CAMPAIGN OVERVIEW

Alpha Sigma Phi has been a growing fraternity over the past decade. No other Fraternity has added more chapters since 2009 than Alpha Sigma Phi. This growth has brought new optimism and a rejuvenated outlook to the Fraternity, but also has presented its fair share of challenges. 

To put in perspective, a combined 127 undergraduate men attended the January Leadership Program and Grand Chapter in 2008. Ten years later, more than 2,000 undergraduate men attended the January Leadership Program and Grand Chapter. One of our challenges is continuing to provide our men and our chapters the resources necessary to sustain the impact of one of the most successful decades in Alpha Sigma Phi’s long and storied history. In an effort to do just that, Alpha Sigma Phi has publicly launched 'The Campaign To Better the Man.'

The average tuition plus room and board cost for a public four-year institution in 2008 was $16,460, according to College Board. The same average cost in 2018 rose to $21, 370, a 30-percent increase in just ten years. In the launch of The Campaign To Better the Man, Alpha Sigma Phi is acknowledging the hardships a majority of college men face - and will only continue to face - if they are to pay tuition, room-and-board and dues to join a fraternity. It is our duty as a premiere organization to offer a profound scholarship program to assist these undergraduate men in paying for an experience they so long for.

Alpha Sigma Phi prides itself on being industry leaders in multiple facets of the Fraternity world. We already produce a robust programming experience designed to harness and enhance both chapter-based and professional attributes. The simultaneous acquisition of these skills pave a pathway to the success of our undergraduate chapters and their members once they enter the workforce.

Alpha Sigma Phi surveyed undergraduate men who attended the Burns Institute this past January. The Burns Institute is designed to introduce new members of the Fraternity to the aspect of lifelong brotherhood and to cultivate ideas on how to improve chapter performance once they enter into leadership roles. Nine out of ten brothers surveyed said the program proved beneficial to them as new members of the Fraternity. 

“My chapter now has a plan that we will put to action regarding accountability and communication,” one undergraduate member said. “It was nice to have everyone’s voice heard.”

The Burns Institute is just one of the programs the Fraternity offers its members. The 25th Elevate - International Leadership Conference took place in Phoenix, Arizona, where more than 850 undergraduates and alumni members congregated to kick off the 175th Anniversary celebration of Alpha Sigma Phi. During the fall of 2019, our chapters had training on how to be a safer chapter by way of the award-winning Responsible Sig Program. Then, alongside the Burns Institute in January 2020, was the Growth Summit, President’s Academy and Advisor’s Institute. With the cancellation of the 56th Grand Chapter in Hartford, Connecticut, the Fraternity announced its official 175th Anniversary Celebration will be at the 26th Elevate on July 8-11, 2021 in Louisville, Kentucky. 

Each and every one of these programs offer diverse, yet equally impactful experiences to the young men and volunteers of Alpha Sigma Phi. With a growing brotherhood, it is only natural to have increased attendance each and every year, allowing more brothers to become more engaged within the Old Gal. But to allow more men to attend our programs at an affordable cost, a hurdle must be acknowledge - and overcome. 

In 2018, it cost 1,906 program attendees a combined $238,050 to attend Alpha Sigma Phi’s educational events. The true cost of those events, however, totaled $943,184. The difference between the undergraduate cost to attend the events and the true cost for the Fraternity to run the events was a whopping $705,134. 

Individually, the true cost per attendee in 2018 was $495.85. Fifty-six percent of undergraduates attended at $225 per person, while 44% attended at no cost.

Simply put, the Fraternity is only able to subsidize a fraction of the true cost of an attendee to experience these events. A rise in that percentage will be one of this campaign’s main objectives.