Guest blog post written by Kyle Koelbel, Arizona State University graduate and Educational Leadership Consultant for Sigma Pi, a leading men’s Fraternity.
We always want more money to operate with. We always want to see our money working for us, and we want to get the most out of our money. Yet in the fraternal world, too many chapter members don’t see their dues going as far as they could, and too many men decide not to join due to the upfront cost of the fraternal experience. They lack an understanding as to the return on their investment that they could see.
As it is with all aspects of a fraternity, a chapter’s success starts and ends with its membership. Sometimes, we lose out on a great opportunity for the quality men that we always preach about because we’re too focused on the dollar sign. We lose men in two ways; one is by providing insufficient information to our potential members and their parents in the beginning and the other through a lack of programming. What can we do differently?
List fees during recruitment
If you were to look at the recruitment materials produced by your chapter and your chapter website, would you find a complete breakout of fees and dues that are required of members? For most of you, the answer is no. Why does membership cost have to be a secret? We continuously lose men during their new member process and just prior to initiation because they did not know how high the cost was going to be. Why can’t we be honest about dues in the beginning?
Choose your leadership wisely
The men leading your chapter are the ones that people look up to and answer questions to potentials and their parents. They set the tone for how the chapter will operate for the upcoming term. Taking the time during elections to listen to each candidate, ask questions and make educated votes as to who those men will be are crucial to your chapter’s success. Too many times during an election, men run unopposed, they have short speeches and are asked no questions about their knowledge of the position. There is focus on what they will work to accomplish if they are to be elected. How does electing a treasurer with no idea of where the chapter could improve on its spending help the chapter? Just because a brother is a Finance major does not mean he has the drive and determination to complete the duties of his office to the extent the chapter needs.
Accept advice from alumni
Yes, a member’s time as an elected leader for their Chapter is a learning experience, one that will help them for years after they leave college. But it does not mean that it must be a time of reinvention. There are always alumni who are willing to help, provide insight, and double check what is being done to ensure that the direction the chapter is going is a positive one. While your chapter may not have a direct alumni advisor for a position, the fraternity HQ employ alumni members to provide that support and guidance when necessary.
If we work on these simple steps, we can begin to see our dues work for the brotherhood in ways we did not know were possible. Let’s get to work!
Kyle Koelbel is from Denver, Colorado. He attended Arizona State University where he studied Urban Planning. His experience in fraternity finances comes from being President of a 120 man chapter and overseeing a $350,000 annual budget for his Chapter at Arizona State as well as serving as the treasurer for the ASU IFC and its $80,000 budget. He is currently working as an Educational Leadership Consultant for Sigma Pi.
Over the last few months, we’ve started noticing a trend in the Greek world of men’s organizations moving toward using an organized system to manage their finances rather than manual processes that vary across each chapter.
At Billhighway, we’ve seen a steady increase in signups from men’s Greek organizations, both at the chapter level and headquarter level. So what does this tell us?
“Men’s organizations are beginning to notice how much value financial management systems can bring by conversing with their female counterparts,” says Kellee Montgomery, Marketing and Social Media Lead at Billhighway. “Women’s organizations using Billhighway have seen an increase in their overall chapter cash that can now be put back into their organization, exactly what Fraternities are after. Being able to see drastic results from one system makes using Billhighway a no-brainer. “
With features like convenient member payment options (mail, echeck, phone, credit card or Facebook), advanced reporting tools, collection services and 24/7 online support, it’s not surprising that more and more men’s organizations are choosing Billhighway and experiencing immediate results within their organization.
Interested in learning about how Billhighway can help your chapter or organization? Send an email to sales@billhighway.com or tweet me at @billhighway.
Donations drive change. When your business, nonprofit, club or team depends upon donations to function to the highest potential, your supporters are the fuel to your organization. With donation-giving on a decline, your organization should focus on improving the donor experience and engaging supporters in the fundraising process. Your organization can increase fundraising efforts with these three simple steps:
Interactive fundraising through social media allows donors to feel like they are part of the organization, and directly making a change. Youtube is a great forum where your organization can simply upload videos to promote your campaign at no cost. You can show the people you have helped and where past and future donations are going. People will see the difference they can make and want to help. Videos can easily be shared by viewers, and prompt those interested to visit your organization’s website.
