Students up all night to help nonprofits

Daniel Parker
Contributing Writer

A piece of advice from Kyle Daileda, one of ten team leaders for Createathon 2015, is to avoid coffee before midnight at Createathon at VCU, a caffeine fueled event where students revamp nonprofits.

Createathon at VCU is a 24-hour event that provides nonprofits with pro bona marketing direction from students organized into teams.

Each CreatAthon at VCU team is comprised of five members, one leader, and four student volunteers. Leaders meet with nonprofits to get a grasp of the needs of each nonprofit. These team leaders can either just go with the suggestions from the nonprofits or students can introduce new ideas to help revitalize the nonprofit.

CreateAthon began in 1998. In 2007, VCU professor Peyton Rowe developed an academic model for CreateAthon OnCampus to be used for local nonprofits. Now known as CreateAthon at VCU, students have been selected for this year’s CreateAthon that lasts between March 12th and the 13th, over spring break.

Over seven years of events, VCU has worked with 76 total nonprofits and 543 students.

At VCU, students have redesigned logos and websites. In some instances, students have suggested changes to the name of the organization itself. All deliverables are created over 24 hours alongside other teams except for video footage, which is allowed to be made beforehand.

Alex Coyle was a team leader at a previous CreateAthon at VCU assigned MathScience Innovation Center, a nonprofit that offers STEM programs for grade school students.

“When you’re there with your team and all the clients are there and to just be there to have a formal meeting,” Coyle said. “Like, here’s what we all did up on the wall — look at all the work you can churn out in 24 hours. It was just really a great motivational booster.”

This year, ten nonprofits are teaming up with students. Peyton Rowe, the director for VCU’s CreateAthon, selects nonprofits based on whether they are stable enough to use the work offered to them.

“A lot of times, people think I’m going to volunteer and every nonprofit can benefit,” Rowe said. “There’s an art to matching nonprofits that are in a good place to receive pro bono, skill-based work like CreateAthon can provide.”

CreateAthon at VCU has a pool of money for each participating nonprofitorganization. This money is given to CreateAthon at VCU from donors.

One sponsor for CreateAthon at VCU is Carter Printing, which provides print services for the nonprofits involved in the event. A recent sponsor is VCU’s Alternative Learning Transformation Lab which is going to assist Createathon with technological support.

“The thing I love the most, because I’m a lifelong teacher, is it seems impossible to get up in front of a group of your clients at 8:30 a.m. after you’ve been up all night and make a passionate and persuasive presentation,” Rowe said. “But every single time the students do.”

Students interested in becoming team leaders can apply in the fall by taking MASC 467, a class called Nonprofit Project Development.

“When you’re there with your team and all the clients are there and to just be there to have a formal meeting” said Alex Coyle. “Like, here’s what we all did up on the wall — look at all the work you can churn out in 24 hours. It was just really a great motivational booster.”

This year, ten nonprofits are participating in the event. Peyton Rowe, the director for VCU’s Createathon, selects nonprofits based on whether they are stable enough to use the work offered to them.

“A lot of times people think, ‘I’m going to volunteer and every nonprofit can benefit,’” Rowe said. “There’s an art to matching nonprofits that are in a good place to receive pro bono, skill-based work like Createathon provides.”

Most nonprofits involved in Createathon have little to no marketing budget, so Createathon has a pool of money for each participating organization. This money is given to Createathon from donors.

One sponsor for Createathon is Carter Printing, which provides print services for the nonprofits involved in the event. A recent sponsor is VCU’s Alternative Learning Transformation Lab, which will going to assist Createathon with technological support.

A brand strategist for Altria — another sponsor of the event — mentored at one of the previous events providing assistance to students. Eventually Createathon taught Altria how to hold their own event. Since then Altria has held its own Createathon event in the fall for the past three years. Rowe hopes to gain more corporate sponsors to further expand Createathon, she was attending the event now for eight years as a mentor.

“The thing I love the most, because I’m a lifelong teacher, is it seems impossible to get up in front of a group of your clients at 8:30 a.m. after you’ve been up all night and make a passionate and persuasive presentation,” Rowe said. “But every single time the students do.”

Students interested in becoming team leaders can apply in the fall by taking MASC 467, a class called Nonprofit Project Development.