Fundraising

How to Afford Your Exchange
Here are some ideas to raise money for your trip.


First - choose the right program for you.
Where do you want to go? Why? And for how long?
There's plenty of opportunities to study abroad: YMCA, Rotary, Youth of Understanding (YFU), American Field Service (AFS), Global Visionaries; just to name a few. Then look at the scholarships available within that particular program.

I chose the AFS program because I liked how quickly the staff responded to me when I had questions, they were super nice throughout the entire process, and there were scholarships available. Like most people, I found the price of the program to be expensive, but that didn't stop me from applying. AFS offers a variety of scholarships, and helpful resources to earn money. Fundraising takes a lot of strategy and lot of planning. If you're confused on how to get started, you can ask an AFS volunteer staff member in your area OR you can ask through the Ask an AFSer group on Facebook.

What are some of the things you did to fundraise money for you exchange?
Donations
Take advantage of starting a blog and applying the Sponsor an AFSer widget to your blog. This directly connections donations to your tuition. By creating a blog, you're showing your friends, family, and even strangers, how passionate you are about studying abroad. When writing your entry, make sure to include an introduction of who you are, why you want to go and the advantages of going abroad, what program are you going with, and what other ways you plan on fundraising (here's my entry). If you're not willing to fundraise and work for your money, you might want to rethink studying abroad. Another way to receive donations is by contacting schools you previously attended. If you're not applying through the AFS program, you can use GoFundMe, but I think their website takes out a certain percentage from your earnings.

Scholarships
I was ultimately only able to study abroad through scholarships. The AFS program offers a vast amount of need-based and merit-based scholarships. To find out if there's any scholarships for your country preference, click on this link. When I applied for the year program for Japan, there were two scholarships: the Yoshi Hattori Memorial scholarship: this scholarship covered the entire tuition (need/merit-based scholarship); and the Sakura scholarship: this scholarship covered half of the tuition (two receivers). Scholarship availability changes every year, so make sure you stay up to date.
Talk to your school counselor to see if there's any scholarships available for students wanting to study abroad. At my school they had a need-based scholarship for students wanting to study abroad: The Thompson Family Foundation ($1,500).

I also applied for the need-based scholarship within the AFS program: the National Need-Based scholarship and the ORCA scholarship ($2,000). If you have worked hard towards your tuition, they might give you additional assistance.

Bake-Sales // Selling Products You Enjoy Making
This actually doesn't take much planning. Some schools don't allow students to sell products because it violates their policy because none of the profits are going towards academics within the school. If you talk to administration, they might be understanding towards your situation. If you have a low budget, manage your money well. (EX: selling products from Daiso for $0.50 more than its original cost - it's always about how much money you've produced from your sale v.s. how much you spent.)

Sell People a Inside Subscription of Your Exchange
When people donated towards my trip, I included them in an email that I would try to do every month. I would send them an email about culture shock, difficulties, progresses, and everything else that I didn't include on my blog.

Those are just some of the things I did for fundraising.
Again, there's a lot more you can do: research.

じゃーまたね！♡