Business fraternity Alpha Kappa Psi is using its industry savvy to make fundraising more efficient through outsourcing.
The group worked through outsourcing Web site elance.com to prepare for the Mr. AKPsi Mangeant, a male beauty pageant whose proceeds will go to Best Buddies, a group that helps mentally handicapped people enter the workforce. The pageant is set to take place April 18 at Westwood High School in Mesa.
"We're going to outsource the tasks that are too time-consuming for us to do," said Kyle Kittleson, a real estate senior who introduced the fraternity to outsourcing via the Internet.
The pageant raised $3,000 last year and Kittleson said the fraternity expects a bigger turnout this year because of its new approach.
"This year, it was less work, and it's going to be 10 times more successful," Kittleson said.
To outsource a specific task, the fraternity posted ads on the Web site, and then received bids from different people for the job.
Kittleson said the tasks included comparing prices of wood and paint at local hardware stores and providing free fraternity members for physical labor. Personal touches, such as actually building the pageant contestants' runway, were also solicited.
"We can save a little bit of money and allocate our time more efficiently," Kittleson said.
Bids for tasks have ranged from $100 per hour to $100 for twenty hours, Kittleson said, and have come from all over the world. Because of the diversity of the applicants, Kittleson said checking out their qualifications, especially English skills when working with foreign companies, is important.
"You can't just pick the cheapest one and hope it works out," Kittleson said.
Marketing freshman Amanda Oppenheim, Kittleson's assistant director, said she was skeptical about leaving pageant work to Internet contacts. Though the outsourcing has worked well so far, Oppenheim said there would always be some jobs that require more personal attention.
"I don't think an organization should ever outsource going to businesses and asking for sponsorship," she said.
Outsourcing some tasks, though, like sending out mass press releases, has allowed Oppenheim and her committee to spend more time to work with sponsors and sell tickets.
"Since this is a fundraising activity, it is important that we are as efficient as possible," she said.
Oppenheim said that the group is good at working with budgets and keeping records.
"I think how we can maintain low dues shows how we can manage our money," Oppenheim said.
Outsourcing first interested Kittleson after he read "The 4-Hour Work Week," a New York Times bestseller.
"One of the book's points is that it's very possible to outsource your life," Kittleson said.
As an experiment, Kittleson began outsourcing his Facebook account for $1 per day. Instead of spending hours of his own time on the site, Kittleson said he pays a woman named Rachel to keep up on friend requests, respond to messages and e-mail him every week about his account activity.
"It's amazing," Kittleson said. "It's basically just automated my life."
By outsourcing, Kittleson said he has been able to focus more on graduation and running his real estate business.
"I think it's the new wave of how people get things accomplished," he said.
Reach the reporter at: claudia.koerner@asu.edu.
