An online fundraising platform is reaching out to UNM groups, clubs and sports teams, to host fundraising events at local partner restaurants.
GroupRaise, an online organization, has created a way to help with the process of connecting students to those businesses.
GroupRaise has created a network of local Albuquerque restaurants who are willing to donate 15 to 25 percent of their sales to UNM student causes and clubs when they book a fundraising event this fall.
Sean Park, co-founder of GroupRaise, said he noticed the difficulty of contacting restaurants to set up events for fundraising campaigns, due to the amount of time it takes to contact a restaurant and its owner, as well as how intimidating it is for organizations to reach out.
“We basically developed a tool that is super easy to book, and at the same time have a very successful event by providing the right tool to promote and get the word out,” he said.
Park said the restaurants on GroupRaise are ones that the online tool has established relationships with. As a result, when an organization has to go through the process of being set up with a restaurant, the restaurants already know what the process entails.
Park said students can begin the process of organizing one-time events on the GroupRaise website, where they pick a date and make a request for that date, but he also hopes to see monthly meetings come out of the site’s use.
He said, for college organizations, it’s important to have a venue for club meetings or monthly get-togethers, and GroupRaise has replaced that with a fundraiser so clubs or organizations can meet, eat and raise money at the same time.
“The one-liner we use for Groupraise is ‘The most delicious way to change the world.’ Basically we’re trying to help with anyone who has a cause they feel for and wants to raise money to actually make things happen,” Park said. “That goes from college students to charity events.”
Julia Grueskin, owner of Gatos y Galletas — a GroupRaise partner restaurant — said she has yet to hold an event through the site, but she said it could be a mutually beneficial arrangement.
“I hope this can make a connection with the University and the businesses here in Albuquerque,” she said.
Grueskin is not alone waiting for events, as Walden Minoli of Geckos Bar and Tapas said his business is also waiting for its first fundraising date.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Minoli said, when contacted by GroupRaise, it was implied to him through the email that GroupRaise would bring organizations to him, acting as the middleman.
“So I thought, ‘Cool, this would bring more business to me and help out with the community.’ It’s a win-win for everybody,” he said.
However, Minoli said he felt they have misrepresented themselves, as the site has yet to connect him with a group in the years he has been signed up, instead sending emails instructing him how to market to groups interested in fundraising by using social media.
Minoli’s establishment is open to the idea of hosting fundraising events directly to students or through GroupRaise if they brought a student organization interested in fundraising, he said.
He said he would prefer to avoid events connected to politics or more controversial causes, but if it was a good common cause benefiting the community, he would be interested in helping.
Despite having not had an event set up with GroupRaise yet, he said if the organization brought fundraising events or groups to him, he would welcome them.
“If I got an email or call from them saying, ‘Hey, I got a group of 50 that want to do this and picked your location,’ then, yes, I would be very happy with both the group and them,” he said.
GroupRaise has succeeded in bringing fundraising events to other partner restaurants, including Torinos’ @ Home, an Italian eatery on Jefferson Street.
Jenna John, the owner of Torinos’ @ Home, said she has had a very positive experience with GroupRaise.
“When they contact us, everything’s simple. They plan out everything,” she said. “GroupRaise controls everything for the customer to come in, so we just pretty much set up and we feed them and make money for them.”
John said she has yet to host an event for a UNM group, but would be very interested in doing so, noting that the University has a lot of sports teams that could benefit from the service. She said her establishment has hosted several soccer teams, one of which was playing against UNM recently.
John said her establishment is very interested in being part of the community and works hard to try to buy local and use as many organic ingredients they can.
“I just want all the UNM students to know we have very good, healthy food to get them going the day before the game, such as the football game,” she said. “It would be a really good way to give the teams some extra support, and a good way to give them a good healthy meal before their activity.”
Park said he believes this is the time when people will turn more attention to the restaurant industry in general, including participating in community outreach.
“The general understanding with that is that the industry is rising and basically reaching out to a lot of restaurants trying to connect with these organizations,” he said.
Nichole Harwood is a news reporter at the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Nolidoli1.
