Autism Speaks U October Q&A Transcript 

Xavier University, Emily Riepenhoff, Provisional

University of Michigan-Dearborn, Danya Berri Chapter President, Official

Boston University, Jaclyn Sessel, Vice President, Getting Started

University of Missouri, chapter president, official

Case Western Reserve University, Jessica Taylor, President, Official chapter

Hannah Khederian, Director of Advertising, Miami University

Marquette University, President, Provisional

Liberty University, Kristin Lock, Provisional

Depaul, Kelly Sherman, Vice President, Official Chapter

Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Kristen Kozminski, co-president, getting started

Boston College - Margo Rizzi/chapter President, official

Penn State, Andy/president, provisional

University of Connecticut, Sarah Montanaro, Fundraising chair, official,

Case Western Reserve University, Catherine Smith - Marketing Officer, Official

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Maura Manning Community Outreach Chair, Official Chapter

Indiana State University, Aerial Kirchoff, Chapter President , Provisional

University of Utah, Brittney Burt, Fundraising Chair, Provisional.

University of Maryland, Dillon Nussbaum-Future Chapter President

university of South Florida, Georgette Dumpert, Vice President, official

Boston University, Caroline Kocent, Secretary, Getting Started

Stonehill College, Sadie-Lynn Tansey, Fundraising Chair, Official

Gettysburg College, Nicole Giles, VP, official chapter

Elon University, Co President, Official

Lindsay Limbacher. The Ohio State University, Co-President, Official

Tulane University, Chris Anderson - Treasurer, Provisional

University of Northern Colorado / Collin Cannon / Vice President / Getting Started

SUNY New Paltz, Danielle Franke (President), Official

University of Arizona, Laura Paul, Recruitment Chair

Towson University - Kayla Carter, President - Official

John Carroll University, Kirsten Dadowski, Fundraising Chair, official/provisional

George Washington University, Carly Walsh, Social Media Chairperson, Official

Case Western Reserve University, Ashley Killian, Vice President, Official Chapter

Texas Christian University, Megan Pruitt, president, almost provisional (minus conference call)

UMass Amherst, Stephanie Tufano, Co-President, Getting started

Marywood University, Tom Gansel, Web Coordinator

Cal State Fullerton, Co-President, Official Chapter

The College at Brockport, Cadi Baldwin, Sponsorship Chair

IPFW, Claire Enstrom, Director of Advertising, Official

University of Illinois, Maura Manning, Community Outreach Chair, Official

Florida Gulf Coast University, Dan Barbour, president, official

Fordham University, Emily Horihan - Corporate Chair, Provisional

SUNY Albany, Rebecca Oliveri, President, SA recognized, gaining budget for next fall

Slippery Rock University, Caitlyn Gallagher, Fundraising Chair, Provisional

University of Texas at Austin, Doris Kisel, President, Official

Bloomsburg University, Lindsey McAndrew-secretaty, Official

John-Paul Blix, Secretary Kaplan University, Provisional

University of Maryland, Dillon Nussbaum, Future Chapter President, Getting Started

Manhattan College, President , Provisional chapter

University of Massachusetts Amherst, Sian Wynter, E-Board Member, Provisional

Slippery Rock University, Mia Rhoades, Vice President, provisional

SUNY Albany, Rebecca Oliveri, SA recognized

Fordham University, Emily - Corporate Chair, Provisional

Pittsburg State University, Amanda Ravenstein, President, Provisional

Fordham University, Alex Minikes, Corporate Chair, Provisional

Northwestern University, Christina Hua VP of Fundraising, Official

Slippery Rocky University, Justin Grossman VP of Fundraising, Provisional

USC , president

University of Michigan, President, Official

West Chester University, Elise Lerario, Recruitment chair

Marywood University

Armstrong Atlantic State University, Olivia Singleton, vice president

University of Wisconsin La Crosse, Liz Hitzel, Advertising Chair, Official

University of Minnesota, Kate Parrott, Fundraising Co-chair, Official

University of Arizona, Jessica Ferlmann, Treasurer

Binghamton University, fundraising chair

Boston University, Jaclyn Sessel, Autism Speaks Walk, we nearly tripled our fundraising goal and raised $2,800, it took 3 weeks to plan

Collin Cannon, University of Northern Colorado: we have only had one fundraiser so far, but with one-and-a-half weeks of planning we raised $250 in a bake sale.

