George will be leading a solicitation drive today from 1-4pm for those of you who are interested in getting started and want to test the waters in a controlled setting. There are presently two options for the event: (1) the gw/foggy bottom area businesses by foot or (2) Pentagon city via the metro. If you are available to help, please e-mail me at gwu at law dot gwu dot edu. We will meet in the Kelly Lounge (first floor Lerner). For either option, you can skip out after the first hour if you have to, but I prefer if everyone can at least participate for two-hours (three would be ideal). I will provide all the neccessary paperwork, but please do come presentable and with a big smile on your face.
We also need some sober monitors for the actual auction and the only training available to us is on Thursday, February 5, 2004 at 6:30pm. The auction is of course on Thursday, April 8. I am not sure how many hours it will take yet, but if you are interested in helping out, please e-mail me at gwu at law dot gwu dot edu by Sunday, February 1st. We need several people to accomodate the ~300 students we expect and the four hours of the event, so please do come out and help. Both the hours you spend in "sober training" and the hours you spend actually at the auction will count toward your volunteer hours, so this would be a great option for those of you who are less excited about soliciting donations.
In addition to the links and ideas Aly T. posted below, Andrew reports that the Georgetown and NYU auctions are also much bigger than GW's. GULC reportedly raised something like 200 or 300K a couple of years ago, according to a student there, who said she thought they gave out 135 grants. She also thought a large part of that money was matched by the school administration.
A 2L at NYU said NYU guarantees a grant to every single student doing PI work. Their event is a huge deal; they sell tickets and the auction is open to the general public as well as students. They auction really high item stuff. For example, a recent item was Super Bowl tickets and tickets to Paul Tagliabue's (NFL Commissioner) post-game-party (or something like that), donated by Tagliabue. And that's typical of the donation caliber.
These are major league auctions at major league law schools. With our continued effort here at GW, and perhaps with additional assistance from the administration, perhaps we'll be able to achieve results like that. Our goal this year won't be to raise $200-300k, though. We'll be happy with $50k, thanks. ;-)
Thanks to the skilled and efficient paper-folding and envelope-stuffing talents of John, Eric, Veronica, Claire, Michelle, Andrew, and Christine, nearly 400 letters are now in the mail to potential EJF Auction donors. We'll begin following up those letters with personal visits to each potential donor next Friday. One idea was to try to hit all the bookstores around the city next week with a special request to hold one or more signed copies of any books for which they're going to have author signings between now and April. Stay tuned for details on that.
Meanwhile, be sure to check out Aly T's great ideas about possible ways to raise money for the auction, and the types of donations we might solicit. If you have any ideas to add, please do so in the comments to these posts.
If you need more inspiration, look at Michigan's auction: They raised $63,000 in 2002! Here's part of how they do it:
To ensure the continued success of this critical fundraiser, SFF relies on the donation of exciting auction items to lead the bidding higher. Recent items have ranged from flight instruction to autographed sports memorabilia, from lunch with Mike Wallace to lunch with Ben Stein, from a private Supreme Court tour to paintball with a Ninth Circuit judge.
If they can do that in Michigan, we can do it here at GW! Start thinking about who you know and what they might be able to donate that will bring people to the auction and get them to bid like crazy!
Robert Sabuda, paper artist extraordinaire and perhaps the best pop-up book artist the world has ever known, has donated a signed copy of his biggest book ever: Alice's Adventures In Wonderland. "A popup book?" you say? Trust me: You have to see this book to believe it—the popups are simply incredible. As you know, "Alice" is one of the best-loved children's books of all-time, but it has also generated a new cult following in the wake of "The Matrix," ("You take the red pill and you stay
in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.").
Thanks, Mr. Sabuda!
In another attempt to get creative in order to improve the auction, the idea of a summer earnings drive has been tossed around. Basically, the idea is a donations drive at the law school, to get students with paying summer jobs to pledge some of their summer earnings to the EJF summer scholarship fund. At some schools, they call it a 1% club, encouraging students to pledge 1% of their summer earnings. Other schools suggest a donation of 1 day's salary. When you are getting paid bunches at a law firm, this adds up to some good money for the EJF fund! Still other schools just expand this concept and hold a no-holds-barred pledge drive at the law school in the spring, asking people to contribute anything they can from their summer earnings. This could be a HUGE success and new tradition for EJF. The schools that do this bring in $8,000- $11,000 from students alone! That is not even including law firm matching programs!
We should not be hindered by the fact that we have not done this before, or the possibility that it might not work perfectly the first time around. Let me know what you all think about this, and ways we might be able to implement the drive.
Other schools w/ pledge drives:
Penn State (Dickinson):
"Students Funding Students Campaign: One of PILF’s main fundraising activities is the Students Funding Students Campaign, a one-week pledge drive in
which students and faculty receive T-shirts, mugs, hats, and pens in return for their generous contributions to fund fellowships. Faculty members pledge matching funds for each class year.
Columbia:
"2002 PILF Summer Salary Drive
Raises Over $10,000... Students working for law firms typically pledge from $150 to $450, while students working for public interest or government organizations usually pledge from $10 to $50. All of the money raised through the Summer Salary Drive goes directly to Columbia Law students through the PILF Student Funded Fellowship program. "
Notre Dame (PDF)
Seattle University pledge donor form
Stanford: (from their 2001 annual report)
"Summer Pledge Drive: The 2000 Summer Pledge Drive raised $11,570. Of that amount, $8,650 came directly from student contributions, and the remaining $2,920 came from law firm matching."
