations can view this information and respond if they are interested in co-sponsoring an event.  This new means of communication will reduce spending, and create more opportunities for great events to take place even with the absence of the external monetary sponsorships.

So far, we’ve covered the benefits to a company, where to begin, who should be involved, knowing the rules on campus and the company cycle. Now you’re ready to cover writing a great proposal.

Writing a proposal

1. Proposals should be short. One page is best or AT LEAST have an executive summary page at the beginning. Company people, alumni, whomever – let’s just say busy people, don’t have time to read the whole glossy document. You want to wow them with a few marketing lines and put the price-tag so they can skim down to it. Then they can read the entire document if they want.
2. If you don’t think the reader is familiar with your school you can give a short description.
3. State the purpose. Is it unique (do some research)? What is the value? Who is the audience? Are the price points in line with the benefits and level of fund you’re seeking? If the amount is broken down per person, does it seem reasonable?
4. Provide statistics or hard data if you can. How many people have benefited from the program, participated, succeeded etc.
5. Give testimonials (either as an added page or as pulled out quotes on the sides or bottom).
6. Think of benefit levels if it is appropriate (i.e. Platinum, Gold, Silver levels). If you can support more than one donor, company etc. and you have enough benefits to spread around, make funding levels. The top level should have everything that you can think of for involvement (opportunity to speak, logos on banners or websites, attend and participate, judging, booth at event, provide remarks at an opening or closing session, lunch or dinner with set of “special” participants, resume books or cd’s). If it is a year-long program, list out opportunities. Pull out as many specific parts of the program as you can (like the lunch is sponsored by one company, dinner has someone else) and then divide them appropriately. Look critically at the levels so you don’t have multiple donors/companies expecting to attend or speak at the same thing.
7. If you have an itinerary, list it.
8. Contact information, website etc.
9. Sponsorship deadline.

I hope that I have given you some good information. I am always open to discussing more ideas, this would be a great forum to do so!

So far, we’ve talked about benefits to a company, where to begin and who should be involved. There are a few other items that you might need.

Gotta know the rules

Before you get too far, know the rules on your campus. After you have secured a champion, talk to the others areas of campus and also include a question on any rules that you might need to know (even if they don’t want to work with you and you’re on your own). Sometimes the Dean of Students or the President’s Office will know if vendors are allowed on campus, if you can put logos on banners etc etc. Campuses can get tricky about that stuff sometimes.

Know the company cycle and who to talk to

If you decide to approach companies, expect that they have a certain funding cycle and you’ll need to find out what it is. If they are a multinational company, they typically begin to set their budgets for the next fall in mid Spring (March or April). Remember that we speak in academic timelines, and they may have a different end of fiscal year date. If you’re going into this cold, you will need to find out who the right person is to send a proposal. Don’t expect the receptionist or the main company address to get to that person. Cold calling is really hard, but you may need to do it to find out who the campus relations or community relations person is – or maybe even marketing or PR. It’s great to find someone who knows someone who can hook you into a person with a name you can actually call and ask.

Budget

Do a budget. You can do a pie in the sky budget and a shoestring version so you have some room. Think of every possible item that you will need. Do your research.

Next time, we’ll get into writing a proposal.

In the last two postings, we discussed benefits to a company and where to begin. Now, let’s talk about who should be involved in this process from your area.

Who should do this?

It’s nice to have a team of people who can divide and conquer. Someone well connected and higher on the status chain is always good to have to serve as your champion. You might start small though. See if you can get a local sandwich shop to provide the meal at leadership training, or get your packets printed for free if you include a logo or put an ad on the inside cover. As we always tell students – start early to plan. If you can sell the freshmen orientation event sponsorship or leadership kickoff to a company in January or even earlier in the fall, you can work yourself into their budget cycle so they can plan too. Or just ask the local pizza joint to provide the meal, but do it early. If they’re a chain they will need time too.

Last time, we began to discuss ways in which companies can benefit from funding your event. Now, let’s talk about where to begin.

Your campus relations

When seeking money for a program, there are a few places to begin. Large sums seem to be a better match for these ideas.

1. Meet with Career Services: whether you have an active career center or a small placement office, a career center can be a great place to begin to identify potential companies who might give money. If they recruit on campus, post jobs on campus, or hire a lot of students without much effort, you can approach them. Who doesn’t want good press? Keep in mind that you may also have to sell your career center director on the idea.

2. Hit up Development: many schools have an active development office in some sense. Some of them work more with alumni than companies, some do both. It can be an interesting concept to a development office if they have never thought of “selling” a program. Typically they sell scholarships, research centers, naming conventions (The Howard T. Residence Hall) and large programs. It usually does not involve departments like Student Affairs. Your job is to educate them on what you have to offer and to keep the dialogue rolling.

