Clubs will no longer be allowed to go door-to-door for fundraising from Fairbanks businesses, under new rules unveiled in November.

Instead, a new system set up by the UAF Development Office and Leadership Programs has combined requests for funding into one mass letter to businesses. The change came about after local businesses complained to UAF about the number of solicitations they received from university groups.

"One [business] received 15 in two months," said Naomi Horne, a development officer.

UAF student clubs feature groups for hobbies, ethnicities, religions, student jugglers, fraternities, sororities, a smattering of academic honor societies, and much more. To fund their activities, many seek donations from businesses.

But Fairbanks businesses are tired of all those requests, said Crystal Whittle, the Wood Center fiscal technician.

"They've been solicited by the university so much that they're starting to deny them," she said.

Last week, UAF sent out more than 1,000 letters to Fairbanks businesses soliciting an annual "unrestricted gift."

"Everybody that's in the phonebook," Whittle said.

The letters were written, designed, printed and mailed by the Development Office, which saves clubs the money and effort of soliciting on their own. The Development Office also placed a half-page ad in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner thanking businesses for their previous donations and to warm them up to donating again, Horne said.

Another plus for this system is that all donations will be recorded, properly thanked, and reported to the IRS.

"It cuts down the paperwork on everyone's end," Whittle said.

The system is expected to simplify accounting and also ensure that businesses get proper recognition for their donations. It will also create more accountability for what happens to the funds that clubs receive.

In previous years, the money donated to university clubs was never counted collectively, making it nearly impossible to say how much money from community businesses came in to clubs before, Horne said.

Clubs now will fill out a request form to receive funds from the money garnished by this solicitation instead of soliciting businesses themselves. The first page of the proposal reads: "A student organization may not individually send out direct mailings or perform telephone solicitations to raise money from the private sector, be it corporate, foundation, or individual."

An exception to this is a case in which a club already has longstanding ties with a business or group. Many chapters have received donations from the same company over the years, have professional-level chapters or are part of a larger organization.

The request form asks questions about how the event that the club is fundraising for will benefit the Interior Alaska community, other forms of fundraising the club is seeking and the current balance of the club account.

Once the donations are received from businesses, a yet-to-be-assembled committee made up of students, faculty, and staff will decide how to divide up the funds. Donors, if they choose, can specify which club they want their funds to go to, although Horne hopes that businesses will want to support as many clubs as they can.

Some club officers and advisors don't foresee the system working. J. Leroy Hulsey, an advisor for the American Society of Civil Engineers student chapter, said while he hopes the system will be successful, he's "not very optimistic."

The Engineering Department, through ASCE and the student chapter of Associated General Contractors, builds an ice arch and steel bridge each year. This year it is hosting the conference for the steel bridge competition. Hulsey said they need about $26,000 annually for the projects.

"If it comes out and does not work out, we are going to be in really bad shape," he said.

While pessimistic, Hulsey is supportive of the plan, and said if it works, it will benefit clubs and UAF. But he questions how businesses will perceive a request from the university as opposed to a request from a student for a specific cause.

Waqas Ahmed, the president of the V.I.C.E. Club, had shared similar concerns. Although local businesses don't financially support his club, Ahmed said it has had businesses sponsor events in the past, such as DeathNet, a LAN party often held in the Hess Rec Center.

"We actually make money from each event," Ahmed said.

The club holds raffles for prizes donated by businesses. Sometimes businesses even give club members discounts, Ahmed said. He added that the V.I.C.E. Club will still ask the same businesses that they've always asked.

"It's better for us to keep that one-on-one," he said.

Horne sees the system as a win-win. Because it is a one-time gift, donors will hopefully give more, which benefits UAF, she said. The donors benefit because they are properly thanked, and get credit for supporting all clubs instead of just the few that they specifically grant requests to, Horne said.

"We're trying to rally everyone together," she said.