So, in an effort to improve our auction, and at the same time, not reinvent the wheel, I looked up what other law schools do at their auction. The key things that they do, which we do not are: get cash donations from students, law school matching funds, law firm donations (oftentimes matching what their student interns donate), and more high profile items (walk on parts for TV shows, signed memorabilia, trips, hotels, etc.).
For a sampling, check out some of these websites:
Duke
Penn
Harvard
Stanford
University of Michigan
Columbia Law
Berkeley Boalt Hall
So in my mind, the key to a super moneymaking auction is lots of cool items. My goal is to get things donated that are beyond the typical gift certificates. Here are some ideas I have gleaned from other schools' auctions, and some of my own. I really want to hear some replies on this, and encourage open brainstorming. So PLEASE post some of your own ideas as well!!
signed books
stuff from TV shows or movies (t shirts, hats, mugs, etc.)
signed movie scripts
autographed pictures
sport memoribilia
Tivo
Wine of month
homemade food items
nights in hotel
networking lunches:
***GW alums in law firms
- famous alums or professors?
- Lunch with congressmen?
- With the dean
- Nonprofits
- Government officials
Classes by skilled students (dancing, arts, cooking, etc.)
signed seating charts (apparently a big ticket item at Harvard Law)
tours of DC w/ notable people
And so on...
let me hear your ideas!!
Thanks to everyone who helped us stuff envelopes last night, the hardest part—matching letters with labels—is finished. However, now we need to add a donation form to each of the approx. 400 envelopes so we can seal them up and send them out, then sit back and reap the rewards of hundreds of donations pouring in (we hope). So:
What: Envelope Stuffing Party
When: Tomorrow (Friday 1/23), 1 p.m.
Where: Hard lounge (look for a table with lots of envelopes on it)
Why: Because you're a rockstar (and maybe also because you'd like to log a volunteer hour for the auction)
Please come join us if you can!
Thanks to everyone who came out to the Auction Kick-Off/Info Session tonight. It was great to see so many people interested in the auction! If you didn't get a copy of the info packet, all the files are available for download in PDF form on our Volunteer Information page.
To recap for anyone who missed the meeting or had to leave early:
Also, if you missed the meeting but are interested in volunteering for the auction, please email Todd Chatman or George Wu to be sure your name is added to our list. We'll send an email to everyone soon with more details about soliciting.
Finally, if anyone has any ideas or suggestions or questions, please email us or post them here by clicking on the comments link below.
Welcome to the 2004 EJF Auction, everyone!
Heads up: Yale Law School is hosting the 10th Annual Rebellious Lawyering Conference from Feb. 20-22 in New Haven, CT. Workshop and panel topics include: civil rights generally, reproductive rights, AIDS/HIV activism and law, latino/latina civil rights, women in prison, drug policy reform, and much much more.
Cost: $22.50, and free housing is available if you register ASAP. Is anyone planning to go? Note: That's also the weekend of the GW Mock Trial competition, in case you're participating in that.
As we begin soliciting donations and recruiting volunteers, it strikes me that it would be a great thing if we had a list of past recipients and the kinds of things they did with their grants. The names of the recipients wouldn't be so important, but a list of the jobs they did during the summer would: a) give potential donors a more concrete idea of why it's important to give, and b) give potential volunteers a more concrete idea of the types of jobs they should seek if they want to make sure they qualify for a grant.
Does anyone have a list (or could anyone generate a list) of the jobs past EJF grant recipients have held?
A new version of the 2004 EJF Auction website is now online. Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Please use the comment link below to provide feedback.
Thanks to Ali, Maggie, Andrew M., Ethan, Alyson, Julie, and George for your help at the auction planning meeting last night. Here's a quick update of what we discussed:
We decided to move the Auction Kick-Off/Volunteer Info Session to Weds, Jan 21, 5 p.m. This will give us more time to publicize the meeting and get all materials ready. If you're making announcements in class or otherwise helping to get the word out, the details as of now are:
When: January 21, 5 p.m.
Where: L202
I hope to have flyers in my mailbox by tomorrow that you can all take and post around the school—I'll send a message around when the flyers are ready.
We also discussed the mass mailing we're going to send to potential donors next week (thanks for revising those letters, Ethan!), alcohol questions, how much work we're going to require of volunteers, and how to conduct donation canvassing runs and manage volunteers.
Question for Jocelyn: Can we get pizza for next week's meeting? If so, let me know ASAP so we can include that on the flyers and other publicity.
As for our internet presence/advertising,I hope to move this site to a different location soon so that we can use this URL for a general auction info page. I'll let you know when that happens. If anyone would like the ability to post information and updates here, please let me know and I'll set that up.
Hello everyone and Happy New Year and New Semester!
As of yesterday, the EJF Auction was exactly three months away, so it's time to begin planning and working in earnest to make it happen. To that end, George, Ali, and I met yesterday to get things rolling. For all the juicy details, see the (mostly) complete notes from that meeting.
The two things we need to do right away are:
Those two priorities involve lots of smaller tasks, so the three of us thought it would be great if we could all meet next week to finalize the plans and settle all the details. Please let me know which of the following two meeting times would work best for you next week:
If we can meet Monday, we could have the Kick-Off on Weds 1/14 (5 p.m.), which would be a good thing because that evening is also a mock trial info meeting night so many people will be sticking around the law school for that. Other possible times for the Kick-Off meeting include Thurs 1/15 (if we're not meeting then to plan it), or Wed 1/21.
Please use the comments link below to let everyone know if you can meet next Monday (1/12) at 5 p.m. I'll post a followup message by Monday morning to let everyone know if we're meeting and, if so, where.
Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Click the comments link below and fire away...