Team Captain Toolkit
Thank you for being a part of the SigEp Founders Day of Giving team!
The “chapter challenge” is the core of Founders Day of Giving. As a chapter captain, your work to rally chapter brothers to participate is critical. The chapter challenge gets alumni and friends from across the country — and the world! — excited about contributing to the impact of SigEp.
Chapters have a friendly competition to angle for the “Most Donors” and “Most Dollars Raised” challenges. There are serious bragging rights (and rewards … a trophy and a championship wrestling belt) on the line. But it’s really our 12,000 undergrads who win, because the funds raised directly support their experience.
Thank you for all you will do in the coming days to encourage SigEps and friends to support the SigEp Educational Foundation, providing life-changing opportunities for our young brothers!
Last year, chapter captains helped raise a record-breaking $1,100,000 on Founders Day. Once again, their work proved that a chapter with a captain raises 7 times more than one without. The increased costs of running our signature programs means that our “FDOG” goals are even higher this year. Captains like you are crucial to our success!
Our Impact
Our young men desperately need what our chapters provide. We must reach more of them, because undergraduates in 2023 face different challenges and have different needs than they did in 1901, 1990 or even 2019.
Through your leadership in Founders Day of Giving, SigEp can respond to the needs of our undergraduate brothers through:
- Supporting a chapter experience that creates communities of high-achieving young men built on meaningful relationships and a sense of belonging
- Empowering volunteer mentorship for students — 1,150 new volunteer roles filled thanks to Annual Fund support in 2022-23
- Enabling access to life-changing leadership programs despite rising costs: Carlson Leadership Academies, Ruck Leadership Institute, Tragos Quest to Greece, Grand Chapter Conclave, Career Coaching, Springboard, Life After College
With your help, the Fraternity can deliver a bigger and better SigEp experience that is just as transformative for today’s men as it has been for every generation of brothers since our founding. On Founders Day, we celebrate our founders’ legacy by providing resources through the Annual Fund to change young men’s lives and help them step into extraordinary futures.
What Does a Team Captain Do?
- Using our communications toolkit, send emails, post on social media, text brothers, and generally get folks ramped up to give. (All the templates are ready for you … being a captain takes very little legwork on your part!)
- Through our mass email tool in mySigEp, you can easily contact your chapter’s entire alumni base.
- Drive brothers to your chapter-specific FDOG webpage. (We're setting this up for you … again, this is easy!)
- Say thank you! As a captain, you’ll see who is making gifts. You can email them from within the giving platform to say, “You’re awesome, brother!”
- Chapter-specific giving pages will open Oct. 16, so you can get a jump on the competition.
- Founders Day of Giving is Nov. 1-2, 2023!
- In short, you have two weeks to rally your brothers and others!
- It’s an incredible way to celebrate SigEp’s founding — connecting with chapter brothers and sharing the value of SigEp today with alumni and friends! It’s a positive, proactive touchpoint.
- You’ll be a leader in ensuring your chapter is well-represented in the “Most Donors” and “Most Dollars” Top 25 listings. Brothers around the country will be watching our Founders Day livestreams and social media channels to see which chapters are angling for the top spot.
- Captains have fun engaging with alumni, sharing how the chapter is doing, drumming up some fun competition, and even paving the way to involve alumni in the future.
- Engaging alumni on Founders Day can make it even easier to ask for funds for Balanced Man Scholarships or SigEp Learning Community needs later in the year.
Gaining Team Captain Access to Your Chapter Fundraising Page
1. Visit the Founders Day of Giving landing page.
2. Click “LOGIN” in the upper right-hand corner. If necessary, click the “Forgot Password?” link.
3. Once logged in, you should be back on the landing page but now see this (below) in the upper right-hand corner.
4. Click the “Go to…” box to access your team page. You can ignore the “fundraising page.”
NOTE: If your chapter has more than one captain, only one person has a log-in, due to a limitation in the fundraising platform. Please let staff know if you have any trouble or need assistance based on this!
