As the round of 64 approached, students across campus hotly debated their picks for the March Madness tournament, and productivity came crashing to a halt. The Interfraternity Council decided to make this year’s March Madness meaningful by organizing a bracket challenge amongst fraternities — with all proceeds going to the Animal Welfare League.
The contest is part of the IFC’s greater initiative to develop engaging, effective philanthropy events for fraternity members on campus to participate in. The IFC March Madness Bracket Tournament invited each fraternity to submit one bracket from their brothers — with the submission costing $100. The IFC will provide a prize to the fraternity with the most points and will celebrate with a unity-focused event on March 29. The event involves the collaboration between the Sphinx Club, IFC, MXIBS and La Alianza as well as representatives from the Animal Welfare League who will bring dogs for participants to interact with.
“To this point, $900 has been raised for the Animal Welfare League solely through the bracket challenge,” said IFC President Lucas Carpenter ’26. “However, other houses are giving additional donations on the day of the event, so total fundraising for the Animal Welfare League will be upward of that number.”
The Animal Welfare League of Montgomery County works to improve animal welfare through spay/neuter services, community education and the sheltering of local animals. The organization often partners with animal shelters and other local animal welfare groups to support and work towards their mission.
“We selected the Animal Welfare League because we feel they’re an organization that often gets overlooked from a donation standpoint,” said IFC Philanthropy Chair Aidan Mason ’26. “We wanted to do something beyond just walking the dogs and show the shelter that Wabash is committed to helping in more ways than just one… These funds will make an impact by allowing the shelter to purchase much needed items like dog and cat food, cat litter and cleaning supplies. This will allow the shelter to not only keep the animals there happy and healthy, but also maintain their no-kill status.”
The fundraising initiative is one of the first completed by the IFC and is poised to make a meaningful impact on the Animal Welfare League. Aside from the financial success, participants have enjoyed taking part in the bracket challenge with talk of it hopefully being an annually recurring event.
“Making the bracket as a house was great because a lot of guys came together since we all love March Madness,” said Phi Gamma Delta IFC Representative Colton Cooper ’27. “There were definitely some controversial game picks and people left in disagreement, but taking a break from the busy week and hanging out with my brothers and talking ball is always a good time. From the outside it may have looked a bit confusing, but the yelling and debate while making the bracket made it so every brother who wanted could get involved and have fun.”
On top of the proceeds raised through the bracket competition, individuals can continue to make donations to the Animal Welfare League during the March 29 event. Cash donations as well as supplies like litter, food and cleaning supplies are welcome.