Sorority Fundraiser: Serenading for Cash

Say It With…Candy, Kisses, and More

One of the fun events of the year is when your chapter goes serenading. A great way for your pledges to raise money for their pledge class activities or your philanthropy is to use their serenading as a fundraising event. By selling items to give to different fraternity members, the pledge class can raise funds to meet their needs.

Before you plan your serenading event, you will need to decide what your pledges will sell. A simple idea is to have your sisters purchase hugs, slaps, and kisses for your serenading session. As you serenade each chapter, you can pass out your hugs, slaps, and kisses to each fraternity member that has earned it. Instead of having your pledges actually kiss anyone, you can hand out candy kisses.

Another way to raise money for serenading is to hand out candy gifts to fraternity members when your pledges go serenading. You can package the candy in unique sorority apparel and gifts. For instance, you can fill up a baseball hat with roasted peanuts or put jellybeans in a shot glass. You can even give sorority apparel and gifts that mean something specific. For instance, you can attach a key to a sorority keychain to tell the fraternity member that he has the “key” to so-and-so’s heart.

You may also want to order sorority apparel and gifts for your sisters to wear for the serenading event. For some chapters, serenading is a more formal event. Yet other chapters serenading can be enhanced through your sisters wearing sorority apparel and gifts like hoodies, hats, or necklaces to enhance uniformity.

Once you have your ideas in mind for your serenading fundraiser, you can then begin planning your date. Take into consideration the order time for your sorority apparel and gifts along with rehearsal time to set your date. You will want to give at least four to six weeks for your sorority apparel and gifts to arrive, and then you may need time to put gifts together, so you may need to set your serenading fundraiser at least eight to ten weeks out.

Once you have your date for your fundraiser, you will need your active members to order items from your pledges. You may just have two or three pledges in charge of orders, or your actives can turn in order forms. The order forms should list what items the sister wants to order along with what member of which fraternity receives the item. This will help your pledges keep track of what they have to bring to each chapter house. When creating pricing, your pledges will need to keep in mind the cost of each item and how much they want to make off of it.

Once all the order forms are compiled, you will need to order the sorority apparel and gifts that are to be handed out during the serenading event. While those items are on order, your pledges should be rehearsing the songs that they will be singing. You should have your Music Committee helping the pledges learn all of your sorority songs. Your pledges should also be developing a serenading schedule. They should estimate how long they will be at each chapter house and the order of fraternities they will be visiting.

Two to three weeks before your serenading event, you should be sending out your advertising. You can put up flyers in each fraternity house letting them know that your pledges will be visiting their chapter to serenade their members. Make sure you give a date and an estimated time that you will be at the chapter house.

The week before your pledges go serenading, they should be putting together the gifts that they will be handing out and organizing them by chapter. They will also need to decide who will hand out each gift. It is not uncommon for an active member to want her little sister or pledge daughter to hand out her gifts. If your members will be required to wear specific sorority apparel and gifts, then those will need to be passed out a few days ahead of time.

The night of the serenading event, your sisters should go through a quick rehearsal before the first chapter house. Then they can enjoy the travels from fraternity to fraternity, handing out gifts and singing the night away.