Your chapter’s team page is already created, complete with your university logo and a description of the Founders Day of Giving effort. You can start fundraising immediately without making any changes, or, if you’d like, you can customize your chapter’s page.
Through your Team Captain log-in on Classy, our giving portal, simply click “Manage” at the top of the page to update images, text and the fundraising goal. Click here if you need additional ideas or instructions as you make page updates.
Tips:
- Set a goal to motivate people to help you meet it! The default goal was set based on your chapter’s previous Founders Day of Giving fundraising (or $500 if the chapter didn’t participate last year). Can your chapter top it?! We think so!
- Editing “The Story” on the page is a great way to personalize it for your alumni and inspire them to give. You can add information about chapter members who have attended SigEp programs, or the specialized support the chapter has received in this unique year. (See “Our Impact” section above.)
- Team notifications are sent to the Captain’s email to keep you up-to-date on fundraising activities. You can control what you prefer to receive notifications about, like new team members, donations, progress toward the goal, and more.
Leverage your SigEp network — ask for support by communicating with chapter alumni via email, your personal social media channels, and the chapter’s social media channels.
From mass email to social media to personal calls or texts, outreach is key to rallying support. Your brothers want to hear from you. Research on fraternity/sorority fundraising shows that alumni want to help undergraduates succeed ... but they need to be asked!
You can use the communication templates and tools below to reach your brothers!
Communication
MySigEp is the hub for your Founders Day of Giving communication tools! As a captain, when you log into mySigEp, if you select the AVC that you're representing in the upper right corner, you'll have access to your Founders Day of Giving toolkit.
The toolkit provides:
- Access to a real-time list of Founders Day donors from last year and this year, so you can thank brothers and friends as they give or after Founders Day. This includes people who give online, as well as those who mail checks or make contributions through donor advised funds. Pro tip: Using this list can help you reference who gave in 2022 but hasn't yet made a contribution! Those are great people to follow-up with via email and text message on Nov. 1-2.
- The mass-mailer tool, which allows you to email every alumnus that SigEp has contact info for! This is your go-to tool to spread the message.
- A link to this communications guide, just to make sure all your captain info is in one place.
Emailing Your Brothers
As the team captain, you have been given special access to SigEp’s mass email tool in mySigEp, our online hub for all SigEp resources. This will allow you to send emails to ALL chapter alumni (who we have good contact info for) before and on Founders Day of Giving. It’s a tool SigEp provides AVCs to communicate with their alumni base!
If you have not yet logged into mySigEp, simply go to mysigep.org and complete your profile. These easy instructions will help you utilize the mass email tool.
We recommend sending several communications before, during and after Founders Day of Giving to excite members and invite them to donate. The email templates below will help you share the impact of donations to the Foundation, as well as play up the friendly competition of the Chapter Challenge.
Customize these with your personal touch, including the impact you’ve seen SigEp’s programs have in the chapter, and/or specifics about where the chapter is on the Chapter Challenge leaderboard.
Pro tip: You can directly email donors who gave via your chapter on Founders Day last year. From the email tool, in the "To" field, select "Last Year's Founders Day Donors." This is a great way to re-engage last year's donors and ensure they give again this year!
Subject: Join me in supporting [CHAPTER] on Founders Day of Giving
Brothers,
It’s almost Founders Day — the time of year when we help continue our founders' legacy by supporting our undergraduate brothers through the SigEp Educational Foundation Annual Fund.
Founders Day of Giving is coming up, and I ask you — and all [CHAPTER] brothers — to join me in giving back to SigEp and to our young brothers through a donation to the SigEp Educational Foundation on Nov. 1 and 2. Your gift will provide critical support and leadership opportunities to [CHAPTER] undergraduates.
Our chapter fundraising goal is $[GOAL], and with your help, we can blow that out of the water! Together, SigEps across the country are joining in to try to raise over $1 Million on Founders Day, and I know [CHAPTER] will lead the way.