Slippery Rock University, Spaghetti Dinner, $750 approx., 1-2 months

DePaul: last April our chapter started and we participated in the Walk Now Now for Autism Speaks at Solider Field. We raised money and volunteered at the walk event. We raised over $1500 and we had just started earlier in the month!

Sadie Tansey, Stonehill College, Boys Soccer Game Dedicated to Autism Awareness, not sure how much was raised, took 4 weeks to plan

University of Connecticut, Walk, raised around $12k, took all semester to plan

University of Michigan, Basketball Tournament, $2,000, 2 months.

Northwestern University - Football Concessions (one game). We raised about $350 and it took 1-2 weeks to prepare for.

University of Missouri - Pie a Cubs Fan; there's a huge Cubs-Cards baseball rivalry at our school, so we had a pie-throwing fundraiser. We charged $4 per pie thrown. Our fundraising goal was $100, and we raised $163. It took us about one and a half weeks to plan.

Miami University Chapter just had a Happy Hour up at one of the bars Uptown - we sold cups at a cover charge and the bar offered drink specials if you had bought a cup.

Texas A&M University - one week of planning got us $330 from a bake sale! :)

Wilkes University. We are currently planning our first fundraiser since we are a brand new chapter. We are working on a restaurant week and have been planning for about 2 weeks. We aren't sure of a goal yet, but we're figuring it out.

Armstrong Atlantic State University- For Valentine's Day last year we had an "I Love Someone with Autism" sale where we sold balloons with candy and roses dyed blue. It took us about 2 weeks to plan and we raised about $200.

University of South Florida: we have not had an event this school year, but we are hosting a dinner night with a local restaurant and plan on raising at least 200 dollars that night. took about a week to plan

Marywood University, Five Guys Restaurant Fundraiser, 10% of the profits went to Autism Speaks I believe we raised close to $200. Didn't take too much to plan we just contacted 5 guys and they agreed we could do it for 3 days

Marquette University, Walk Now for Autism Speaks, 3 Months, $6000

Boston College, we participated in the Walk Now for Autism Speaks in Boston. We raised $5,500 through emails and contacting family/friends. We started fundraising a month and a half before the walk

Cal State Fullerton, Car Wash & bake sale, $1200, took about 3-4 weeks to plan

$88 dollars in 88 hours raised $740 before the Walk.

University of Wisconsin La Crosse, We had a bake sale and raised around $100 after running out of things to sell. It took about a week to plan.

University of Utah, Brittney Burt, we are about to do our first fundraisers this next week. We are working with a corn maze and haunted house. We will get 15% of whatever they make that night! It has taken about a month to put together.

Kate Parrott, University of Minnesota, this is our first semester and we have our first fundraising event tonight! It's a Karaoke night at a local pub, 10% of proceeds go to Autism Speaks, we're hoping for a good turn out!

Binghamton University, we are planning our first fundraiser. We are turning bracelets into keychains and selling them for $3 each. We hope to raise about $600

University of Illinois, band night at local venue, raised $400, took about a month to plan

Ohio State: We have our annual walk this Sunday and have raised over $3,000. Took 2 months to plan and lots of advertisement

IPFW, We are planning our first fundraising even of the year. We will be having bake sales at several local churches. We are also looking into setting up coin collection jars at offices/businesses around town.

University of Connecticut, selling bracelets, year round

DePaul, we haven't fundraised in the community yet but last year for our Cake Walk, we asked local bakeries to donate cakes to us

Manhattan College- we have not yet had a community fundraiser but we hope to do a community carnival fundraiser in the spring

University of Michigan, blue ribbons and food, April 2012

Xavier University, we are planning a Family Fun Night for December 1st, it has taken planning since our first meeting of the year. We are inviting the local community, as well as the autism community. We also have a canning event planned for Nov 9th! which hasn't taken as much time.

