It feels like there is a 50/50 chance that at any point, I will run into a club, society, or student organization fundraising at the entrance of the Student Center. If I’m lucky, it might even be two, one on the left and one on the right.

Fundraising is an important part of running a student organization, where everything you do costs money. Our student groups host initiatives, give to charities, and improve the lives of their fellow students. They go on trips and enrich the education of members. Money makes their worlds go around.

So why are they fundraising on campus?

Considering the target demographic of a fundraiser, these groups should be trying to find people both sympathetic to their cause and the means to support them. The latter is certainly not something in abundance on a college campus, and the former is dubious at best. The terms “college student” and “expendable income” are basically mutually exclusive.

Not only is the majority of the current target audience overwhelmingly poor, but the choice to always fundraise via bake sales is equally unwise.

Most students coming in and out of the Student Center are there for food they paid for with a meal plan. Why would I stop to buy a cupcake when my sandwich is waiting for me? Some students will still stop, but is it enough?

I am by no means a business major, but I think there are better ways to fundraise than hosting a bake sale at the Student Center.

Organizations should start by considering the themes of their group. A club about the environment has themes of earth, weather, and plants, for example. What if they endeavored to sell potted plants or hosted a day of paid cleanups? 

You can apply this logic to any number of groups or societies. As for the location of the fundraiser itself, there are a couple of options.

If the fundraiser has to be on campus, why not try to get permission to set up in an administrative building? University faculty and staff may be in the mood for baked goods or other items, and within those buildings, there aren’t businesses or cafeterias to satisfy the need.

If you can take your idea off campus, then by all means, do. If you are a music club or group, for example, you could market your skills to the community and fundraise through music. As a vocalist, the first idea that comes to my mind is selling sing-a-grams through a platform like Facebook marketplace.

The university is an insular community with its own micro-economy. As things are right now, money will be exchanged from one student and one organization to another indefinitely. A student could be hosting a bake sale in the Student Center one day only to buy a cookie from someone in the same place the next day.

By marketing to the community at large, groups can expand their reach and enrich our university economy with outside funds rather than metaphorically passing money back and forth.

Of course, I’m a sucker for a good cupcake, so who am I to argue with the ones selling them to me?

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