Through nearly 100 years, more than 525,000 college students have embraced Alpha Phi Omega’s Cardinal Principles of Leadership, Friendship and Service while building better communities, creating lasting connections, and developing lifelong habits of giving to others. Our student members, today, represent and serve society more broadly than ever in our history.
Your Fraternity is taking bold action to ensure that we can continue to offer strong and relevant student experiences in the years ahead. We are committed to providing high-quality leadership opportunities on a scale attainable only at a national level. We are committed to meeting students where they are and engaging them in meaningful and relatable ways that will help them Develop Leadership, Promote Friendship, and provide Service for today and for the entirety of their liveware committed to Leading the Way for a second century of Alpha Phi Omega! To fulfill the commitments, the National Board of Directors has developed a Strategic Direction roadmap and launched the Leading the Way campaign to raise the resources necessary to propel the Fraternity forward. We invite you to become a partner in the next stage of APO’s ongoing journey to inspire and empower more students to practice servant leadership for the improvement of their campuses, communities, and world.
Leading the Way: Four Pillars of Support
APO Leadership Institute
APO members realize and hone their leadership skills as they plan and execute volunteer projects and fellowship opportunities. While many organizations, including social Greek fraternities, provide social events, and some offer intermittent service-related activities, APO is unique in its focus on leadership development through service.
The time is now to invest in the next generation of leaders. The APO Leadership Institute will take our Cardinal Principles to participating high schools, with an emphasis on reaching urban areas and connecting existing chapters with high school administrators. APO will use a near-peer model, where an individual who is one or two stages ahead in a learning spectrum assists as a mentor. This will enhance high school student’s understanding of the process of attending college and help them explore the possibility of future APO membership. It will also increase APO’s service impact and develop more leaders to improve local communities.
Student Conference Fund
Sectional, regional and national conferences provide attendees with opportunities to foster relationships with members from across the country. These events create connections that can last a lifetime. Conferences help chapters grow through improved membership recruitment and retainment, introduction to new and improved programming, greater understanding of formal meeting procedures, and ongoing communication and engagement with members from other chapters and alumni volunteers. At conferences, new friendships are forged, networks are built and strengthened, and the value of the brotherhood is reinforced. Leading the Way will provide funding so more students will be able to take advantage of APO’s conferences.
Leadership Programming Endowment
Opportunities for national leadership development programs appear rapidly and come with significant costs. APO works to provide training and leadership experiences as inexpensively as possible. Creating an endowment dedicated to leadership programming will ensure that valuable resources are available without the worry of having to burden student members with additional expenses. This new endowment would also be available for chapters to provide unique leadership development programming. Leading the Way will create an endowment that, when fully funded, will generate $ 125,000 a year to be used for leadership programming.
Torchbearer Fund
The Torchbearer Fund, which depends on sustained annual giving from donors, supports APO’s day-to-day operations while keeping student fees reasonable. The fund provides revenue for increased chapter support, member services, communications, and leadership programs such as National Service Week, Spring Youth Service Day and APO LEADS, the Fraternity’s national leadership development courses. Leading the Way will provide three years of funding support for APO’s regular ongoing programs.
Campaign Goals for Leading the Way
With your support, we will be better positioned to meet the challenges of the next 100 years by Leading the Way now.
| APO Leadership Institute | $2 million |
| Student Conference Fund | $750,000 |
| Leadership Programming Endowment | $2.5 million |
| Torchbearer Fund | $750,000 |
| Total Goal | $6 million |