In his previous blogpost, Sean Donegan introduced the charity dinner he and his peers are putting on to fundraise for Share Our Strength. In the blogpost below, Sean goes into detail about the logistics of organizing such an event so that other like-minded college students who wish to do the same will have an idea of where to begin:

By: Sean Donegan

It’s the night of the event so I will be discreetly ducking out of class early to set my Fraternity House up for the Share Our Strength Charity Dinner. We expect to have over three hundred students at the event along with our corporate sponsors setting up their booths. Our chefs are all busy cooking a huge buffet of chicken and salmon with various side orders that meet the dietary needs of all the individuals who generously donate their time and money to support Share Our Strength. The House’s sound system is also being adjusted for the event’s DJ, Greg Monte.

Each Greek House has taken over the responsibility of one seventh of the ticket sales. This entails allowing their Brothers and Sisters to sign up for the event and then billing them at the end of the semester when they are paying for their room and board. With a group of experienced and dedicated Philanthropy Chairs working with me, I am proud to announce we were able to sell out in only two weeks. I was surprised to learn that many people had bought tickets to support their Fraternity/Sorority and the cause even though they may not be able to attend. Currently we have sold 345 tickets with an estimated 303 attending the actual event which has seating for only 300. If we go over, extra chairs are on reserve to be set up.

The Charity Dinner itself has been primarily advertised through Facebook. By creating a Share Our Strength Charity Dinner , we were able to disseminate the event’s information to over 1500 students. This tool served as an easy way to communicate the event information to attendees, as well as have a way to see which of their friends will also be attending. The Greek TriCouncil Government also was helpful in sending out event information to the entire Greek student body which made up over 90% of the ticket sales.

To seat and serve all 300 students, rentals have been purchased and will serve as a cost effective method of seating and serving everyone. The linens were also rented in Share Our Strength’s colors. An advantage of Greek Philanthropy is the ability to utilize their expert chefs to cook for everyone at a cost much lower than that of a catering company. Many hands make light work and by splitting the food preparation amongst the chefs, we will be able to amass all the food we need.

Hopefully all of this planning comes together smoothly and we have an amazing Philanthropy Event!

Sean Donegan is a PreMedical student at Cornell University, majoring in both Animal Science and NeuroBiology. He has minors in both Global Health and International Relations. He is a Senior Research fellow in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and a member of the Cornell Men’s Varsity Polo Team. He is the President of Order of Omega, the Greek Honor Society and cofounder of The Donegan-Hoffman Foundation.