Philanthropy

Philanthropy Team

The Philanthropy Team focuses on establishing partnerships with charities, fundraising, and promoting charitable causes.

Generally SNAFU Con only has one charity per year that we promote and organize a charity auction for, however smaller charities have also done tabling and their own panels and programming to promote themselves and gather donations.

We have been partnering with BBBS for the last several years.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Charity Partnerships: They establish or maintain partnerships with charities. As needed, they identify, reach out to, and establish partnerships with charities. Generally con only has one major charity per year, and generally we stick with the same one annually unless we have a reason to change it. In general the person managing the department gets to choose the charity the convention is supporting for the year (with chair approval).
• Donation Promotion: They prepare and distribute info sheets to merchants at the convention, explaining the donation process. They work with social media to solicit pre-con donations or to prime people on how to donate at the convention.
• Donation Management: They solicit, organize, label, and securely store donations from convention merchants at the convention.
• Charity Representative Coordination: They ensure the timely arrival and registration of charity representatives.
• Financial Management: They handle monetary donations, including obtaining change and a cash box for the charity auction. However, we generally try to get the charity to do the money handling as much as possible as we do not want to be responsible for any of the donation money if avoidable.

Charity Auction

The Philanthropy Team's main responsibilities is organizing the Charity Auction.

• Preparation: Before the auction, the team solicits donations from merchants, ensuring each item is correctly labeled with information about the donor and a potential starting bid.
• Storage: Donations are initially placed in a monitored donation bin close to the merchant area. As the auction approaches, items are moved to a secure location near the main stage, where the auction will take place.
• Auction Management: They oversee the auction proceedings, handle the cash box, and ensure there's change available for transactions.
• Post-Auction: All money from the auction is handed directly to the charity at the convention itself. The team keeps track of the total amount raised for announcement at the closing ceremonies.

Challenges and Solutions

The team faces several challenges, such as unresponsive charities, time constraints, limited availability, obtaining high-quality logos, and managing last-minute donations. To overcome these, they:

• Establish early contact with charities.
• Prepare promotional materials in advance and adjust them based on feedback.
• Utilize the graphics team to recreate logos in a high-quality format using Illustrator when the one provided is too small.
• Coordinate with registration staff for badges for charity representatives, and for change for the charity auction.
• Coordinate with relevant staff for the secure storage and transport of donations.

Continuous Improvement

Following the convention, the Philanthropy Team solicits feedback from the charity to improve the process for future events. They also document all processes and procedures to facilitate knowledge transfer and future reference.

Procedure

Pre-Convention Preparation:

• Contact Charity: Reach out to the annual charity and confirm their participation.
  • Make sure to use RT for all communications unless a phone call is required. If calling, provide a summary of the discussion in Discord.
  • Make sure to give them information on when the charity auction is, how long it is, what we expect, etc., and request someone from their organization attend to receive donations
  • Get a list of all the names and birth dates of people attending and pass it on to Registration. Follow up with Registration to ensure all members receive badges.
  • Make sure that we have received up-to-date high-res logos for the con book. Vector format is preferred, but we will take what we can get. If logo is not high-res, Graphics will recreate a high res version as best they can for the con book.
• Prepare Information Sheet: Update the info sheet outlining the donation process for merchants for distribution at the convention.
• Solicit Donations: Work with the social media team to solicit pre-con donations and inform attendees about how to donate at the convention.

At the Convention Before the Auction:

• Distribute Information Sheet: Work with the merchant heads to get the info sheet out on checkin, or go to each table to talk to every vendor and artist regarding donations and distribute sheet then.
• Set Up Donation Management: Set up a monitored donation bin in Ops, since it is close to the merchant area, to gather and store donations. Each donation must be labeled with the donor's information and a potential starting bid. If the merchant did not label it appropriately, you will need to label it.
• Charity Representative Coordination: Ensure the charity representative's timely arrival and assist them with their registration. Have Registration prepare a temporary badge if needed.
• Relocate Donations: As the auction approaches, transfer the donations to a secure location near the main stage.
• Financial Preparation: Obtain change, a receipt book, and a cash box from the registration team for use at the charity auction. Note the amount of change received, you must return that exact amount back after the auction!

Charity Auction:

• Manage the Auction: Oversee the auction, ensuring all proceedings run smoothly. The main stage team will handle the show. You will be needed for organizing and handling the items before and after they are on stage.
• Handle Finances: Use the cash box to manage cash transactions. Track all sales in a receipt book. Date the sales receipts, at least with year (eg. "2023") so we can keep the paperwork straight

Post-Auction:

• Charity Handoff: Immediately after the auction, hand over all money raised to the charity representative.
• Return Cashbox: Return the cash box with the same amount of money received for change to registration. If needed, registration can break large bills.
• Report Amount Raised: Put the amount raised into the Philanthropy chat channel. Provide the amount to the main stage team for announcement at Closing Ceremonies.

Post-Convention Follow-Up:

• Solicit Feedback: Reach out to the charity to thank them for their participation and for feedback to improve future events.
• Documentation: Document all processes and procedures for future reference and knowledge transfer.

Remember, challenges may arise such as unresponsive charities, time constraints, or last-minute donations. Always be prepared to adapt and overcome these challenges, and don't hesitate to ask for assistance or coordination from other teams.