This year Duck TV’s Public Relations team has been striving to great efforts to plan fundraiser nights and acquire sponsorships, in hopes to better fund Duck TV’s expenses. Many may not know that Duck TV is non-profit and solely runs off the support and funds from student help and outside sources. This last year the public relations team has paired with businesses such as Qdoba and Yogurt Extreme; both businesses have hosted outstanding fundraiser nights to help support the funding for the overall Duck TV production.
Lauren Schwartz, who is a one of the public relations directors, comments on how important and exciting it is to have outstanding fundraising and sponsorship help. “It is all about relationship building, the more businesses we create relationships with, the more respect Duck TV will attain, in turn making our organization grow professionally,” says Schwartz. Overall, many of the projects that Schwartz helped planned came to reality this fall term when the Public Relations put on their first fundraiser event at Qdoba. “We have successfully reached out to many local businesses and gained their support through money and food donations,” added Schwartz. Lindsey Simmons who works closely with Schwartz as a public relations director comments, “our fundraisers raise awareness around campus and open up doors for program expansion, so our main goal is to continue to move with that brand and build the program.” Joey McMurry the executive producer of sports expands on where exactly we need funding and how it would help. “We really want to upgrade our studio for news/sports,” We want to make it a studio that when a potential employer sees it on a student’s demo real they go “damn, that looks like a professional studio. Did this person intern somewhere?”
Additionally, many expenses for the production of creative shows comes out the students producing and acting in the show; in the future Duck TV would love to provide the funding’s for those students to be able to buy resources and props, without having to take it out of their personal wallet.
Ultimately, the staff of public relations feels that the more sponsorships there are the more our name will get out and more people will join, support, or sponsor.
“The sky’s the limit,” says McMurry. “With more sponsors, we have more resources. The more resources, the better the product. The better the product, the better the people are that leave Duck TV. The better the people are that leave Duck TV, the more respect and recognition. The more respect and recognition, the more sponsors. It’s a giant circle that just means a better Duck TV.”
By Ally Barclay