Gettysburg College, we are looking into doing bar nights with local businesses

Cal State Fullerton, Restuarant Week with about 6 restaurants in local downtown area, about $1,100 with 4 weeks of planning

Ohio State: Many of our officers and members are education majors who have placements/student teaching in local schools. We have asked staff and students in the schools for support. We have sold many tshirts and have received donations from local schools

Stonehill College, havent fundraised in the community yet, but we do work with a few local bakeries that participate in the bake sales year round

Northwestern University - canning in downtown Evanston, raised $360, took 2 weeks to plan

University of Wisconsin La Crosse, We haven't had a community fundraiser yet but have supported community events that benefit autism through volunteering.

University of Michigan-Dearborn, loose change campaign, $100, just started a month ago

Marquette University, were working to build a relationship with Milwaukee Center for Independence and additionally participate in local Autism Speaks events.

University of South Florida: we have not done anything outside of the community this year, but last year we raised money for the walk. Unsure of how much was raised - doing a dinner night and a yogurt night this month

Penn State, planning a sensory friendly movie night off campus for december. Kids get in free, charge tickets for parents and students

Danielle, SUNY New Paltz, Last semester we had a night at a local restaurant where 10% of proceeds went to Autism Speaks. It only took a couple weeks to plan.

University of Illinois- We have yet to do a community fundraiser yet but hope to this november

Wilkes University, we haven't had a chance to do a community fundraiser but we'll be looking into a few things at our next meeting.

Boston University, We are planning on doing a fundraiser once we are approved with the hockey team and with local restaurants, both of which involve community members

John Carroll University, we had kids from local autism schools/centers paint on dominoes and attached little clothespins to them to make picture/note holders, as well as attached magnets to the dominoes. We sold these around campus and during our homecoming block party.

Liberty University, Canning, This event is planned for the end of the month. Event goal $300

Elon University. We have volunteering in the local community but have not yet hosted a fundraising event within the local community.

Armstrong Atlantic State University-We recently held a "Thrift'n for Autism" event where people could donate their old clothes and shoes and we host a yard sale for the community so that we can sell the clothes and raise money. We are in the process of planning for the yard sale right now and so far we have been planning this event for almost a month.

Danielle, SUNY New Paltz. This year we are planning on working with the local center for autism (Anderson Center for Autism) to volunteer with the children.

Slippery Rock University. We are making our spaghetti dinner annual but we are trying to have it during the fall semester this year and see if we get an even better turn out. It is a great community event as well as students attending. It is on November 28th this year before the holidays since we also incorporate a chinese aution into. It gives local busniesses a way to donate holiday baskets!

Texas A&M University - we had a profit share at a local popular restaurant and invited non-members from the community to come

University of MN, we are planning on helping out at a Fall Festival with a local day program for children with ASD.

Armstrong Atlantic State University, When you are choosing a fundraising idea, let your personality and experience as a student be your guide.

Slippery Rock. Just be yourself, engage in conversation first and then tell them your intentions. Don't just ask for a donation right away.

University of Connecticut, we feel its best to let the students know what they are donating towards and how their donation is benefiting. We also incorporate facts about autism.

Armstrong Atlantic State University- We have learned that students love to feel like they are getting something tangible in return for their donations, or at least a chance for something tangible. That is why we try to give those who donate something in return such as candy, entry into a raffle, or some form of recognition, such as their name being on a puzzle piece posted on campus.

Towson University - choosing something different and making it your signature event!

Texas A&M University. Don't overload them with statistics - just let them know the basics regarding autism and Autism Speaks, and that you are here to help :)

DePaul, we try to have our fundraisers in the busiest part of campus and throughout the busiest times as well to catch as many people as we can. For our cake walk, we had a lot of left over cake so we walked around campus selling them to students studying.

University of MN, on our board we have many members who are personally affected by Autism. At large group meetings, they have been sharing their stories. Also, we encourage general members to join committees and become more involved in that sense (beyond donating money, but time).

University of Arizona, College Students LOVE food!!!

Gettysburg College, ask for donations at a social event that was free to attend

Marquette University, within the Speech Pathology and Audiology Department we held "class change challenges" and each year competed to win. Essentially, the prize was bragging rights. But it definitely worked!

