Dartmouth has raised more than $200,000 for Partners In Health in its efforts to assist victims of the January earthquake that devastated Haiti, over $100,000 more than the second-highest PIH fundraising effort at Stanford University, according to Student Body President Frances Vernon '10 and data from the Stanford University Haiti Earthquake Response web site.
The College's endeavors have resulted in more than $180,000 in donations to the PIH Web site, over $16,000 raised by students on campus and several thousand dollars more from efforts by Dartmouth graduate schools, Vernon said.
Dartmouth's fundraising strategy has served as a model for students at the College's peer institutions, according to Vernon. Organizers at several institutions have asked Students at Dartmouth for Haiti Relief to review their own strategies and SDHR leaders have posted videos outlining the group's efforts on its web site, said Alex Schindler '10, co-chair of SDHR, the organization that has coordinated fundraising efforts..
"We've definitely been in contact with other schools throughout the nation," she said. "Definitely there's been a collaborative spirit."
Total fundraising at Northwestern University recently surpassed the institution's initial goal of $8,000, Peter Luckow, a student at Northwestern, told the Associated Press.
"Just by the numbers alone it's clear that students across the country can learn a lot from what [Dartmouth students] have been able to do," he told the AP. "One of things that's impressed me about [Vernon] and her team's approach is that this isn't just about short-term relief, it's really about thinking critically about these issues and thinking in a long-term way."
Maura Cass '10, a co-founder of SDHR, said that reaching out to other institutions has been an important part of SDHR's response to the disaster.
"Once we knew that [fundraising] was going well, we wanted schools across the country to get involved," she said. "Because again, this isn't only about Dartmouth."
Schindler said that a long-term view is important in Dartmouth's fundraising efforts, recalling a meeting that student organizers held in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake.
"That was very powerful that we were all gathered in that room together, but if we didn't make a pact to continue with [the fundraising efforts] for months to come it would be insignificant," she said.
Fundraising efforts have already equaled or surpassed Dartmouth's response to other significant disasters, according to Vernon. The efforts are not representative of a singular response, however, and instead reflect part of a broader Dartmouth culture, Cass said.
"There's a reason [College President Jim Yong] Kim chose to come here," she said. "It's something very unique to Dartmouth, and something very unique to the Dartmouth spirit."
Schindler, Vernon and Cass organized SDHR in the aftermath of the earthquake, they said, eventually deciding to donate all money to PIH, a non-profit health care organization co-founded by Kim.
"We were lucky enough to have President Kim here," Schindler said. "We were able to direct all our funds to PIH, knowing that 100 percent of our funds would be going to Haiti."
PIH has a clinic located 20 miles from Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, which remained largely intact after the earthquake, according to Schindler.
Student leaders met soon after news of the disaster emerged to coordinate efforts, Vernon said.
"Maura Cass is the [College] president's intern, and she met in the office with President Kim and his staff, and made him aware of the situation and that Dartmouth was going to develop a medical response," Vernon said. "And then [student leaders] met in Parkhurst [Administration building] later that day."
She said the group believed that students were willing to donate, but wanted to focus the College's fundraising efforts, she said.
"We knew that there were a lot of Dartmouth students that were really ready to volunteer, so we started to mobilize," Schindler said. "We wanted to really channel all that money into one place."
SDHR then formed eight separate committees concentrating in efforts from community outreach to bake sales in order to facilitate donations from several different areas of the Dartmouth community, according to Schindler.
"Say an a capella group was having a show at a fraternity one night, they could actually contact us [to donate to PIH]," she said.
Various campus organizations have since collaborated with SDHR to donate proceeds to PIH, Vernon said. The group helped coordinate two major fundraising events a community dinner days after the earthquake, "Haiti Uplifted," and a benefit concert Sunday, "Compas: The Haiti Relief Benefit."
"We're very far ahead of everyone else," Schindler said.
Donations from the benefit concert have not yet been calculated, she said.
