Leading up to Dance Marathon, Alex Keller and Alex Froy were probably neck-deep in spreadsheets. As the finance chairs, these Weinberg seniors logged donations, developed fundraising initiatives with the marketing co-chairs and organized canning with the community engagement co-chairs. “As we are a fundraising organization, [finance chairs] sort of have hands in everyone’s activities,” Keller said.
NBN sat down with these moneymakers to discuss Cradles to Crayons, inclusivity and no regrets. This interview has been condensed and edited.
NBN: What have you guys been up to in the tent? Have you been in the tent?
Keller: Yeah, we've spent a decent amount [of time there]. … In terms of what we're doing today, we have our 33K in 10 hours initiative currently running, as well as a phoneathon to past alumni and donors, just as the exigency behind the day is greatest today, because it's happening. So those are the two big pushes. The nighttime was kind of quiet for us because fundraising is hard when everyone's asleep except for us. But we're right in the thick of it right now.
NBN: Why $33,000 in 10 hours?
Keller: So, a KidPack for Cradles to Crayons costs $33 to put together, and so that can provide one kid with a season's worth of essentials. And so we just thought that was a good metric to base that fundraising initiative off of. In the past, it's been 30K in 10 hours, sort of a play off the 30 hours [of DM], but you're doing it in 10. And so this year, we decided to up it to 33 to say we sponsored 1,000 KidPacks in 10 hours.
NBN: How has DM been working to increase inclusivity for low-income dancers or people who can't really raise $400 in the time that they have?
Keller: I think one of our biggest things that we rolled out last year and increased this year was our dancer grant program. Basically, through the SES One portal, dancers who are on any sort of financial aid can apply for – this year, we structured it as a match, so any amount that they were able to raise, the SES One portal would match through funds raised through both corporate sponsors as well as alumni who decided that was a better use of their money than donating to just the general campaign. So that's been awesome, as well as our continued relationship with the Office of the President, that covers the fee for any dancer on financial aid of any sort. And besides that, I think our community engagement co-chairs and us have been working to increase – we have a set budget for canning rides to get people to and from different neighborhoods that we have canning permits in. So it allows dancers an opportunity – if they do have the time, which is obviously hard to come by as a Northwestern student, to go out and can and raise money, rather than reaching out to friends and family if that network is not available to them. And I think we try to work with group heads as much as we can to make sure that their teams are able to get everybody in the tent that wants to be here.
Froy: And also this year, I think we put a greater focus on individual dancer retention. So those are people who are – because they're not involved in the Greek system, they're probably the people who are more likely to not have the means to raise the $400 easily. So we had two group heads for the individual fundraisers, and they would structure canning rides every weekend. And so I think that was a good measure as well.
NBN: What do you hope next year's Finance Chairs accomplish? Do you feel like there's anything that you've left unfinished here that you'd like DM to continue?
Keller: I think there's always room for expansion in areas such as financial inclusivity. I mean, I think everybody recognizes that Northwestern is a university that not everyone can meet that fundraising minimum. And so, obviously continuing to expand that dancer grant program, I think, is really important and something that we want to see continued, as well as finding ways to raise funds more creatively, like corporate matching. That's an area we're trying to focus in a little more on. But in terms of not being able to accomplish … I don't have any regrets.
Froy: Yeah, I think we left it all on the table.