Create a community of supporters. When people feel part of a community they feel an obligation to help when they are asked. Integrate a Message Board onto your organization’s website where your supporters can communicate with each other. Supporters can post pictures, share what the organization has done for them, and ideas to help further. Here supporters can invite friends to get involved and further grow your donation base.
Implementing these fundraising tactics can engage supporters and help your organization to create fruitful, long-lasting relationships with your donors. Try to focus not only on increasing donations, but increasing supporters and improving the donor experience. If supporters feel included, your organization will have no problem collecting donations.
If your organization would like to use Billhighway’s donations functionality, including the ability to create a custom donations URL to share with your donors, please contact us at sales@billhighway.com or call 248-273-0074.
The Greek organization is built on the foundation of leadership and service. Hundreds of hours are spent each year giving back, whether it is to a local community or national charity. But as wallets and bank accounts are slowly pulled tighter and tighter, fundraising and collecting donations requires more creative and strategic approaches to get donors involved. Here are some fundraising strategies your chapter can implement to increase your chapter donations:
Provide a donations link on your chapter website. With more and more people turning to a paperless lifestyle, adding this feature to your website will provide supporters with the convenience of safe and secure online donations, accessible throughout the year rather that exclusively during fundraising events. If you are interested in learning more about what online donations can do to improve your chapter fundraising, visit http://www.billhighway.com/donations
Feature testimonials from your members to show donors how your chapter is making a difference. Your donors want to know how the five or ten dollars they donated helped support and educate the fight against Breast Cancer or bought books for a child in need. If you can make donors feel included in your fundraising efforts, you will create a long-lasting and fruitful relationship.
Establish your presence on several forms of social media; it is the perfect way to reach many audiences at no cost. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn allow your chapter to advertise and promote upcoming events and fundraisers while educating people about your organization and cause.
Send hand written “thank you” cards or emails. Your donors are your chapter’s most important asset, so it is imperative to prioritize them and build relationship with them! A simple “thank you” after money is donated or time is volunteered can make donors feel appreciated and included in your chapter efforts.
Collecting donations is a challenging but necessary task for all chapters throughout the Greek community. By implementing these four simple fundraising tactics your chapter can build awareness for your cause, promote your organization and increase your chapter donations!
Question: How does your chapter increase donations?
Collecting donations can be a difficult and overwhelming experience for any organization. With Billhighway’s new donations function, your chapter can start focusing more time on your cause and less time on collecting and distributing donations.
The donations functionality allows your organization to remove all the barriers to fund-raising and charitable giving by leveraging Billhighway’s technology – and vast non-profit experience – to provide a trusted and secure environment in which to collect, process, and distribute donations. Available exclusively to Global clients, the donations function provides a straight-forward, easy-to-follow process that allows supporters to effortlessly locate, select, and donate to the organization of their choice.
Through this innovative system, your chapter has the opportunity to take advantage of the many features that make the entire donating process easier to promote, manage, and organize:
Create your own custom link to drive donors and supporters directly to your organization (for example, http://donate.billhighway.com/MyChapter). Send your personalized link to your donors or embed into your group’s personal website to let visitors know how to donate and help spread the word. By creating your own personalized link you can make donating easy and accessible to anyone from anywhere.
Convenient and Secure ways to donate whether donors choose to contribute using their bank accounts or credit card (MasterCard, Visa, Discover, and American Express). Billhighway’s secure system protects the financial information of donors and safely transfers banking and credit card donations. Billhighway never sells, trades, or gives out personal information to any third-party or organization.
No Time? No Problem. Donate without clearing your schedule! Attending an organization’s fundraiser or event used to be the only way to donate and support the cause. Now, through Billhighway, donors can give money without being at the event. Supporters can simply click on your custom link and donate to your organization, without the pressure and stress of clearing their schedules. Now everyone has the opportunity to support your cause, whether out-of-state, traveling the world, or running the kids to soccer practice.
