Our Crowdfunding Groups
UPDATE: NEW STRETCH GOAL OF $6,000! Thank you all SO much for your support for Housing the Bears and the Basic Needs Center!!! We're so happy to meet our goal of $5,000. Let's keep up the momentum and reach $6,000 to house even more Bears! <3
School's hard enough - all Cal Bears should not have to worry about making rent.
Who are we? We're Cal Student Philanthropy (CSP), a student org dedicated to Keeping Cal Golden by sharing resources and fundraising. As our undergraduate student body grows, so does the cost of living and tuition, leaving many a Bear in need of a community that helps, especially when financial aid falls short. Berkeley's Basic Needs Center (BNC) is a resource center for Cal students that need support with stable housing, food insecurity, and much more. CSP is doing this campaign to make sure the Basic Needs Center can help even more of our peers!
Cal Student Philanthropy is full of amazing people from different majors and backgrounds, all with the common goal of wanting to make our Cal community a better place. We've met virtually and in-person this year!
What are Basic Needs? BNC defines them as essential resources ranging from health, mental health, community, and well-being. The BNC provides dozens of resources (which you should check out!) to minimize other problems, including:
Why are we doing this? With a diverse population of over 30,000 undergraduate students, too many students face housing insecurity. The first Fall 2021 Pulse Survey revealed a dramatic increase in the number of students reporting being housing insecure: 22.8% of undergraduate students and 17.1% of graduate students reported that they had “lacked a safe, regular, and adequate nighttime place to stay and sleep” since the beginning of the Fall 2021 semester. The situation continues to worsen, as seen in new Pulse Survey data from November 2021, which revealed those numbers increased to 26.5% of undergraduate students and 21.1% of graduate students facing housing insecurity since the beginning of October.
Thousands of members of our community are juggling unstable housing, academic life, and dozens of other problems. Thankfully, the Basic Needs Center is here to help, providing options that cover students' basic needs, with a major role in emergency housing for student safety. The BNC aims to aid over 5000 Cal students this year as everyone navigates a new time period, and we want to make sure they're able to do so! We want all Cal Bears to have worry-free housing.
How can I help (even as a student)? You can make a gift to this campaign and/or spread the word about it on social media! Whatever you can do, we appreciate it - every dollar and every share helps us in our mission!
Where will my gift go? BNC aids students by creating programs tailored to different needs. Your donations would fund one program in particular:
The Holistic Fund - This program provides emergency financial support provided to eligible students that covers funding for dependents, technology issues, rental and food assistance, and other costs of living.
Students are facing so many obstacles, and this fund helps our peers in-need make rent and afford their security deposits when they land a new place. Aid awards vary from $500 to $1500, which is a lot! But, every dollar is so incredibly valuable to helping our Cal students reach their full potential.
We hope you'll consider supporting Housing the Bears! For more information, check out the Basic Needs Center website and Instagram. And be sure to follow Cal Student Philanthropy on Instagram - we have lots of fun content planned throughout the campaign, and we'd love your engagement. <3
Questions? Email us at studentgiving@berkeley.edu!
The Basic Needs Center
Get a special sticker with the super cute CSP Balloons logo with our catchphrase - You Keep It Golden! All donors will receive a digital sticker, and there will be a sticker pick-up day on-campus in early March.
A special shoutout on our Instagram! We'll be doing shoutouts throughout the campaign, so we'll let you know when we do so you can see!
A special handwritten thank you from one of our very own Philanthropy Reps! We will send via mail with one of our You Keep It Golden! stickers.
A special thank you video just for you featuring our Philanthropy Reps! We're the best Cal content creators around, so we promise it'll be special! ;)
You'll receive a special thank you video from one of Cal's Celebs - could it be one of our star football players? A renowned professor? Just wait and see who makes this Cal Cameo.
