New student group aims to help fundraise

Student organizations at UNC have a new partner to help them with event planning and fundraising.

Connected for Cause is a new nonprofit organization that combines opportunities for service and fundraising. Seniors Kelly Leonhardt and Katie Page founded the group in July, and are working to build their campus presence.

Leonhardt said the group raised more than $1,100 last weekend at Connected for Cause’s first event, when she, Page and other volunteers rented a few hand trucks to help students move into Granville Towers. The group accepted donations for their assistance.

They said all the proceeds from the event will be donated to a Connected for Cause-affiliated organization or participant.

Leonhardt said Boy Scouts have done similar fundraisers and said Granville Towers residents were excited to have a UNC organization involved.

While reflecting on previous fundraisers, Leonhardt said she and Page thought to themselves, “Why aren’t we providing these opportunities to other students on campus?”

She said that the idea led them to create Connected for Cause so student organizations could partner together to run the events instead of scrounging for volunteers.

Student groups usually must seek money from donors themselves or apply to receive money from Student Congress, which doles out more than $350,000 a year in students funds. With more than 200 student groups, organizations often get less than they want.

Page and Leonhardt have had plenty of experience with raising money and managing budgets.

As President of Alpha Kappa Psi professional business fraternity, Leonhardt said she was able to more than double the fraternity’s fundraising profits.

As UNC’s Accounting Club founder and president, Page said she had skills in financial planning.

Leonhardt said she and Page are planning events with several Campus Y programs, Phi Beta Chi sorority, Nourish International and Another Way of Learning, a group that encourages teacher-student interaction outside the classroom by providing professors and teaching assistants with money to host meals and activities.

For the Another Way of Learning event, the Connected for Cause’s founders said they are hoping to set up a dunking booth or a pie-in-the-face stand in the Pit, where students will be able to dunk or pie professors.

“I think it’s a really good idea,” said Priya Desai, co-chairwoman of the Coalition Against Sex Trafficking, part of the Campus Y.

“My organization is pretty new,” she said. “We’re having problems finding funding because we need money to get off the ground for events.”

She said she is hoping for productive collaboration between the coalition and Connected for Cause.

Page said that she and Leonhardt went around at Fall Fest and talked to student groups about fundraising to come up with event ideas.

They also plan to contact groups through their Facebook page and organizations that are listed on the Carolina Union’s Web site.


Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.