3. Ask Alumni Relations: if you have ever tracked students who attend your programs or utilize your services, there is nothing better to pair with an alumni database. Students who have been involved in a program or lived in a residence hall are a perfect place to begin because they can relate. If the alumni staff are aware of your programs, they can also match up potential high flying alumni with your programs. There is nothing better than being at a cocktail reception with an alumnus who mentions how much they love leadership – and then your alumni staff gets to make them happy by mentioning your program (now give your alumni staff that visual too).

4. Package Programs: try to find similar programs across campus or programs that fit together in some fashion and package them together. Perhaps your program is too small to speak to a company about, but you can put together a package that an alumnus or a company would get exposure multiple times. You can come up with creative ways to combine programs so multiple departments benefit. How cool is the Pamela C. Leadership Series or the H Company Coffee Night (which perhaps combines the residence hall programming and the student events center music committee)?

5. Go it alone: if you don’t get many hits from the career center, development or alumni do it yourself. Start small and open your eyes to local companies or businesses, notice those flyers across campus which might have a logo, alumni speaking on campus, or check the job postings yourself to see who is recruiting on campus.

6. Get a Champion: the best advice is to get a champion. You will get much farther if you get the buy in from your supervisors and as high up as you can go. That way, they can go with you to the other areas of campus to suggest partnerships or to ask for assistance.

Check back on Monday, February 23 for Student Affairs Fundraising Part 3, we’ll discuss who should be involved in this process from your area.

We are pleased to introduce CeCe Ridder, Director of Student Life for the McCombs School of Business, as a guest blogger. CeCe will be conributing a 5 Part Series on Student Affairs Fundraising over the next two weeks.

CeCe Ridder

CeCe has worked for The University of Texas at Austin for twelve years. She is currently the Director of Student Life at the McCombs School of Business, Undergraduate Program. Her position encompasses admissions, student organizations, scholarships, leadership and special events. CeCe’s home state is Nebraska, and she earned a bachelor’s degree from Nebraska Wesleyan in Interpersonal Communications, with a Public Relations focus. She has a Master’s Degree in College Student Personnel from Kansas State University and is pursuing a PhD in Educational Administration from UT. She is passionate about student development, leadership, multiracial college students and retention. CeCe is also a lead facilitator with LeaderShape.

Many schools overlook the myriad of opportunities to push our programs forward, involve the community, promote potential employers for students and to get something for free! Whether you need some free sandwiches or thousands of dollars to keep a program alive, there are potentials points of funding everywhere. Funding can also provide budget relieving dollars to other programs in your areas. With the current economy, who can pass up actually plugging in a source of income to an event budget?

Creeped out
When I first began pairing student affairs programs with corporate funding, I was really creeped out. But I realize that it’s tough out there right now. Schools are not securing as much funding from alumni, the state, donations etc etc. We have to be creative so we can provide the amazing programs that seem to be the first to go. If you can do this with a heavy dose of ethics, a little sales savvy and not entirely sell your department’s soul it can be done.

Benefits
Companies, from the local pizza joint to the large multi-nationals, want exposure. Think of ways that they can benefit from becoming involved with your event in some way. As my old boss used to say, “you have to spend money to make money” and most companies understand this.
1. Offer them a logo on a banner
2. Print out a sign with special thanks
3. Add them to the event website
4. Ask them to speak or welcome the audience if appropriate
5. Come up with levels of sponsorship and benefits to each
6. Or even go as far as to name the program after them (“The Ketchup Company Leadership Program) if that doesn’t creep you out.

So chew on what benefits that you might have for companies and next time, we’ll talk about where to begin and eventually get to using your benefit levels in writing a proposal.

Check back for Student Affairs Fundraising Part 2 by CeCe Rider Thursday, February 19!

This past weekend, team OrgSync participated in the Austin Race for the Cure. We all headed down to Auditorium Shores bright and early with our customized t-shirts, banner, and lots of enthusiasm. We walked in honor of Karen Andreas, the mother of one of our founders, who is a breast cancer survivor. Since Karen is a baseball fan, we called our team the Pink Sox and our theme was “Save Second Base.” (Check out the pictures to see our awesome shirts, created by our own Jeff Jurica and Nicole Andreas!)

It was a great feeling for all of us to come together to give back to the Austin community and to such a great cause. As a sister of Zeta Tau Alpha International Fraternity, I have long been a supporter of the Susan G. Komen For the Cure Breast Cancer Foundation, as it is our national philanthropy. I was so happy to see our team out there sporting the Pink Sox t-shirts and donating our time for the cause. We were surrounded by over 21,000 fellow supporters and breast cancer survivors, making it such a positive and inspirational atmosphere. The Race for the Cure is a 5K walk/run (we opted to walk this year), so we also got a little workout while supporting the cause! We were all very grateful for the cheerleaders and supporters along the sidelines cheering us on and keeping us going. We are so excited to make this an annual event and who knows, maybe we’ll even run next year!