Billhighway’s donations feature is an easy way to increase chapter and national fundraising efforts, engage alumnae, and provide a quick and secure way to support and give back to your organization! Through the implementation of the donations feature your chapter will gain supporters from around the world and financially prosper, allowing you to better support your organization and, most importantly, your community. Billhighway’s donations feature not only allows your chapter to make a difference, but allows anyone who supports your cause to make a difference also!
If collecting donations through Billhighway could help your chapter, contact your Headquarters to let them know you are interested. It may be coming soon!
Tips on budgeting for one and all – Common man and organizations
Budgeting is equally important for all – may it be the common man or the business organizations. Budgeting helps a man to stay within his limits and save money from the everyday expenditures. It also helps a company or an organization to maintain the business in a more balanced way. Budgeting is important as it helps you to spend money in a structured way and thus maintain a debt-free life.
Budgeting for the common man
Budgeting is the basis of staying debt free. When you formulate a budget you are able to see the exact income and the expenditure. When you are able to see the total income and the total expenditure, you realize what your affordability is and how much you should actually expend. You may be able to cut down on your expenses as per your affordability. So, prepare a budget based on your income and expenditures and also remember to modify it according to the changes in both the fields.
Budgeting for organizations
If you are a small organization, budgeting is important for your business. If you want to run your organization successfully, you should formulate a budget. A well planned budget can help you to get an actual idea of what your income is. Thus, you will be able to plan your expenditures accordingly in relation to your goals. This will help you to stay away from debt and thus in all probability your business may not fail. So, how can you create a budget?
Creating a budget
In order to create a budget, you will have to:
Record sources of income – In order to prepare a budget you will have to record all of the sources of your income – monthly salary, any other part time jobs, income from investments, web marketing, selling items online, etc. In case of a business too, you will have to include all of the sources of income.
Make a list of all the expenses – Then you will have to list all of the monthly expenses – fixed and variable. Fixed expenses are those that remain the same each month while variable expenses are the additional ones that can change each month. Both common men and businesses have fixed expenses and variable expenses.
Gather all of your financial statements – Financial statements include bank account statements, investment account statements, utility bills, statement on source of income and expenditures.
Total income and expenses – After this sum up the total income and expenditure separately. After you do this, you get a more or less clear idea on your total income that is your affordability and your expenses.
Adjust expenses as per your income – When you get a rough idea on your affordability, it helps you to adjust your expenses accordingly. If you adjust the expenses according to your affordability, it may help you to stop incurring huge debts. Thus you will be able to maintain a debt free life.
Review the budget – It is also important for you to review your budget from time to time according to the changes in your financial condition. Your income may increase or decrease with time. Your expenditures can even go out of control. Thus, it is important to review and modify your budget according to the changes in your income and expenditures.
You can also make use of budgeting software and a budgeting calculator to formulate an error free budget. Moreover, such calculators are available online for free. Thus, you can see the importance of budgeting in your everyday life and for your business.
About The Author
Grace Ruskin is a contributing financial writer of Financial Solutions Hub . She provides Information on debt related issues and has also written many articles on topics related to finance. http://financialsolutionshub.blogspot.com/
Today in America, a television series hosted by football great Terry Bradshaw that informs viewers on a variety of topics, recently sat down with us and wanted to share how Billhighway has become the leader in Financial Performance Optimization. Billhighway brings real results to real clients, and we’re proud to continue serving hundreds of thousands of membership-based organization members each day.
Watch the video here:
The segment will be airing now thru the beginning of 2011 on stations throughout the country including ABC, NBC, Fox Business, CNN Headline News and CBS. Keep your eyes out for airings!
A special thanks to Phyllis Grissom and the Tri Delta team for appearing in the segment.
We’d love to hear what you think! Share in the comments below.
