At the end of my freshman year, I began serving as the events director

for the Student Philanthropy Education Program. Our organization

strives to educate students about the impact that philanthropy has on

our campus as well as provide leadership opportunities. We put on two

major campus-wide events throughout the year where we have

attendees either sign thank you cards to donors or sign a pledge to give

back. As the events director, my job is to plan and execute these events.

Some of my tasks include contacting vendors, creating the layout, and

managing day-of logistics. Aside from working in events, I have

participated in various service events, helped our club recruit new

members, and have led some council meetings. Our organization’s

values of philanthropy and service align with my own which drives me to

work hard to help the organization reach its goals. This experience has

taught me vital leadership skills as well as the importance of having a

common goal with the people you work with. 

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As my first major leadership role in my college experience, I was very excited to get involved with the Student Philanthropy Education Program. After all, philanthropy is a core value of mine. As a scholarship recipient myself, promoting a giving back culture on campus was especially important for me. This has been an opportunity for me to give back for what I have received through my time and skills. I have been able to make connections with other students who are also passionate about philanthropy and have networked with professionals who work in the field of advancement. Being the events director has also helped me gain and refine skills such as organization, communication, and collaboration. I also value teamwork and I feel that this position has allowed me to build good relationships with those I work with.

 

Tasks Accomplished:

• Created checklist for tasks that needed to be done.

• Contacted several vendors to supply product for our event.

• Delegated various tasks to our officers according to their position such as outreach, graphic design, and volunteers.

• Managed logistics including the event floor plan, social media campaigns, and event timeline.

• Collaborated with multiple partners to provide entertainment, food, and marketing platforms.

• Recruited new council members to join our organization.

• Served with United Way, the UW Alumni Association, and other organizations.

• Measured the impact of student-to-student education through surveys.

 

Leadership Competencies:

Others’ Contributions: While planning such as wide-scale event, it is important to use your team’s strengths to get the work done as efficiently as possible. For example, our event needed to be marketed to get students to attend so I was able to reach out to our graphic designer to design yard signs, a banner, and social media posts. As a design major, he was able to perform these tasks much better than I would have if I had done it myself. By assigning tasks to certain people on the team, our quality of work was at its highest potential. In addition, everyone enjoyed contributing, as they were able to act on their strengths.

 

Service: A large part of our organization is our willingness to serve. This has been represented both through our volunteer events, as well as in what we promote to our campus. Throughout the year, our program volunteers in our community with organizations such as United Way and the UW Alumni Association. Serving provides me personal contentment and a sense of fulfillment. While philanthropy can sometimes be associated solely with monetary donations, I have learned that there are other ways to give back like serving with your time and talent.

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Mission: Our organization has a solid mission statement that revolves around promoting a giving back culture and providing leadership opportunities. Our mission is represented through our actions. The events we plan focus on thanking donors for their contributions and pledging to give back. As members join our organization we make sure to educate them of our mission and why we advocate for philanthropy. This ensures that everyone involved has common intentions. I have realized that it is very important to have one statement that drives what our organization is all about. It gives us an end goal we can all focus on as a team.

 

Idea Generation: With numerous events taking place throughout the year, my events team is constantly looking for ways to improve. Idea generation becomes a big part of our job. One example of this is when we realized many students were skipping out on getting educated about our mission and philanthropy on campus and instead just went straight to the other activities our campus-wide events provide. We then thought to change the layout of our event so students could learn about the purpose of our events before getting inside the tent to access the free food and activities.

 

Creating Change: The whole purpose of our organization is to educate students about the importance of giving back to your community. All of our events focus on showing students the different monuments, scholarships, and resources that are available to them because of philanthropy. At our events we have students take surveys in order to see the change we are making. Over the last couple of years we see that students are responding more positively to the notion of philanthropy. Our hope is to instill the giving back culture into our UW community and our events seem to be helping us do just that. 

 

Being a part of the Student Philanthropy Education Program has allowed me to make connections with several students and professionals. Expanding my network is very important as I begin transitioning from college to my career. The skills I have been able to develop from this position will definitely benefit me as I apply them to future positions and in my career. Some universal skills I have gained include communication and attention to detail, which will help me in my pursuit of a career in management. As I plan on going into the business world working with others is inevitable. I will need these skills to work effectively in a team setting.

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