Heck, don't even wait until Founders Day! Go to sigep.org/foundersday NOW to GIVE EARLY … and help advance [CHAPTER] in the nationwide SigEp Chapter Competition for most donors and/or most dollars raised. Don’t have to wait for Founders Day to make an impact.
[IF YOU HAVE A CHALLENGE GIFT: Brother [NAME, YEAR] is ramping up the competition and challenging us to give back! If we [INSERT CHALLENGE DETAILS], he'll donate [AMOUNT] to help move [CHAPTER] up the scoreboard
Thank you for supporting SigEp and our [CHAPTER] brothers!
[SIGN OFF]
Subject: Founders Day of Giving is here — Support [Chapter]
Brothers,
TODAY is the day — SigEp Founders Day of Giving. Over the next two days, we'll celebrate the legacy of the 12 young men who in 1901, gathered around the words “This Fraternity will be different."
Together with thousands of brothers and friends all over the world, I ask you to give today to continue the founders' vision and help [CHAPTER] men learn leadership and life skills during the most important time of their lives.
Will you join me in supporting SigEp’s undergraduates? Go to sigep.org/foundersday to make your gift now, and help us achieve our [CHAPTER] goal to raise $[GOAL] on Founders Day of Giving! And, we’ll be competing with other SigEp chapters across the country for the most donors and dollars raised, hoping that we can all together raise over $1 Million to benefit our undergraduate brothers.
Did you know that over the years, # [CHAPTER] brothers have benefitted from SigEp leadership programs like Ruck Leadership Institute, Carlson Leadership Academy, Tragos Quest to Greece, Grand Chapter Conclave, Life After College, and SigEp Career Coaching? These programs help equip our young brothers to lead and strengthen [chapter]! And your gift today makes sure that continues to happen.
[IF YOU HAVE A CHALLENGE GIFT: Brother [NAME, YEAR] is ramping up the competition and challenging us to give back! If we [INSERT CHALLENGE DETAILS], he'll donate [AMOUNT] to help move [CHAPTER] up the scoreboard.
So BROTHERS, PLEASE SHARE our CHAPTER GIVING PAGE far and wide to spread the word and make a difference for SigEps!: [CHAPTER GIVING PAGE LINK]
[SIGN OFF]
Subject: Only a few more hours left to give!
Brothers,
Can you believe that SigEp Founders Day of Giving celebration is almost over? With [$ AMOUNT RAISED] already raised from [#] of [CHAPTER] donors, we are [PROGRESS UPDATE ON YOUR CHAPTER GOAL].
I am so thankful for how you’ve stepped up to support our undergraduate brothers so far — but the giving isn’t over yet! In true SigEp fashion, help us exceed our goal by giving and sharing our Founders Day of Giving page with others: [CHAPTER GIVING PAGE LINK].
Our [CHAPTER] brothers need us. Did you know that over the years, # [CHAPTER] brothers have benefitted from SigEp leadership programs like Ruck Leadership Institute, Carlson Leadership Academy, Tragos Quest to Greece, Grand Chapter Conclave, Life After College, and SigEp Career Coaching? These programs help equip our young brothers to lead and strengthen [CHAPTER]! And your gift today makes sure that continues to happen.
Thank you again!
[SIGN OFF]
Subject: Thank you for supporting [CHAPTER] SigEps!
Brothers,
Thank you so much for all of your support during SigEp’s Founders Day of Giving. Because of you, [CHAPTER] was able to raise $[AMOUNT] to make a difference in the lives of our undergraduate brothers. Together we were a part of a nationwide effort, raising $[AMOUNT FROM HQ] that will provide SigEps with transformational leadership opportunities and support.
I want to give special recognition to these incredible brothers who contributed in our effort:
[LIST]
I am damn proud to be a SigEp!
[SIGN OFF]
P.S.: If you missed out on Founders Day of Giving, you can give anytime at sigep.org/give.
