A post-Valentine’s Day party held by the Beta Theta Pi fraternity raised more than $500 for the National AIDS Fund, a donation the fraternity hopes its alumni will match.

“We chose (the National AIDS Fund) because it focuses on partnerships with the local community – we wanted to help with AIDS in D.C. specifically,” said Rob Skenes, public relations chair for Beta Theta Pi. “We ended up raising $518 at the door, and we’re working to get that matched by the fraternity through GW alumni.”

The National AIDS Fund, a philanthropic organization dedicated to eliminating HIV/AIDS as a major health and social problem, is not the fraternity’s national philanthropy. Skenes said the fraternity already planned to have a party and thought it would be a good idea to turn the party into a fundraiser.

“We just decided to have a post-Valentine’s Day party for a good cause,” Skenes said. “We didn’t really choose AIDS for any particular reason. I think one of the brothers saw a feature on the local news about an AIDS partnership with Americorps and thought it was a good idea because we were going to have a party anyway.”

Skenes added that the fraternity plans to reach out to local alumni specifically in hopes that they will match the funds already raised for the National AIDS Fund by current fraternity members. If the fraternity’s effort is successful, they could raise a total of $1,000 for the non-profit.

“We want to work with our local alumni to see if they’re interested in matching our earnings,” Skenes said. “We’re in the process of getting that done right now.”

Skenes said they got the idea to solicit donations from local alumni after noticing other matching donations the National AIDS Fund had received.