Home > National Programs > Membership And Extension > Friendship And Retention

Friendship and Retention                   

The Friendship and Retention Grant Program is available for chapters to apply for a grant of $100-$500 to help your chapter form closer bonds of brotherhood through fellowship!   

The FAR Grant is a new program to support membership retention. In any given school year Alpha Phi Omega will have approximately 17,000 student members, many of whom are only involved in our chapters for two years. This program is intended to help chapters create an event that would invite these uninvolved members back for a fellowship activity in a welcoming manner. Most brothers in APO pledge for the service opportunities available to them in the Fraternity. The reason many of them make it a college and/or lifelong commitment is because of the bonds of friendship they make with their brothers, both in the chapter and around the country.

Some chapters have very strong membership retention and fellowship programs that keep their numbers strong. Other chapters have strong pledging programs, strong service programs, and strong leadership programs, but lack the ability to keep their members coming back year after year. Brothers who have a strong feeling of belonging tend to stay active longer, become alumni volunteers, and donate of their time, talent and treasure to the Fraternity. As we have seen from the retention statistics, if this program or programs like it, were to keep one brother one semester longer per chapter, this would equate to more than 360 brothers providing one more semester of service. 

With the fun and fellowship of a chapter event, this program will help increase the retention of student members, and encourage alumni involvement with their chapter. This program will help our chapters by providing funding for activities they might not normally have been able to host, so they may have more students, on more campuses, providing more service. With more members and alumni support our chapters will be able to flourish and grow! 

National Friendship and Retention Day!

Every year, we designate the first Saturday in October as National Friendship and Retention Day!

The National Friendship and Retention Day will provide a single weekend of focus for friendship activities across our college campuses. While activities can be anytime throughout the month, having a single day of focus promotes the idea of brotherhood across the Fraternity. The first Saturday in October will be designated National Friendship and Retention Day. After getting back into the swing of things, this is a great day to pump up the chapter for a semester of Leadership, Friendship and Service! 

NEWS & FEATURES

More News