University of Utah, Brittney Burt. We have found doing fundraisers at night on the weekends gets more students involved.

Bloomsburg University. Advertising is key in trying to fundraise on campus. It is important that you are personable and try to get as many people involved as possible.

University of Maryland, Choose things students will like and be more willing to participate in like tournaments for sports or raves

University of Texas at Austin- If you are tabling, don't be afraid to call people out as they walk by! If you don't they'll just keep on walking past your table! If you call out to them, a lot will stop by just to see what your club is about.

University of South Florida: we always do our fundraising on days that allows the organization this aims for people that really want to help, but we're always bubbly and make sure we say at least one fact when talking to other students, and make sure that we're inviting people to join us

Northwestern University - advertise your bigger fundraising events as much as possible (and start early)!

Miami University - Often times our fundraiser's are going on in busy spots on campus and people will be in a rush or not be super willing to give anyone the time-of-day. So one big tip is to give them something they are going to want to stop, listen for and ultimately make the donation. It's all about reeling them in, beyond that it's fairly easy.

Marywood U., emails, fliers and posters have worked for us especially fliers that we hang up around campus. People will see them and write the info on their hands or take a picture with their phone

Stonehill College, choose something that much of the student population will attend, so that you can appeal to a wide variety of students at once, show them who you are and dont hide behind facts and telling them to donate, show them how your efforts have helped and how their efforts can help

Binghamton University--Use the power of all your chapter members, not just your e-board. For example, we have around 60 members attend meetings. If each of them tells 5 friends to come, that is 300 non-members!

Fundraising at football tailgate

University of Wisconsin La Crosse, Pick a location and time when traffic is heavy when doing bake sales. This will give you more visibility and the opportunity to connect with more students. Also make sure that the presentation is neat and professional looking.

Slippery Rock University. A strategy we use is that we have a tri-fold board we have at every event saying who we are with pictures of what we have done AND STATISTICS. So we have 1 in 88 children. 1 in every 54 boys....etc. and that helps draw people in because they do not realize how much it effects children. So..the WOW factor helps when fundraising on campus.

Boston University, Make it personal and involve food! We like to share our own stories and also ask other people to share theirs.

Slippery Rock University, Showing the students real life examples of individuals who are affected by autism. It gives people a true connection to it. It also helps the students know where their donations are truly going.

University of Illinois. Definitely bringing the connection to students and knowing campus and the students walking by our table. Chalking the quad always works!

Wilkes University. We had a table at our campus club day event and we had so many students who showed interest based on their own experiences. Start conversations with them and share stories. Just be real and talk about upcoming events early.

University of Michigan-Dearborn. Always ask them if they know anyone affected by autism personally. They usually start to converse with us more and are more likely to give.

Armstrong Atlantic State University: Students aren't the only ones that are able to donate so remember to ask faculty and staff for donations as well.

Manhattan College- We just hosted an event called "Wake Up and Get Your Drink On" where we sold coffee tumblers and water bottles, with each purchase/donation they were able to fill up their cup. Since college students need coffee and water through the day especially with it being midterm week, we had a great turn out! I think picking unique fundraisers that will help out the students are the most effective!

University of Michigan- E-mails to fraternities and sororities have worked best for us. Flyers in local businesses have been effective too.

George Washington University, We went around at our first general body meeting and each student shared their personal connection with autism. Also, we plan on appealing to students with blue and white yogurt covered pretzels later this month when we table outside of our dining hall. So, whatever you do, make it personal and make it involve food!

Pittsburg State, We talk about our connections to autism and try to get other students involved.

Stonehill College, we have asked local bakeries to donate a tray of cupcakes for our bake sales at sporting events, they have all been more than willing to help

University of Connecticut, contacting local businesses and asking for funding ahead of time. We have focused on food places nearby campus.

DePaul University, For our Cake Walk last year, the officers went into local businesses and asked for cake donations. It was very successful and they were more than willing to help!

Bloomsburg University. For our walk, we had asked one of our local business to donate food. They had donated a lot of goodies that people really enjoyed!

