Despite drop in funds raised, GBAY organizers pleased with event

Mason community members participate in the third-annual GBAY auction earlier this month (Dakota Cunningham)

Mason’s third-annual GBAY raised $5,000 this year, one-third of the total from last year’s event. Despite the drop in funds raised, organizers say the growing atmosphere around the event was a sign of success.

"It was a slightly lower number this year—in terms of overall total raised," said Mason Ambassador President Chloe Kingsley-Burt. "But the event itself was a better event.”

GBAY is organized and run by the Mason Ambassadors, a group of students who work with the Office of Admissions to encourage pride among the Mason community.

Kingsley-Burt said that the success of GBAY is evaluated based on both the amount of money raised and the atmosphere of the event.

“It’s a little bit of both. GBAY is primarily to raise money for student scholarships. So if we’re not raising any money for student scholarships at all, the event was a failure,” said Kingsley-Burt. “However, we want the event to be enjoyable for students.”

The live auction event where students can outbid each other on items such as Mason sports memorabilia raised $10,000 dollars in its first year (2010) and $15,000 last year.

“Overall, the Mason Ambassadors have helped raise close to $25,000 for the General Scholarship Fund in the last three years,” said Claire Forman, development assistant for the Office of University Development and Alumni Affairs. “GBAY is an excellent example of how current students can help their fellow Patriots in a [positive] way.”

Mason Ambassadors Mark Mansdoerfer and Anna Haber were in charge of organizing the GBAY auction which took place March 3. They took over the event from former Ambassadors Dani Miller and Brittany Burkhart, who established the auction in 2010.

All of the proceeds go towards the General Scholarship Fund, which is supported by gifts from alumni, parents, faculty and staff, students and friends.

The amount of donations raised via the online GBAY donation webpage was considered a key success in this year’s auction.

While $5,000 was raised through the auction, an additional $610 was added via online donations, the first time funds were raised this way.

“The Mason Ambassadors did a great job of really marketing that option to people who couldn’t attend the auction but still wanted to [contribute],” said Forman.

Despite being available last year, the donation page raised zero donations in its first year, according to Forman.

Ambassadors promoted the GBAY donation webpage this year by sharing it with their friends and family.

“We were kind of trying to do the grassroots, go-out approach,” said Kingsley-Burt. “It’s a good cause and of course if you’re connected to the cause, you’re so much more likely to give. So, I think that’s how that ended up working this year.”

The live auction included everything from a hockey stick signed by Stanley Cup winner Sergei Fedorov and a football signed by Torrey Smith of the Baltimore Ravens, to acting classes in New York City, to a private tour of the U.S. Capitol.

Ambassadors were able to acquire such auctioned items by directly contacting the teams and businesses.

“For that kind of thing, we directly contacted the teams and basically said ‘Hey, we’re hosting this auction, it’s kind of in your area, we’d really like some help with this. Can you give us anything? What can you give us?” said Kingsley-Burt.

Through community outreach, the Ambassadors were able to acquire contributions from more than 15 new businesses. They reached out to the community via mail and going door to door, according to Kingsley-Burt.

“We expanded, definitely, a lot this year, in terms of the number of people donating,” said Kingsley-Burt. “So it was great… We had a large number of really exciting stuff.”

Business donations primarily consist of giving gifts to the auction, according to Kingsley-Burt.

“Primarily, people would be giving us gift certificates to restaurants, wine tours, sports memorabilia,” said Kingsley-Burt. “Internally, we got all kinds of different things from dining, parking, housing… and different clubs will donate sometimes. Like, GMUnit donated a serenade, and they had their demonstration ahead of time, which was really cool.”

This was the second year GMUnit, Mason’s male a cappella group, participated in the GBAY auction.

“Being able to use our talents to raise money for the scholarship fund is a very rewarding experience,” said GMUnit member Sam Band.  “This event allows us to reach out to GMUnit fans and hopefully make new ones.”

With so many “priceless” items to bid on, the average cost and value of the auctioned items is difficult to determine.

“That’s really difficult to say, just because we had such a wide variety of things,” said Kingsley-Burt. “I know we had things that market-value was considered priceless, just because there is no price attached with it [i.e. naming your own burger at The Rat]. You can only judge that based on previous years.”

Despite the decline in funds raised this year, Mansdoerfer is optimistic the event will continue to grow.

“This event has the potential to grow and become one of the highlight events here on campus each year,” said Mansdoerfer in an email. “The goal of GBAY is to have students working together to raise money for scholarships to ultimately benefit themselves and their peers.”

Kingsley-Burt is hopeful that GBAY will become a permanent annual event at Mason, as well.

“We want it to become a yearly ritual,” said Kingsley-Burt. “[Students] want to give back. So, we’re also trying to build an event that’s going to last in a culture that can sustain such an event.”