Planning Your Fundraising Year with Two Challenge Coordinators
The new setup for the 2025 Virginia Commonwealth University-Marquette Challenge presents an opportunity for programs to reevaluate their fundraising plans for the year. Following these changes, we chatted with two coordinators who will be leading their programs’ efforts to take advantage of the new fundraising calendar.
Tess Brinkmann is a first year DPT student at Marquette University, and Julia Betancourt is a second year at VCU’s DPT program. With a shared appreciation for the importance of physical therapy research, they are motivated to make this year their program’s best Challenge yet. Tess, who interned with the Foundation last year, mentioned how her internship made her “want to continue supporting the work they do and give to physical therapy research.” When speaking about how they are preparing for the 2025 VCU-Marquette Challenge, both Tess and Julia highlighted several different ways to plan successful events.
Although both programs share a common goal of raising funds for physical therapy research, each one has distinct events planned for this year. Tess is part of a team planning a joint event for Marquette that combines a luncheon and an auction while Julia is planning a golf tournament, cornhole tournament, various spirit nights, and a merch order for VCU. To inspire your planning for the 2025 VCU-Marquette Challenge events, let’s explore how each coordinator is organizing their activities.
In January, Tess and her fellow coordinators began their initial preparations by determining the event venue and selecting the menu, which required contacting various individuals and touring potential locations for the luncheon. Her main piece of advice for people who are also in search of a venue is to start looking early. Once they solidify their plan, they will begin promoting the event to their network and reaching out to the community for sponsorship opportunities. Finally, their event will take place this fall right after the pinning ceremony for the third-year students. “We found that hosting a luncheon really allowed us to celebrate this accomplishment with the third years,” Tess mentioned. Having started the planning process, Tess offers the following advice for hosting a successful event:
- Be on a team so you can divide and conquer. Lean into each others’ strengths!
- Early communication with people is critical to getting more students, alumni, and practice owners involved.
- Establish a main goal. For example, hers is to get more people to attend than last year.
Julia’s advice and planning process looks different than Tess’s, as she must prep for various fundraising activities. For the golf tournament, coordinated by the VP of the second-year PT program and a committee, the initial months are dedicated to emailing potential sponsors and securing sponsorships, as the venue remains consistent each year. Meanwhile, for the cornhole tournament, she is starting by picking a local brewery and later will plan the actual round-robin and bracket-style tournament. The smaller activities, such as spirit nights and merch orders, require less planning and can be easy additions to your list this year. The spirit nights include a proceeds night at an ice cream shop, a bake sale, and March Madness events. With all the events she oversees, Julia’s advice is still similar to Tess’s:
- Surround yourself with people who will help with planning. You need a team of people to support the coordinator.
- Reach out to the community.
- Host events that you and your program are interested in.
- Encourage attendees to donate what they can, rather than setting a minimum donation amount for events.
No matter the types of events being held, the Foundation is grateful to all PT and PTA programs who participate in the Challenge. Tess and Julia are prepared and ready to make this the best Challenge yet. Are you?