University of Michigan- We reached out to local businesses to sponsor our annual basketball tournament. In return we received food from them, and we placed their logo on all our flyers.

Slippery Rock University, going to different businesses and simply asking them to help donate.

Penn State. We did some research on the Autism Speaks website and we looked for the corporate sponsors that benefit Autism Speaks, and we're working on targeting these companies first since we already know of a preexisting relationship.

Pittsburg State, We sent out letters asking for donations for our drawing and followed up with them. We got quite a few donations and some potential monetary sponsers for future events.

Wilkes University. We have had success with asking local restaurants participating in our upcoming restaurant week.

We've had a nearby donate cannolis for our bake sales.

Marquette University, phone calls/emails/business owners personal connections to autism! It affects so many lives, you never know what connections people have!

Cal State Fullerton, we have established connections with establishments and members of the community who are affected by autism. They heard about us via students on campus, alumni, or our local Autism Speaks reps. If there are others we need to branch out to for an event, we always utilize our sponsorship/media packet to explain what the event is and what materials we need from them

Northwestern University - We contact chains and local stores whenever we have big fundraising events. We ask them to donate coupons or food, and they are usually happy to help out!

Texas A&M University. Our amazing Sponsorship Chair went out to local grocery stores, restaurants, etc., and through them we were able to get gift cards to sponsor our bake sale, free pizza for our meetings, permission to profit share with them, etc. :)

Xavier University. Our sponsorship chair is currently in the processes of contacting local businesses for donations for our silent auction. The responses have been very, very successful! If you have the sponsorship packet, W9 and tax ID information things happen very smoothly!

University of MN, When asking for sponsorship we have explained the importance of what we are raising funds for! Also, we promise lots of advertising for their services.

University of Texas at Austin- With help from TKE, we were able to contact California Pizza Kitchen. They had donated to their frat before, and they willingly donated pizza for the autism awareness block party we hosted last April, too.

Armstrong Atlantic State University- We start by contacting business who have already established a partnership with Autism Speaks, like Toys R Us, to see how they would like to help out and they usually say yes because they are already familiar with the cause. Also asking business for things besides money. For example, we needed bottled water for a Walk that we hosted and we asked Publix to donate and they were more than happy to, giving us a buggy full of waters!

University of Illinois, we definitely ask for food and donations way ahead of time

Univeristy of South Flordia: we contact restaurants and other business that we feel would benefit our organization. We do this by talking about the organization and the difference we can make with their help. we also receive a large amount of funding from our student government

University of San Francisco, We simply went door to door at local businesses. Presenting the flyer for the event is huge because as soon as someone sees the puzzle piece and actually knows what it is, they become very interested to help.

John Carroll University, we had our fundraising committee go around and ask for donations. people were more than willing to help and a local pizza place offered to donate free pizza to help with our events

Armstrong Atlantic State University: Social networks and flyers are excellent but you should always have at least 3 or more forms of advertisement. Promote your events in BIG groups. In this case, you are letting your face be known on campus and you are spreading the word about your faster.

University of Connecticut, we promote events through facebook, twitter, flyers, listservs, word of mouth, and contacting related clubs and organizations on campus

DePaul Univerity, We have a Facebook and Twitter that we are constantly updating and posting pictures from our events on.

Binghamton University has a date-line email that goes out to every student, and we have put everything we've done on it.

Stonehill College, Facebook events, flyers and tabling have been the major ways we have promoted our events.

Elon University. We have found that making a Facebook event for our fundraised helps to promote our events.

UMass Amherst, Making 2 minute announcements in large lecture classes. Usually professors are supportive and will allow you to talk about an upcoming fundraiser events. Sometimes professors will offer extra credit points for attending an event which motivates students even more.

Xavier university. We have center pieces in our Caf and we're putting information about meetings and events. We've been sponsored in the university's news paper. Also, having a table in our student center

Univeristy south Florida: we are using Facebook and Twitter as a big advertisment for the different events that we are hosting. We also use flyers that we can pass out to the students

Bloomsburg University. Flyers were our main way to promote events as well as telling students involved in special education who would want to help. Also, fraternities and sororities were also informed about upcoming events.

