In less than a week Jake Nevin Fieldhouse will be filled with students participating in the 12-hour dance marathon. Hidden in the corner of Jake Nevin, lies a small room coined “Wall Street” by last year’s Finance team. This room serves as the hub for tracking the financial donations that support the Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation throughout the day.
The 2024-25 NOVAdance Finance Committee is composed of juniors Aadi Sharma, Emily Daiuto, Sophia Sheldon and sophomore Evan Johnson. They are responsible for tracking NOVAdance’s finances both on the day of the marathon and throughout the year.
“As the finance team, we basically track each campaign that we had throughout the year and allocate a budget to all subcommittees throughout NOVAdance to make sure that they’re getting the right amount of money, to make sure that the day of and any other campaigns run effectively,” Finance Committee Chair Sharma said. “We make sure that the kids that we fundraise for are excited and really happy during the day of and through these campaigns.”
In collaboration with the co-Executive Directors of NOVAdance and the B+ Foundation advisor, the finance team works to track the fundraising efforts throughout the year. This includes the UDance v. NOVAdance Campaign, Giving Tuesday and Kids World Cancer Day. This year, NOVAdance also introduced the new “7 Days to 700 Families” campaign for the final week of fundraising prior to the day of.
“The finance team came with the idea that we needed one last final push,” Daiuto said. “We were inspired by the idea of 12 days ‘til Christmas, but make it 12 days until NOVAdance. The CEDS were able to rework the idea into something that encapsulated our entire year of fundraising.”
Even though fundraising occurs throughout the entire year, the day of the marathon always serves as the top fundraising day. The finance team is one of the first groups to know the fundraising total. The total is not revealed to the general public until the final hour of the marathon.
The Finance Committee found out that NOVAdance’s fundraising goal was met during hour four last year.
“We noticed the shift at exactly like 12 p.m. when we were getting really close to our goal as a committee,” Sharma said. “So that was kind of like a huge moment for us, like all the CEDs and all the directors in a room together, and we all found out the number together that we hit the six. It was just a huge deal. We were all excited. We had to try to keep it straight and make sure nobody knew.”
In years past, the top fundraising hours during the day have typically been Power Hour and Lip Sync Hour. During Lip Sync Hour, various student groups perform musical numbers and compete against one another. The audience votes for their favorite by sending a financial donation.
“What we do during Lip Sync is track all those donations and Venmos that are coming in,” Sharma said. “We count each name or group that went up to see who has gotten the most votes. So it’s a little bit chaotic, making sure we’re counting the right amount. We got three people looking at the same screen just to make sure there’s no discrepancies.”
Although the finance team will primarily be found matching and tracking donations hourly on the website during the marathon, they will also have time to enjoy the day and celebrate NOVAdance’s success throughout the year.
“I was a general participant last year and it was amazing to see the Day of,” Sheldon said. “I’m excited to see the back end of everything and what that’s going to look like working the Day of and seeing the numbers come through.”
The finance team and the rest of the NOVAdance Committee can be found at the day-of this Saturday.