Leveraging Social Media
Spread the word about SigEp Founders Day of Giving on your personal media platforms!
- In EVERY post, share your team’s fundraising link (found in the browser when you’re on the page) or sigep.org/foundersday. Providing direct access to the giving page increases the likelihood that someone will donate to your team. The less work they have to do, the better!
- Encourage brothers and friends to GIVE EARLY, before Nov. 1! It can be easy to forget to give on a specific day, so get your brothers ahead of the curve (and the competition).
- Making a quick video or “going live” is a great way to share your story (or even asking the undergraduates to get involved in this).
- Use the sample graphics and posts! Tag @officialsigep to get featured on the Fraternity’s channels or in one of our Facebook live broadcasts.
- Tag brothers in the comments to get their attention.
- Provide progress updates through Founders Day of Giving (Nov. 1-2), including how much the chapter raised, who has donated, and where you stand in the Chapter Challenges.
NOTE: You will see the default link — sigep.org/foundersday — in all sample posts. You can update with your chapter giving link to make sure gifts are counted for your chapter’s goal and position in the chapter competition.
Feel free to customize the post, but always include the giving link.
And download the sample graphic to use with posts/captions!
Over the next two days, we’ll celebrate the founding of Sigma Phi Epsilon in 1901. It's also a great opportunity to give back for the 12,000 SigEps in college today. Undergraduates in 2023 face different challenges and have different needs than they did in 1901, 1990 or even 2019. So brothers, let's get together and put [CHAPTER] on the chapter competition leaderboards! #SigEpFoundersDayofGiving sigep.org/foundersday
In 1901, Sigma Phi Epsilon’s founders gathered around the words, “This Fraternity will be different. I’m giving today to continue the founders' vision. Together, we can change young men’s lives and help them step into extraordinary futures. Will you join me in giving back to support SigEp’s undergraduates? Give now at sigep.org/foundersday.
_____
As we honor our Founders and reflect on 122 years of leadership and brotherly love, it is more important than ever that we come together and give to the SigEp Educational Foundation, to provide brothers critical support and leadership opportunities. Will you rise to the challenge this #SigEpFoundersDayofGiving? Give now at sigep.org/foundersday
_____
Let's get [CHAPTER] in the Top 25! I’m joining thousands of SigEps in giving today to the SigEp Foundation to provide opportunities for our 12,000 brothers in college. You can see the leaderboards and give now at sigep.org/foundersday #SigEpFoundersDayofGiving
_____
We are currently [#] on the Chapter Challenge leaderboard. Help us climb, brothers! We need your support to make it happen … and to provide opportunities for today’s SigEp undergrad brothers. Join us and make a gift TODAY at sigep.org/foundersday #SigEpFoundersDayofGiving
_____
Time is running out to get in on the SigEp Founders Day of Giving fun! There is no better way to honor our founders than by enabling their vision in 2023. Will you help our undergrads raise the bar on campus? Make a gift TODAY at sigep.org/foundersday
Click on each image to download it.
Facebook Cover Photo
Facebook post image
Pair this with a caption and the link to give.
Instagram Post Image
Pair this with a caption.
Instagram Story Image
You can customize with your own text or tag brothers in the open space.
FAQ
Founders Day of Giving, held Nov. 1-2, 2023, supports the SigEp's Annual Fund. The Annual Fund is how the SigEp Educational Foundation supports every chapter across the country. It helps fund the national leadership programs that develop a generation of leaders and the local chapter experience that helps our young men fulfill their potential. On Founders Day, we celebrate our founders’ legacy by providing resources through the Annual Fund to change young men’s lives and help them step into extraordinary futures. Thank you for being someone we can count on to help celebrate this great day.
- From sigep.org/foundersday, hit “Donate Now.” Search for your university’s name in the “credit this donation to a specific fundraiser or team” bar.
- From sigep.org/foundersday, search for your university’s name under “Support a Team or Fundraiser.”