Cal State Fullerton, our campus has a message portal (must submit 3 weeks in advance) that sends a mass message to ALL students... we utilize this often. For off campus and on campus we utilize our facebooks often by creating a flyer and facebook event for ALL events and requiring each member to invite all their friends

University of Utah, We made flyers and passed them out through the school districts in our area. By doing this we seem to have a big turn out. We also had local radio stations promote our event.

Armstrong Atlantic State University: Forward emails to faculty and staff on your campus so that they can forward it to their students and other professors.

University of San Francisco, We handed out candy during finals week with facts about autism. This brought people over to our table as well as gave them a good experience that makes them think of us as a helpful and fun organization. Retention is huge.

Northwestern University - we flyer all over campus, paint The Rock blue with white puzzle pieces to promote the organization, create Facebook events, send out emails over various listservs.

University of Michigan-Dearborn. We spoke in the classrooms where professors would be willing to offer extra credit to the students who attend the event.

Pittsburg State, we promote by posting on our Facebook page and flyers on campus and the campus Bulk-e's for all students.

University of Illinois- We chalk to quad which is an Illinois tradition

Texas A&M University. During our bake sale we had a sign-up sheet where people could sign up to learn more about Autism Speaks U and be on our list-serv. Hundreds of people pass by booths at our campus, so we had quite a few people sign up! We let them know about future events through email. Also, we plan to hand out little "Save the Date" cards with our future events on them the next time we have a bake sale, so that students don't have to take time to write down their name and email but can instead take a card and walk on. :P

University of MN, we emphasize a lot of social media efforts. Also, we ask professors if we can make a quick announcement before class starts (especially in classes related to Special Edu, Speech-Lang-Hearing Sciences, Psychology, etc.)

Slippery Rock University. Our state rep for Autism Speaks in Pittsburgh will put our flyers for community events in a newsletter to the community in general since our school is relatively close to the Pittsburgh.

Armstrong Atlantic State University- We use Facebook events, news coverage, articles in the school and local newspaper, flyers around campus and on community bulletin boards, Twitter updates, school blast emails, and we are in the process of making posters that center around the cause itself instead of just a specific event.

We advertise on Facebook twitter and have a flyer in our campus booklet and our campus televisions all around campus

Armstrong Atlantic State University: Send out text messages to all of your friends so that they can forward it to people they know and word about your event can spread fast.

Tulane University, an allegiance with Psi Chi and their listserv of 200 psychology students

Wilkes University. We have a student printing club on campus so they assist in making flyers. We promote events by word of mouth and during different events on campus. Also we promote events on social network sites and large campus clubs and organizations such as Student Government and the Multi-cultural Student Coalition are kept up to date on events and fundraisers.

Slippery Rock University, We post things on our chapter's bulletin board in our education building on campus.

Ohio State: We have always promoted events and our organization at our campus involvement fair

George Washington University, we post on Facebook and Twitter about all upcoming events!

Armstrong Atlantic State University: Make small slips of paper that has info about your event and attach them to pieces of candy and hand them out to students as they are heading to class.

Oh and we have mini flyers that have barcodes so people can scan it on the go and it takes them to the Facebook page.

Boston University, Facebook events, poster for Expo about new student groups, and the text messaging service - GroupMe

How did SUNY oswego get barcodes on their flyers?

What do you do when no one on campus carries cash?

Give enough heads up to students to have cash on them the day you're intending to get donations.

Try to find places off-campus to have fundraiser's or someplace that people will need cash.

Make sure you spread the word early so people are prepared, or host your event next to an ATM

John Carroll University, go door-to-door in dorms. people are usually more willing to donate when they know they have money in their room

Advertise early so that they know to carry cash on the day of your event

Slippery Rock Universtiy. Advertising ahead of time even for very simple events on campus will help so students know to bring cash that day!

University of San Francisco, Some schools allow you to pair up with your school's currency. Sometimes the money can only be redeemed through food or whatever is usually bought with the currency.

Armstrong Atlantic State University: To raise money for the past walk, we had a laptop ready with the link available at a meeting where they could donate money electronically through their debit and credit cards.

Or offer online donation option? People generally have internet on their phones these days.