Students raised more than $50,000 in the first day of the Alumni Fund Telethon, a fund-raiser where students contact alumni to solicit donations.
Adriana McGrath '95, one of the student interns who organized the telethon, said after just an hour and a half, student volunteers had already raised $15,000. By the end of the afternoon, the students received 307 pledges totaling $54,377.
The College hopes to raise $500,000 and get 5,000 pledges by the end of the nine-day telethon. Last year, students received 4,600 pledges for $517,000.
Even though last year the telethon raised $100,000 on the first day, McGrath and Joe Whitworth, the Alumni Fund's assistant director, still said they are hopeful that they will reach their goal.
They said last year's telethon began strong but reached a lull toward the middle. This year, they said they hope to heighten student involvement as the telethon progresses.
Whitworth stressed the importance of student volunteers in making the event a success.
"Any type of fund-raising is volunteer driven," he said. "If we don't have people making calls, we won't be able to get the pledges."
McGrath said the alumni that will be contacted have all been very generous to Dartmouth in the past. She said the key to reaching the goal is to have a lot of students calling a lot of alumni.
"The only real thing between us and our goal is numbers," McGrath said. "We need people."
Whitworth said several different campus organizations have volunteered to contribute to the fund-raising effort. A night for Undergraduate Advisor groups and fund-raising contests between Older and Wiser groups have been prearranged.
"We're hoping for a lot of support from first-years," Whitworth said.
Whitworth said he thinks alumni enjoy hearing from freshmen and that it is beneficial for freshmen to hear alumni recount their positive experiences at Dartmouth.
Last year, Whitworth said, several student volunteers received job offers from alumni they contacted.
Whitworth said another volunteer called an alumnus who was having a party.
When the alumnus passed the telephone around, the student caller received seven pledges from that phone call.
Janet Heiss '95, an intern at the fund-raiser, raised $1,000 after just three phone calls.
"We definitely just need to make sure that everyone around the college knows what is going on," she said.
"With the commitment of students, we well definitely accomplish -- even exceed -- our goal."
