UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The twofold mission of THON is to provide financial support to the Four Diamonds Fund and emotional support to Four Diamonds Fund families whose children are being treated for cancer, said newly appointed 2016 Executive Director Katie Mailey, and as the Penn State student-run organization grows, its leaders are focusing on safe and sustainable fundraising.
Mailey, a senior in the accounting MACC program, and outgoing THON 2015 executive director Megan Renaut, a senior majoring in psychology with a neuroscience option, spoke Thursday (May 7) with the Penn State Board of Trustees Committee on Outreach, Development and Community Relations about THON’s fundraising risk-management practices and the close-knit, personal connection volunteers have with the organization.
“We do a lot to make sure that all of our students are safe when they’re fundraising and that they’re knowledgeable about how to be safe,” said Mailey, who served as finance director for THON 2015. “Over the past few years, we’ve held fundraising safety workshops, and this year developed a fundraising safety e-course.”
More than 15,000 students get involved with THON each year by volunteering directly with the organization — the largest student-run philanthropy in the world — or with one of the group’s more than 400 participating student organizations. THON 2015 raised a little more than $13 million for a total of more than $127 million since the group’s inception in 1977.
The e-course is an online module that includes videos and a quiz. It covers the best practices for a wide range of fundraising strategies and rules for the group’s designated canning, or canister solicitation, weekends in the fall semester.
As an added safety measure, THON volunteers staff the organization’s HUB-Robeson Center office during canning weekends to take calls from student organization leaders with questions, observers who see students on the streets and other inquiries, such as from the local municipalities that student organizations are visiting.
Fundraising takes place at the overall THON level — through large-scale events such as the THON 5K and merchandise sales at the THON store, including the new physical store that recently opened in the HUB-Robeson Center on the University Park campus — and at the individual student organization level. While donations come in all year long, the fundraising window for student organizations starts in mid-September and runs through THON weekend each February.
“That’s the time we allow organizations to credit their funds, so they are fundraising on behalf of THON as their organization,” Mailey said.
The participating student groups are broken up into different categories, including special interest organizations, which exist solely to fundraise and participate in THON; general organizations, which exist for another purpose on campus but also fundraise for THON; Greek organizations; and Commonwealth Campus organizations.
“Within those groups, everyone has their own unique way of fundraising,” Mailey said. “Some organizations rely heavily on canning and sending THONvelopes while others do a ton of other fundraisers, such as holding events downtown at local restaurants or on campus or taking their fundraisers home over winter break.”
Beyond fundraising, one of THON’s most impactful programs — for students and Four Diamonds families alike — is the Adopt-a-Family program, where THON pairs Four Diamonds families with fundraising organizations.
“Student volunteers and families get to meet each other, hang out at events and often have a very close relationship with the kids and their siblings — they’ll go to baseball games, soccer games and music recitals. It’s really providing that extra support for the families that they can’t get anywhere else,” Renaut said. “It’s also powerful for our students, too, to have such a close connection to the cause. To see the impact happening day in and day out with the family with which you have such a close, personal relationship is a huge part of our organization.”
THON weekend, the culmination of yearlong family activities and fundraising, was held in February, and as the 2015 fiscal year winds down, Mailey and Renaut are already preparing for 2016.
“I think we’re in so many ways on pace with many professional philanthropies out there in the nation,” Renaut said. “One of the ways that we differ from many of those organizations is that we do have a high turnover rate and new faces every year.”
Mailey was appointed the new executive director in mid-March and selected her 2016 executive committee in April. The organization has a structured transition process throughout the end of each spring semester. Renaut is sharing her experience as executive director to prepare Mailey by meeting a few days each week to talk about the role and creating a final detailed report for this past year. Each past and future executive committee member does this with his or her counterpart.
“I think the fact that our leadership changes every year is such a unique thing about THON because it provides new faces and new ideas,” Mailey said. “You’re able to look at everything that was done before with a new eye and think critically about how we do things. It’s one of the most beneficial things about THON.”