Fund raising event targeted at the students of NUL. The event raised over M3000.00
At NUL, January marks the beginning of the second school semester. After settling into their academic life after Christmas break, students are usually itching for a buzz. As one of the prominent clubs at National University of Lesotho Campus, The Roma Rotaract Club had the challenge of connecting students to the Rotary brand while also raising money to fund the clubs community service projects. The club had to find a creative way to achieve this.
In light of this, the idea of Singles Night was born. It was an event for singles who were looking to mingle. There would be interactive activities like date auctions, karaoke, and performances by some local artists, complete with a DJ, stage lights and smoke machine. The event would raise money from the date auctions (where a panel of some of the most popular and attractive students would be auctioned to the highest bidder for a date), tickets and refreshments sale. This event would be effective because it would appeal to the restless students who were yearning for a vibe on campus. And for those who weren’t interested in making love connections, there were the performances by beloved local artists, KOT inferno, T-mech, and HBK.
As the President, I oversaw all aspects of the event but I took a more active role in persuading the panel and local artist to participate in the event for free. It was a challenging task that allowed me to use my interpersonal and communication skills. I aimed to persuade one of the more popular students to come on board, it would give us credibility and the rest would eventually follow suit. So, I invited Miss Lesotho 2016/17 to endorse the event. This event would appeal to her because of our club’s reputation for community service. It was part of her duties as Miss Lesotho to support causes that serve the community. And thus, she agreed to make an appearance.
In the following encounters with other potential participants, I relayed the importance of the work that we did as a club and preached the gospel of collaboration and unity for the greater good. In other encounters, I emphasized how their unique skills and persona will contribute to the success of the event. I found that mentioning the presence of Miss Lesotho significantly swayed the odds in our favor. As word spread around, more people were willing to participate and saw this as an opportunity to give back while having fun.
Because the event was for students on campus, I understood that word of mouth would be the most effective way of promoting the event, hence the panel of popular, attractive students. By using their influence- whether on social media or on campus-they would attract a lot of students to the event.
Nevertheless, we still other forms of advertising such as posters on campus and on social media platforms. Mainly, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram. We also promoted the event on the campus radio station, D.O.P.E fm.
On the day of the event, three hours before it was set to start, we were not allowed to use the venue because of logistical errors on our part. This was a huge blow. Immediately! I focused on doing damage control. keeping the club’s morale high was my first priority. I needed the whole team to stay positive and motivated even though everything was falling apart. I maintained a sense of optimism and decided to postpone the event to the following day.
My second priority was to maintain sturdy and positive relationships with all stakeholders; the panel, performers... etc. We quickly spread the postponement via social media. ticket money was refunded to those who requested it and we apologized. Some people had to pull out of the event and I apologized for inconveniencing them. But for every person who pulled out, I found another to replace them. It was important that we maintained the integrity of our brand.
It goes without saying, the event didn’t go as well as we had hoped but students thoroughly enjoyed themselves. over 100 students attended and we managed to raise M3000,00. we were also able to build strong relationships with stakeholders that continued to help us in future projects.