Alternative Spring Breaks

It’s spring break time again. Lots of college students are headed down to various tropical locales to drink, sleep and sun themselves on the beach. However, more and more schools and organizations are offering alternative spring breaks. Students who sign up may travel to an area that needs help and volunteer for several days, or stay where they are and volunteer locally. Most students coming back from Mexico say that it was “the experience of a lifetime”. The students on the alternative spring breaks would probably say the same, and actually mean it.
When I was in college, our campus ministry department had a staff member whose sole responsibility was to organize and recruit students to go on multiple trips “mission trips” throughout the year. This was not to say that the students were out preaching—it was faith through action and social just oriented than anything else. There were local trips, national trips and even a few international trips. All of them were amazing, and some even gave college credit!
When I was a sophomore in college, I traveled to Americus, GA to work with a group from my school and to learn about the history and mission of Habitat for Humanity and to help build a house in one of the Habitat communities. During the few days that we were in Americus, we lived together in a large Habitat-owned house, and cooked, cleaned and entertained one another.
I remember calling my father after our first day of working on site and giving him a stern talking to because I was 20 and had just learned how to use a hammer! I was absolutely horrified that I had just learned this basic life skill.
During this trip my eyes were opened to more than just my lack of manual labor—I also saw some poverty, and learned about what a great mission Habitat for Humanity was. We met Millard Fullard (the founder of HoH) and his wife, who were able to talk to us a bit about how they live and why they have done everything that they have. We spoke with people who have been recipients of Habitat homes and how their lives along with their living situations. Because of my experience, I continued to volunteer for the local Habitat chapter during my college career, and support Habitat as much as I can.
I support these alternative spring breaks very much, but only if the students are in the frame of mind where they WANT to volunteer, learn and experience. The traditional spring breaks are good—students work hard and they should have fun. But sometimes, they feel the need to give back. As these alternative spring breaks become more popular, graduating students will have a more worldly view and know what it feels like to give back, and to make a difference in someone’s life.

Personalization of donations

One of things that I have noticed recently in fundraising is that donations have become more and more personalized, and donors are able to have more control over where the funds are going. Heifer International was one of the first organizations that did this. Donors are able to choose which animal they are going to donate and learn about how that particular animal helps its recipients.

Now, more and more organizations are doing this--including Habitat for Humanity and others. I think that this is really an amazing idea, and more nonprofits should get on board with it. it seems like every product that we purchase can be personalized or made to order, and as society moves towards this, nonprofits need to be able to follow suit with donations.

The other day, I was in the grocery store where they were having another fundraiser for a local food pantry. The greatest part about this was that they had brown bags of food all over the store with the contents stapled to it. A customer could choose the amount of the donation and the contents of the bag for the food pantry. I thought that this was particularly great as some people remember how great macaroni and cheese tasted when they were hungry, or only wanted to donate $6 worth of great food.

On a personal note, my siblings and I made a donation in honor of our aunt and her family to Heifer International. We had decided the amount of the donation, and then looked at the animals that we could get for that amount. After studying the catalog, my sister decided that she REALLY wanted to give a bee hive. This was a bit more than the amount that we had decided on, so we each pitched in a little more because the bee hive was the donation that we wanted to get.
Although we are probably the exception and not the rule in this case, we did donate more because we knew what we were getting for the donation. Nonprofits may be able to capitalize on this and get even more donations!