Some of the proceeds from this year’s UCLA Homecoming festivities will be donated to campus charities for the first time since Homecoming was reinstated two years ago.
At least $6,000 of Homecoming’s profits will be donated to UCLA’s official student charity, UniCamp, said Connor Brownell, Homecoming’s director of external relations and a third-year business economics student.
Homecoming is a weeklong celebrationthat includes a dance, rally and Saturday’sfootball game, among other events.This year’s game is against the University of Colorado Boulder.
This will be the first time Homecoming features philanthropy since UCLA’s Undergraduate Students Association Council brought back festivities in 2011.
This year’s Homecoming funds come primarily from the Associated Students UCLA Board of Directors Programming Fund, which contributed about $3,300, and the USAC Student Organizations Operational Fund.
The donations are aimed at reducing the amount of money student volunteers must raise to help fundkids’ participation in UniCamp, an outdoor summer camp for children from low-income families. UniCamp student volunteers typically have to raise more than $400 to fund each camper who attends.
By reusing supplies left over from previous Homecoming events, the Homecoming General Committee was able to focus this year beyond the festivities and fundraise.
“We were barely trying to keep ourselves alive (last Homecoming), let alone help someone else. This year, we’ve kind of got our feet on the ground,” said Kaitlyn Williams, executive director of Homecomingand fourth-year political science student.
The committee is also partnering with the Pediatric AIDS Coalition to host a Halloween Homecoming Dance tonight, because the Pediatric AIDS Coalition is a philanthropic tradition for UCLA, said Williams.
In addition to the funds raised by the Homecoming Dance ticket sales, committee members said they plan to fundraise through Homecoming tank top sales.
From the dance’s 1,000 ticket sales alone, Pediatric AIDS Coalition and UniCamp will receive $4,000 each, Brownell said.
Brownell added that he estimates a minimum of $2,000 will be raised for UniCamp from tank top sales.
The minimum prediction of $6,000 funded toward UniCamp could send nine kids to the camp, as well as fund resources such as facilities, transportation, food and equipment, said Connie Lau, UniCamp program enhancement director.
Tiffany Ha, a second-year political science and international developmental studies student, supports the philanthropic aspect in this year’s Homecoming festivities.
Ha, who volunteered with UniCamp last summer, said she knows many volunteers who struggled with raising donations. If UniCamp chooses to invest the extra funds from Homecoming toward sending kids to camp, the funds could help alleviate fundraising stress for the students,as well as encourage more volunteers to join the camp program.
“Last year was so chaotic. (Homecoming) was so young,” Brownell said. “We needed to focus on the core events. We really reorganized this year.”
The Homecoming General Committee is also currently working with UCLA Recreation to secure corporate sponsorships for further funding.
Chris Dykas, an applied linguistics graduate student, said he had never experienced Homecoming events as an undergraduate student. Although he said Homecoming should publicize the philanthropic ties, he was not sure why it should act as an intermediary for the funds.
“The event itself is great for visibility and philanthropy, but I can’t help but think why you don’t give the seed money to charity,” Dykas said.
The Homecoming General Committee plans to make philanthropy a permanent feature of the festivities, Brownell said.