Team 5: Raise a Glass to Raise a Roof

Project Description:

Team 5 held a fundraiser for Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) of Chicago and Northwest Indiana (CNI). The fundraiser was a social event at Chicago Joe’s (located in Roscoe Village) the night of May 19th, where a split of the revenues went towards the organization and the remainder to the venue. We sold wristbands for $40 at the door.  Attendees had access to various drinks from 7pm-10pm. $20 was donated for every wristband sold. At the event, we had table tents and other materials talking about RMHC-CNI and ways to donate. In addition to the sales, we hosted a 50/50 raffle where the winner took home 50% of the total money collected and the other 50% went to RMHC-CNI. RMHC is a global organization that supports children and families by delivering programs and services in more than 63 countries and regions. We focused on the Chicago & Northwest Indiana (CNI) chapter. The mission of RMHC-CNI is to care for families of children with complex medical needs by providing comfort, compassion and a sense of community. RMHC-CNI keeps families of hospitalized children together in a ‘home away from home’. They have 5 local houses in the Chicago and Northwest Indiana area, 3 local Family Rooms, sponsor a scholarship program, and Care Mobile.

Charity Description:

RMHC is a global organization that supports children and families by delivering programs and services in more than 63 countries and regions. Our team focused on the Chicago & Northwest Indiana (CNI) chapter. Their mission is caring for families of children with complex medical needs by providing comfort, compassion and a sense of community. RMHC-CHI keeps families of hospitalized children together in a “home away from home”. They have 5 local houses in the Chicago and Northwest Indiana area, 3 local Family Rooms, sponsor a scholarship program, and Care Mobile.

Factual Analysis:

Our goal was to raise awareness and funds for RMHC-CNI. We did marketing on Facebook inviting all of our friends and family members. We also posted our event on various student organizations’ Facebook pages, so more people would get to know our charity and help us for fundraising. The larger reach, the better probability. We expected $200 in donations through our dedicated site outside of the event. The team knew not everyone would be able to come or wants to come to the event. We wanted to have a way for them to contribute outside of the event. We also planned a 50/50 raffle. Our goal was the sale of 20 raffle tickets at $5 per person for an eventual revenue of $50 after the payout to the winner. We intended to reach our minimum attendees (36 x $10 = $360) and get our minimum goal donations outside of the event ($200). In addition to the 50/50 raffle, we would reach our overall goal of $530. After the event, we received more onsite donation than online donation compared with what we expected. The final amount donated to RMHC-CNI was $566.

Lessons Learned:

  • Do your research
    • Locations
    • Alternative opportunities
  • Pick a strong team
    • You do not know it all
    • Be resourceful to be successful
  • Never rely on weather
    • Especially in Chicago

5) Advice for future teams:

  • Take control of Project Scope – When our team edited our event proposal, we wanted to ensure that what we added was necessary and helpful for the event. We tried to avoid adding irrelevant items that could miss critical deadlines.
  • Use applicable programs for communication – Our group used WhatsApp as a quick and convenient tool for group chat because it would be easier for all group members to go over 30 messages than 30 emails. We also used Google drive to share all documents and photos for our project. Our team tried Trello, which is a great project management application. However, we preferred to use WhatsApp and Google Drive. Choosing applications or programs that fit the team will be helpful for the project.
  • Set a deadline for each task – There were many small tasks in the implementation plan, so deadlines can keep us on track of the progress of all tasks. If one of us miss the deadline, our project cannot keep going without those small steps. We marked “To Do” and “Done” next to our tasks as the status so we can keep our project moving forward in a limited time.
  • Keep in agreement on a common goal – Each team member comes from different backgrounds and has different ways of doing things. We had various ideas about charities when we started the project. Rational persuasion was helpful for us while we made decisions and agreements. Alignment of all our ideas was important for us as a team.
  • Plan well on risk management – It is important for the team to have a well-planned risk management because there are many unpredictable conditions, such as weather. Our selected venue has both indoor and outdoor areas for the event. Our team anticipated raining on the day of our event, but we did not expect it to be held on the coldest day of May. Risk management plan can make the team confident and calm if an unexpected situation happens.

6) Project Photos:

Team Members:

Members of Group 5, from left to right, Alex Berestenko, Mark Bechtold, Kate Andorka, Yuting Wei, Ziyan Yin, Ivan Espinosa.

RMHC-CNI Website:

Flyer:

Event Photos:

   

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