OFI -- Build to Give

Inspiration

When our group's board fellow talked to the CEO of the organization, he hoped we could engage the student body in the fundraising campaign for the residential and respite program in the Woodland Rd facility. While eliminating the idea of holding a traditional fundraising event on campus, we wanted to create an interesting fundraising event for OFI to increase students' motivation to donate money while being able to provide a sustainable funding source for the programs.

What it does

The home design game -- Build to Give -- allows users to buy elements and build their own virtual house. We used the Woodland Rd building as our house model in the game. Players will go into each floor and room that is the same as the residence will be built in reality. While users buy elements and build their houses, they will relate themselves to the renovated building and programs. The profit from this game will go towards supporting the residential and respite program, which ultimately helps provide the disabled with a warm and comfortable home.

How we built it

Challenges we ran into

Being able to come up with a creative, non-traditional fundraising campaign or activity was challenging.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud that we created a creative fundraising game that not only raised money for OFI's programs but also engaged students in the campaign. We felt accomplished in supporting the disabled in our community and improving the relationship between caregivers and the disabled.

What we learned

We learned that working collaboratively with a common goal could make a hack happen within 2 days. It was very important to manage time, delegate tasks, and always be positive and supportive!

What's next for OFI -- Build to Give

This project will be shown in the board meeting of OFI. We will update more features on our website and publish the website to all Brandeis students next semester. We will promote our fundraising activity on campus and donate all money from the game to OFI's residential and respite programs. We will promote our fundraising game to other students in Waltham or even Boston, like Bentley University and Boston University, so that more students can engage in this fundraising campaign and contribute to support OFI and individuals with disabilities.