Philanthropy is a core facet of Greek life: chapters adopt charities, volunteer in the community and plan events to benefit organizations serving the public good. This year, Greek Life decided to take their philanthropy to a new level.

At the beginning of each academic year, chapters set both volunteer hours and money-to-be-raised goals with the Office of Greek Life. This information is accessible on the Greek life website back to 2001.

For the 2014-2015 year, these range from $1,215.40 for Sigma Chi Rho to $7,629.98 for Alpha Chi Omega with a total charitable contribution goal for all sororities and fraternities of $100,000.05. This is the highest goal that the Office of Greek Life has ever set. In previous years, the total target amount was approximately $25,000.

The Office of Greek Life also has an overall goal for chapters to complete 1,000,000 minutes of community service, a goal first set in 2011-2012. These minutes are divided between chapters based on their membership. Larger chapters have higher goals.

So far this year, $515 and 430,980 minutes have been reported on the website.

The historical data shows that many chapters did not meet their monetary goals—some do not have any published donations—yet the overall total-dollars-contributed exceeded the goals in all six years of available data.

Chapters like Delta Gamma consistently report their profitable fundraisers. Each year they raise approximately $8,000 primarily from their major event, Anchor Splash, according to Victoria Limbeck, vice president of finance.

Limbeck says that there are three criteria that are necessary for a successful fundraiser: good public relations among the Greek community and non-Greek students, organization leading up to the event and chapter and alumni support. Last year at Anchor Splash sisters from Akron came to the event, and the local chapter alumni often give money in support.

According to Limbeck, Anchor Splash is “almost purely profit,” because they reuse materials while donations support the raffle items. Delta Gamma’s fundraisers make money at a high margin and give more back to the community. Last year, Delta Gamma exceeded its fundraising goal by 370 percent.