{"id":28580,"date":"2025-12-15T14:51:34","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T19:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/?p=28580"},"modified":"2025-12-15T14:53:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T19:53:20","slug":"blog-crowdfunding-through-community-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/2025\/12\/15\/blog-crowdfunding-through-community-building\/","title":{"rendered":"Crowdfunding through community-building"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rachel P. Farrell | Published December 2025<\/em><\/p>\n

While philosophy majors are in the minority at BU, the Undergraduate Philosophy Association (UPA) is one of the most active student clubs on campus. It\u2019s also BU\u2019s largest academic club, with membership open to all undergraduate students, regardless of school, college, or major. <\/p>\n

\u201cMost of our members aren\u2019t even philosophy majors,\u201d adds UPA President Josephine Perl (CAS\u201926)<\/strong>. \u201cThey\u2019re just people who like to talk about ideas. Personally, I like to compare us to an old-time salon.\u201d <\/p>\n

In keeping with that model, UPA holds weekly symposiums\u2014drawing anywhere from 30 to 80 undergraduates\u2014to discuss a philosophy-related topic, which can be \u201cjust about anything,\u201d Perl says. It also provides tutoring services, publishes a newsletter, and maintains an active presence on social media. <\/p>\n

But one of the club\u2019s most important events of the year is the UPA Annual Undergraduate Lecture, which brings a philosophy scholar to BU to present on a topic of the UPA members\u2019 choosing. The event is entirely led and funded by undergraduate students\u2014the latter made possible by the BU Crowdfunding platform<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cBU Crowdfunding has been really invaluable, because there\u2019s so much we need to pay for,\u201d explains Perl. \u201cI\u2019m very proud that we pay an honorarium to the speaker\u2014and it\u2019s thanks to crowdfunding that we can.\u201d <\/p>\n

Standout support <\/h3>\n

One of the UPA\u2019s most generous donors is Glenn Street (CAS\u201982, MET\u201994)<\/strong>, who majored in philosophy and belonged to the club as a BU student. While Street has always been a loyal donor to the philosophy department, he has recently taken a particular interest in supporting crowdfunding projects led by philosophy students. For example, he donated to several crowdfunding projects for the student-run philosophy journal, Arch\u00e9<\/a><\/em>, and has supported crowdfunding for the UPA Annual Undergraduate Lecture multiple years in a row. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think crowdfunding is a fantastic innovation,\u201d says Street. \u201cWhat I find really interesting about it is it makes clear what students\u2019 greatest needs are.\u201d <\/p>\n

Street\u2019s devotion to philosophy-related crowdfunding is so strong that, in 2025, he reached out to the UPA when it looked like the club wasn\u2019t going to meet its fundraising goal. \u201cI said, \u2018If you don\u2019t make the goal, I\u2019ll make up the difference,\u2019 he says. \u201cAnd I was happy to do that.\u201d <\/p>\n

With that support, the UPA brought John Abughattas, a PhD candidate at Harvard, to campus for a lecture on the ethics of forced displacement. After giving \u201can incredible lecture,\u201d Perl says, Abughattas sat down with a small group of BU students for a candid conversation about his experiences studying philosophy beyond the undergraduate level. \u201cHe was able to give advice about graduate school and also just connect with us as a person.\u201d <\/p>\n

More than just a club <\/h3>\n

As a show of gratitude, UPA members make a concerted effort to build meaningful, long-term relationships with their donors. For example, Perl mailed a UPA t-shirt to Street and personally invited him to several lectures. <\/p>\n

Recently, the UPA also created a plaque listing the name of every donor who gave to the 2025 lecture. That plaque now hangs on a wall in the UPA lounge. \u201cSo, whenever people go into the lounge, they\u2019ll see that plaque and know people really cared about the functioning of our club and hosting a yearly lecture, which is such a privilege,\u201d Perl says. <\/p>\n

Through these efforts, UPA has become more than just a club for undergraduates. It\u2019s a welcoming community for students, alumni, and friends who share a love for philosophy and genuinely value one another. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo crowdfund effectively, you have to have a passionate base of members,\u201d Perl says. \u201cI think the reason why the UPA is successful at it is because our members can really tell that we care about them as people. And, in turn, they care about us.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BU student clubs like UPA have had tremendous success with crowdfunding, in part because they care so much about donors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16028,"featured_media":28584,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13,37,42,4,5],"tags":[],"featured_img":"\/alumni\/files\/2025\/12\/UPA-crowdfunding-BU-3-800x600.png","agg_excerpt":"BU student clubs like UPA have had tremendous success with crowdfunding, in part because they care so much about donors.","agg_title":"Crowdfunding through community-building","media_icon":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28580"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16028"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28580"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28590,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28580\/revisions\/28590"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}