Year after year AEGEE has to deal with financial restrictions. With the economic crisis that reduced the possibilities for fundraising and the possibility that the European institutions will devote less funds to international non-governmental organisations, strong measures needed to be taken. In the last years AEGEE didn’t manage to conduct any extremely successful fundraising campaign due to the overload of work of the Comité Directeur (CD). These reasons led the previous Comité Directeur to suggest the creation of a new body that would help and support the European board in dealing with these tasks: the Corporate Relations Committee (CRC)!

Bringing together members with experience in managing corporate relations and members willing to learn more, the Committee includes three task forces: besides the one taking care of corporate relations, a task force will be dedicated to support the work for the Agora Fair, which showed in the past how useful (in financial and technical terms) it can be for AEGEE and its members, and another tasks force will work on Institutions and grants applications.

The idea is finally to help developing a great expertise in these fields. We want to be a valid help not only for the European level but also for the local level. Have you ever thought to contact a local company but wondered what would be the best way to do it, or even better wished to have support from AEGEE-Europe to show how seriously big the organisation is? With the help of CRC this should never happen again, as you will be able to find experience and support for your fundraising activities!

With the valid help of Kathrin Renner, our CD appointed member, and Pavel Zbornik, supporting mostly the work of the institutional task force, the CRC is ready to take over and help AEGEE get new light (-> more funds -> more activities -> more visibility -> more members -> more success in our lobby activities -> a step closer to our aim)!

If you would like to help out this committee to grow and let AEGEE grow as well as you would like to gain more experience in these fields, do not hesitate and contact CRC directly to join the team.

Written by Alfredo Sellitti, AEGEE-Salerno

I have a dream. A dream of AEGEE where money is not a problem. AEGEE where we have soup AND dessert at the statutory events (and ideally no participation fee). AEGEE where when AEGEE-Europe Headoffice (CD House) is very cold because the windows are broken, we say “No problem, we fix it “. AEGEE where we can reimburse our hard working European bodies for 100% of their trips. AEGEE where the disappearance of the General Subvention affects only a minor part of our budget. 

But most of all, AEGEE where we have no problems in supporting our internal education events, our projects, our thematic work. Where money will not be the key obstacle in implementing our ideas.

Merely a dream? Certainly not, if you look at other youth Non-Govermental Organisations (NGOs). And not necessarily for us.

At Agora Enschede, a new committee has been started that will work on making this dream a reality: the Corporate Relations Committee (CRC). Consisting of three different task forces, the CRC will work on applying for new grants, contacting sponsors,  finding new partners for the benefit of AEGEE and its members, shortly: on bringing money to our association.

The Corporate Relations Task Force is responsible for the constant development of AEGEE-Europe’s fundraising strategy. It will research and contact different companies and corporate entities to promote AEGEE and the possibilities it offers in order to create more opportunities for AEGEE members.

The Institutional Task Force will support the Comité Directeur (CD) and European level bodies in writing applications for different institutional grants. It will also support local level by advising and assisting in the process of writing institutional grants and research new opportunities for AEGEE-Europe in the institutional fundraising (such as different foundations and charities).

Finally the Fair Task Force’s responsibility will be the constant development of the study and career fair concept during Agorae. This means it will contact relevant universities and other entities to promote the fair and it will be in charge of communication with local organisers in preparation of the fair. Moreover, it will work on the development, creation and promotion of merchandising materials of AEGEE-Europe in cooperation with the Public Relations Committe (PRC).

Now, fundraising is still a field where a lot has to be developed in AEGEE, but it’s also the one with the biggest potential.

If you have experience with fundraising, or you don’t, but you want to develop yourself in this field, if you have creative ideas  where to find money for AEGEE and if you want to be one of the super cool Corporate Relation Officers of AEGEE, the CRC is looking for YOU!

You can apply here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDk2aEg3bWt4YjRGdEYzQlVYM1Rvamc6MQ

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Luis (luis.alvaradomartinez@aegee.org) or Marko (marko.grdosic@aegee.org).

Written by Kathrin Renner, AEGEE-Passau