Online fundraising is no longer unique to colleges, but online fundraising auctions are. For the second year, Hamilton is partnering with an online auction house, charitybuzz, in a three-week event that features opportunities to bid on a range of unique experiences as well as tangible items. Most have been donated by alumni or procured through their professional contacts.
Some of these other once-in-a-lifetime offerings include:
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a visit the set of The Office and lunch with show writer and star Paul Lieberstein ’89 [details] |
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Internships at The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia and at In Touch Weekly |
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a walk onto Heinz Field to meet the Pittsburgh Steelers team and then upstairs to watch a Steelers game in the owner’s box [details] |
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four tickets to X Games 16 at the Los Angeles Coliseum. [details] |
Funds raised will go to scholarships for New York City public school graduates who are planning to attend Hamilton. Sara Weinstein ’02 initiated fundraising activities two years ago. Last year’s auction raised more than $75,000 according to Mary Evans ’82, Hamilton’s executive director of principal gifts.
“This auction offers priceless experiences. We have been able to successfully solicit these auction offerings because the proceeds support both low income New York City public school graduates and Hamilton College. Our generous donors have a commitment to one or both of these causes,” said Weinstein.
The first recipient of the New York City Scholarship Fund support, Abdel Abdelghany, will graduate on Sunday, May 23, from Hamilton with a world politics major and an economics minor. He attended Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics high school in NYC where he graduated with an advanced Regents diploma.
Because it is an online auction, charitybuzz is accessible to bidders around the world. Currently more than 110 countries are represented by participants. “Working with charitybuzz allows us to reach a far broader network of bidders, far beyond the Hamilton community. We are free of the overhead costs of staging an event, and we aren’t faced with upfront costs with no guarantee of a return. All the dollars raised in this auction represent profit with the exception of a reasonable commission paid to charitybuzz,” Weinstein observed.
Other charities that have worked with charitybuzz include the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, Children’s Dream Foundation, Barnard College and the Center for the Advancement of Women.