It is your responsibility as a parent to teach your children to be financially responsible. But let’s face it—every parent struggles with this task. Because we want our kids to have a better life than we had, we tend to say “yes” to things that teach them the opposite. Parenting requires a strong will and the knowledge that being steadfast on some issues now will help your children become responsible adults in the future.
I found three simple tactics went a long way in teaching my children to be financially responsible. Once they were college-bound, it became even harder to stand firm on these principles, but in the long run, winning the battles paid off.
1. Learn how to say NO
This word is the most important word in your arsenal of teaching financial responsibility. You should begin using it with the “terrible twos” and amp up its use during the teen years. It is especially important when choosing a college. Don’t let your teenager railroad you into choosing a college that is beyond your financial reach and sends them plummeting into student loan debt. Besides, choosing a college is about finding that perfect fit, not about choosing the most expensive or most well-known. Colleges who are interested in your teen will offer a financial incentive and those are the colleges you want them to attend.
2. Teach them the difference between “wants” and “needs”
This is a lesson that all parents should instill in their children. Knowing the difference between wants and needs will save them from being encumbered in debt. If they learn this lesson they won’t need a credit card to buy pizza when they have already paid for a meal plan in college. It is as simple as asking yourself this question every time you want to make a purchase: do I need this, or do I want it?
3. Frivolous spending has consequences
We have learned recently that students are graduating from college with large amounts of credit card debt. Additionally, they have made poor choices regarding student loans and are unable to find a job that provides the means to repay them. Purchasing things (including a college education) without thought for how you are going to pay for them is insanity. And yet, the majority of consumers make that decision every single day. If you teach your children about the consequences related to frivolous spending, you will be saving them from a stressful life and preparing them to have a strong financial future.
Parenting comes with responsibility. We want our children to be happy, but we should also want them to be financially secure. Adopting these three simple strategies will help you teach them financial responsibility.
Parent college coach Suzanne Shaffer counsels parents in the college admissions process and the importance of early college preparation. As a parent herself, she knows the trials and tribulations—and is out to prove that with the proper preparations, any child can achieve his/her dream of a college education. Her Parents Countdown to College Coach blog offers timely college tips for parents. Her Parents Countdown to College Toolkit provides parents with all the resources necessary to help their college-bound teens navigate the college maze. She is a regular contributor on GalTime.com and ClassesandCareers.com.
Microsoft seems to have fixed the error we reported on earlier. The error message from SmartScreen incorrectly recognizing the Billhighway site as unsafe has been removed. You should now be able to login into Billhighway without any issues. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Microsoft Internet Explorer is incorrectly recognizing websites as unsafe, including Billhighway. Until Microsoft resolves the issue with their SmartScreen technology, please use an alternative web browser when visiting Billhighway. We expect Microsoft will have this issue resolved quickly.
Please be assured your account information with Billhighway is safe and there is no threat to your computer or your personal or financial information.
To get around the SmartScreen Filter error (the red screen), turn off SmartScreen Filter in Internet Explorer.
In IE, click on Safety – SmartScreen Filter – Turn Off SmartScreen Filter.
Darlene Oswalt, a ZTA parent and AOII advisor, wrote an blog post for Sorority Parents about managing Greek finances through Billhighway. We’re honored to be mentioned! We are thrilled to be able to provide users with positive, enjoyable experiences that can truly make a difference within their organizations.
“The great thing about Billhighway is that you can click and pay specific items and not the whole bill. So we can pay what we agreed to and Emily will need to pay for t-shirts, formal tickets, souvenirs, etc.”
Last week, Yahoo Finance posted an article about changes to traditional checking accounts which may affect the funds in your personal or group account.
Several banks may start to charge fees to your checking account if you would like to have paper statements, utilize a bank teller or just to operate a checking account through their establishment.
“Almost all of the largest U.S. banks are either already making free checking much more difficult to get or expected to do so soon, with fees on even basic banking services.”
Fees can be avoided in some banking institutions by switching to an “eBanking” system that is entirely online.
To learn more about your personal checking account, please contact you local bank.
