Letter of Intent
Estimated Amount to be requested from the CSF: 
$375
Letter of Intent: 

ReThink has held an annual Resilience Summit for three years, and for those times, our organization was lucky enough to work with the CSF through partnerships and grants. This year the Summit focuses on regeneration: the development of systems that are capable of being restored and renewed through the integration of natural processes, human behavior, and community action. We hope to challenge the traditional definition of “sustainability” and discuss if this concept of a prolonged state of environmental impact is beneficial in the future. This year, the event will be held in Paccar Hall 392 to encourage maximum attendance from the Foster School of Business community, as well as other groups on campus interested in sustainable development. We are teaming up with several clubs from across campus to draw an eclectic crowd of around 30-50 students. These students will spend 2 hours listening to in-depth presentations from our business professionals, engaging in question and answer sessions, and ending with individualized plans of action that may simply consist of a changed mindset or even turn into future CSF proposals. With time for networking over a dinner of sustainable and local food, we hope our audience will come away with a diverse set of perspectives and go forth driving change in business-as-usual practices. Beyond the experience members of the planning committee will gain from organizing and marketing this event, all participants of the Resilience Summit will get exposure to a diverse array of students from other disciplines, and informative and inspiring presentations and discussions from professionals in their fields of work. It is a fantastic opportunity for students to broaden their perspectives from the more narrow views represented in their respective majors.

A large part of the challenge is bringing students together to find the root cause of UW’s environmental issues in order to create a feasible solution including a plan of action. The 30-50 students attending the event are expected to be engaged and thoughtful members of the audience. Action post-event is not required but will be highly encouraged and enabled by our team. We have invited speakers from Wells Fargo, The Nature Conservancy, Sustainable Business Consulting, and 3Degrees to speak about how their experiences, company, and/or mission approaches the concept of regeneration in terms of climate action. For example: “How did you get to your current position? Did you always know you wanted to work in sustainability?”, and “What does business environmental responsibility look like to you and your organization?” We are expecting to obtain funds from the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship and Wells Fargo to help us support this event as it directly affects many students within the Foster School of Business and across the greater UW campus community.

The monetary support of the CSF grant will enable us to perform the best possible outreach for the Resilience Summit in various relevant areas on campus in order to gain excitement and attendance that outweighs last year’s event. Keeping our environment and UW’s paper reduction goals in mind, while still maximizing the potential for outreach to many attendees, we are planning to partially utilize ReThink grant money to create large poster boards and flyers that will illustrate the importance and quality of this event. ReThink has identified the most influential locations on campus that identify with the goals of this event and ReThink. These include, but are not limited to, the Foster School of Business, the Art and Design School, College of the Environment, Gould Hall, and the Paul G. Allen Center of Computer Science. The posters will be displayed in high-traffic areas, such as cafes and main entrances in order to attract the most attention. These posters complement our mainly digital marketing plan through our well known Facebook page, event page and targeted outreach of our board members and faculty contacts. Our multi-faceted marketing approach will maximize our outreach, and ensure that our environmental message will be heard loud and clear throughout campus.

The environmental problem that we hope to combat with this event is the same we’ve been working to oust for years previously: the widespread lack of education on pressing global environmental issues and sustainable development that UW students are broadly receiving. These issues apply to every student on campus in almost every academic discipline, yet not all students are required—or have room in their schedules—to take courses that touch on these issues, and independently sought information can often be misleading. Furthermore, though the University of Washington has undertaken many steps to be a sustainable campus, there is so much more that can be done, and we believe this starts with student education, involvement, and most importantly interest. The Resilience Summit thoroughly aligns with UW’s mission to sustainability. Even with such a broad term and definition, ReThink unites itself in all parts of all definitions in order to fully capture the meaning as it applies to business, industry, government, and individuals. We hope to be the catalyst to start developing a sustainable development certificate through the Foster School of Business that aligns conservation goals with quantifiable business skills. ReThink is widely known across campus for our work with the UW Sustainability Office, UW Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship, and other environmental clubs around campus. We look forward to bringing this unique event to students from diverse educational backgrounds and hope to foster a learning environment where even our guest speakers can learn from others at this event.

II. Timeline

December 15- January 7 | Planning

  • Brainstorming
    • Partnerships
    • Funding Opportunities
  • Obtaining speaker confirmations
  • Creating marketing campaign
  • Reaching out to Foster Advancement for speaker introductions and potential funding

March 10-April 2 | Implementing

  • Implementing Marketing → Outreach
    • Online first
    • Then to print and around campus
    • Start outreach to organizations, email newsletters

April 3 - April 13 | Outreach

  • Sharing the Resilience Summit at other events, including the Global Leadership Summit
  • Sharing event opportunity in classes
  • Posting marketing poster boards in the Foster School of Business

April 13 - April 19 | Final Stage

  • Final marketing push
  • Extreme outreach
  • Finalization of details with all speakers and partners

III. Budget

ITEM COST PER QUANTITY TOTAL
Homegrown Catering Budget $350 1 $350
Speaker Parking Permits $20 5 $100
Photographer $100 1 $100
Marketing Poster Boards $25 4 $100
Materials for day-of break-out sessions $25 1 $25
       
  = TOTAL $675
Contact Information
Primary Contact First & Last Name: 
Serena Jonel Allendorfer
Email: 
sja98@uw.edu
Full Proposal
This will display after the CSF committee has reviewed and approved your LOI, and after you have received the link to edit your application.
Budget: 
ItemCost per ItemQuantityTotal Cost
Timeline: 
TaskTimeframeEstimated Completion Date
Year: 
Amount Awarded: 
$375
Project status: 
Completed