- Or use your chapter’s direct giving link provided by the Team Captain.
Through your Team Captain log-in on Classy, our giving portal, simply click “Manage” at the top of the page to update images, text and the fundraising goal. Click here if you need additional ideas or instructions as you make page updates. Email foundation@sigep.org with additional questions.
As the Team Captain, you have been given special access to SigEp’s mass email tool in mySigEp, our online hub for all SigEp resources. This will allow you to send emails to ALL chapter alumni (who we have good contact info for) before and on Founders Day of Giving. It’s a tool SigEp provides AVCs to communicate with their alumni base!
If you have not yet logged into mySigEp, simply go to mysigep.org and complete the login. These quick instructions will help you utilize the mass email tool.
Your generous donations to the SigEp Educational Foundation's Annual Fund responds to the needs of our undergraduate brothers by:
- Supporting a chapter experience that creates communities of high-achieving young men built on meaningful relationships and a sense of belonging.
- Empowering volunteer mentorship for students — 1,150 new volunteer roles filled thanks to Annual Fund support in 2022-23.
- Enabling access to life-changing leadership programs despite rising costs.
- On-demand, personalized career coaching available for every single undergraduate from alumni.
- Executive leadership development for chapter officers — and emerging leaders — to foster positive chapter culture and help chapters achieve big goals. This includes Carlson Leadership Academies and frequent virtual, expert-led training sessions for chapter officers that connect them with their peers in other chapters.
- Transformative leadership experiences like the Ruck Leadership Institute and Tragos Quest to Greece that help undergraduate brothers explore their potential and empower them to make an impact in the world.
Gifts given during Founders Day of Giving support the Annual Fund, so that donations can be directed to essential leadership programs and chapter support. Undergraduates simply wouldn't be able to experience programs like Carlson Leadership Academy, Ruck Leadership Institute, Career Coaching, Tragos Quest to Greece and Conclave without your support through the Annual Fund!
Donations count toward individual Annual Fund giving and lifetime giving.
Chapter Challenge Recognition
- The chapter with the most individual donors will get its name on our perpetual Founders Day of Giving Trophy.
- The chapter that raises the most money will receive a SigEp Founders Day of Giving wrestling belt.
- Chapter Challenge rules: Gifts of any amount are welcome; donors must give a minimum of $5 to be counted in the chapter challenges. Donors must self-select the chapter/team for which their gift will be credited. The winners will be the chapter with the (1.) most unique donors and (2.) the highest total dollars through 2:59 a.m. EST on Nov. 3.
Individual Recognition
- If you give at or above the Board of Governors Level ($1,200-$1,900, or $600+ if under 30), we will recognize you on our seven live broadcasts, streamed to Facebook live!
- If you give at or above the 1901 Level ($1,901 to $2,499), we will recognize you on our broadcasts AND put your photo on a cardboard cutout in our “live” fan audience at Kief House (SigEp Foundation HQ).
- If you give at or above the Sponsor Level ($2,500+) and provide it as a “challenge gift” to motivate others, we will recognize you on our broadcast, include your photo on a cardboard cutout in our “live” fan audience, and recognize you in special communications related to the challenge.
Want to give a challenge gift at or above $2,500 to your chapter or our national audience? Contact matt.andrew@sigep.net prior to Oct. 27, 2021.
The Founders Day of Giving website — sigep.org/foundersday — will be live on Oct. 15 through Nov. 2 at Midnight PDT. Our website allows for secure credit or debit card transactions.
If you prefer to send a check, note in the memo that it is for Founders Day of Giving and the chapter you want to receive credit in the Chapter Challenge. Please ensure it arrives prior to Nov 1. Checks may be sent to:
Sigma Phi Epsilon
310 S Arthur Ashe Boulevard
Richmond, VA 23220
Please reach out to foundation@sigep.org if you would like more information on matching gifts, sending a gift through a donor advised fund, or additional giving options.