Not everyone graduated with a degree in finance. We understand that sometimes trying to understand what is going on with your money can be confusing. We realize that using these particular terms can be unavoidable and we want to take some of the confusion out of the financial jargon. Below are a few commonly-used finance terms and their appropriate definitions as they relate to Billhighway.
Accounts Payable – Money owed to the organization.
Accounts Receivable – Money owed by members of the organization.
General Ledger Postings – An online statement in which the accounts of an organization is kept. The general ledger contains the accounts that list revenue and operating expenses (for example building costs, housing, etc.)
Bank Reconciliations – the process of matching and comparing figures from accounting records against those presented on a bank statement. Less any items which have no relation to the bank statement, the balance of the accounting ledger should reconcile (match) to the balance of the bank statement. Bank reconciliation allows companies or individuals to compare their account records to the bank’s records of their account balance in order to uncover any possible discrepancies.
Are there any financial terms out there that confuse you? If you have any terms you’d love to have clarified to make using Billhighway easier for you, please comment below or send us a tweet for Financial Terms 102: The Follow-Up!
On Wednesday, October 13, 2010, Billhighway’s CEO Vince Thomas spoke at the E2 Conference sponsored by TechTown at Wayne State University in Detroit. This event brings entrepreneurs together with business leaders, authors, investors and others for a program that both educates and inspires on how to create a business in a down economy.
Vince sat in on a panel discussion on “How to Market Fast in a Lean Launch” speaking to how entrepreneurs can still succeed in a down economy.
“Think out of the box, get ultra-creative, constantly be thinking of new and improved ways to do things, be open minded and keep working and changing” -Vince Thomas
Vince had the chance to discuss this topic with some great minds on the panel including Nolan Gottschalk of Shutterbooth, Paul Chambers of Core 3 Solutions, Chris Ygay or Revilize Day Spa and Scott Newman-Bale of Shorts Brewing.
Bank Systems & Technology had two very good articles posted Tuesday. One by Art Gillis about the lack of technology used by BIG banks and the other by Matt Gunn on the subject of mobile banking.
As I was reading these articles I couldn’t stop thinking about some of the easy “wins” banks could leverage that would bring both value to the customer and more revenue to the bank. Below is an excerpt from the Matt Gunn article…
“Research published by Aite last year showed that some banks were slow to roll out mobile banking services because of a perceived inability to generate revenue through that channel. Additionally, many banks that do offer mobile services to retail customers, do not offer mobile services tailored to the needs of small business clients. The research found that mobile offerings for small business could potentially be a source of revenue for banks, with 27 percent of the small businesses Aite surveyed indicating they would be willing to pay for the service if it were offered by their primary institution.”
I think banks are missing the boat. There is no doubt mobile will have a place in every aspect of our lives at some point and every company should be thinking about it. But mobile is NOT a “service”, it’s a means to access services just like our computers. That’s like saying our computer is a “service” and the banks should charge us for using it to access their services. Trying to figure out how to charge us for “accessing” bank services is just plain ridiculous. Banks need to allow us access to their services through all types of access points. These multiple and convenient “access points” pay for themselves by reducing the number of employees the bank needs to answer all of our stupid questions by email and phone. That’s where the banks can reduce costs, and ultimately create happy, loyal customers.
Banks need to focus on the actual “services”, no matter how we get to them. Banks touting they now offer mobile so they can PR it up and create some buzz to be cool is worthless if the services accessed through mobile are less than adequate. And, if you’re charging me to use mobile and the service has zero value then it’s a double fail. Banks need to start looking at services like Mint. Intuit just bought Mint, but the ability for people and businesses to begin accounting for everything they do with their cash can be immensely valuable. Individuals need and want to better understand where their income goes. Businesses should have a suite of receivables management and accounting tools at their fingertips through the bank. What better place to do this than in the system that is tracking the cash. Give us some “services” like that, which we would gladly pay for as an individual or business AND let me access them through mobile – NOW we’re talking value!
Guest blog post written by Kyle Koelbel, Arizona State University graduate and Educational Leadership Consultant for Sigma Pi, a leading men’s Fraternity.
