2017 DM Summary

Dance Marathon February 24 - February 26, 2017 AB Overview Dance Marathon at Florida State University strives to engage the student and local communities to promote children’s health and happiness while fostering the leadership and involvement of participants. Our organization raises funds for our equal beneficiaries, Shands Children’ and FSU College of Medicine Pediatric Outreach Program. One hundred percent of our efforts go to providing treatment, research, medical care, family education and hope.

Dance Marathon at FSU is the largest student run philanthropy on campus; it’s a year-long fundraiser.

Throughout the year we hold events for FSU students, Tallahassee community, and the families impacted by the funds and medical attention received. The fundraising efforts will culminate during the actual marathon.

The marathon is a 40-hour event to continue raising money and awareness, but also celebrates the hard work of all the fundraisers. At the event up to 1,800 students will stand for 20 hours straight. While standing, the student will learn a line dance performed every hour on the hour, play games, bond with other FSU students, and meet and hear stories from the miracle families that benefit from the funds raised the past year.

This year Dance Marathon took place on February 24-Februrary 26, 2017 in the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center and raised $1,830,167.28 with a 28 percent increase from last year. Dance Marathon programming consists of family stories, entertainment acts, a line dance, interactive games, and more.

Survey Results Eight online surveys were distributed for Dance Marathon 2017. Surveys were distributed to Internal, External, Rally Week Internal, Captains, CORE, Dancers, Delegates, and Executive Board via an automated Qualtrics email. Below you will find an overview of responses from all surveys. The complete survey data can be requested the Office of Education, Assessment, & Research at 850-645-1559.

Online Survey: External When asked about participation in Miracle Week events, the vast majority stated they attended Miracles on Landis (64%), Chipotle Share It Night/So You Think You Can Line Dance (39%), and FTK Shopping day (29%). Respondents were able to put select more than one option.

Online Survey: Internal All of the respondents who attended the So You Think You Can Line Dance, (100%) had a level of agreement that they overall enjoyed the event. Feedback mentioned to make improvements on publicizing the event and rules for making the dances FTK friendly. The respondents had a majority agreement that Information regarding Families Fridays was communicated effectively, they selected strongly agree (80%) and somewhat agree (14%).

Online Survey: Rally Week Internal A majority of respondents had a level of agreement to the statement felt that Rally Week 2017 was successful, with either strongly agree (75%) and agree (25%) Many also felt like as Dance Marathon leadership we were able to support one another and work as a team during Miracle Week, either strongly agreed (75%) and somewhat agree (17%).

Online Survey: Captains All of the respondents had a level of agreement when asked if Dance Marathon at FSU improved the recruitment program by engaging new organizations and developing ones we already have, either strongly agreed (78%) and agreed (22%).

Online Survey: CORE The respondents had various reasons that motivated them to participate in Dance Marathon 2017. A majority of respondents had altruistic incentives (44%), others had prior experience with the event (20%), and others had inspiration from friends/organization to join (20%).

Online Survey: Dancers When asked about participation in Dance Marathon for 2017, many stated (75%) it was their first year participating in the event, the additional respondents had 2-4 years’ experience. Respondents were also asked if their participation would continue onto the next year, and how they would like to be involved, a majority wanted to be a part of the (39%) Leadership Team and continue as (37%) dancers.

Online Survey: Delegates Respondents were asked which organization they represented, (46%) RSOs and (38%) Sorority. When asked about how strongly they agreed with the statement that Dance Marathon at FSU improved the recruitment program and engaged new organization, all respondents had a level of agreement either strongly agreed (60%) or agreed (40%).

Online Survey: Executive Board Respondents were also asked about their preparation throughout their leadership experience with Dance Marathon. Respondents strongly agreed (100%) that they felt informed throughout the preparation process for Dance Marathon 2017, reported strongly agree (66%) to being given reasonable responsibilities for their position, and many reported strongly agree (100%) that management and advisors effectively communicated expectations of their role.

Conclusion Dance Marathon 2017 was the highest financial and student participation year of this organizations history. The team invested in the people involved and made the dancer’s experience better than before. This year at the marathon there was a rock-wall, mechanical bull, laser tag, merchandise store, and a water station in every corner. The team threw everything into their slogan, Do More. They set a goal to get 5,000 students to participate and broke that goal. They made relationships and people the priority, which led to the monetary success of the year.