On a typical weekday at Wheaton College, at least one student-led club will likely be found at a table in Lower Beamer, sometimes to promote their club in general, but often to fundraise in order to keep their club afloat. Clubs sell items ranging from doughnuts to stickers to promotional sweatshirts.
Their only route for collecting payments from passersby is a digital payment system, Wheaton Marketplace, adopted in 2021 to replace a faulty portable card reader system, CloverFlex, which the college had been using. All student-led clubs have since been required to use the new cashless payment system to fundraise, and it is the only way students interested in purchasing goods from club fundraisers can do so.
Ariana Delaney, a sophomore psychology major and the former fundraising manager for Gospel Choir, said the process had at times made fundraising more difficult. Marketplace is set up with an individual online “store” for each fundraising organization, and each transaction requires the buyer to submit a long form of personal information, contact details and manual credit or debit card information. This form can sometimes be up to four pages long. There is no option for device-linked payment methods like Apple, Google or Samsung Pay.
“If someone wants to buy even just one thing, they are required to fill out entire sections of information,” said Delaney. “People would walk by and show interest, but after realizing they have to use Marketplace, they will change their mind. It can be frustrating.”
Student-led clubs are dependent on fundraising for the majority of their funding, according to the college’s student handbook. Each year in August, club leaders must attend an introductory leadership meeting, where Student Involvement Office staff tell students that their respective club’s ability to fundraise effectively is one of the criteria to be able to receive funding assistance from Student Government. This year, the maximum amount clubs could get from SG was $300. The rest they must raise on their own.
Kimberley Fair M.A. ‘21, program development coordinator in the Student Involvement Office who oversees student clubs, said Marketplace is an improvement compared to CloverFlex, which would frequently break down and was costly to repair. In the midst of COVID, the accounting and purchasing division of the college searched for something different and found Marketplace.
“Since 2021, we’ve moved any club or organization that wants to sell things towards Marketplace,” said Fair.
Marketplace was used for the first time at the Talent Show on Nov. 2, 2021. Many college service offices have also transitioned to Wheaton Marketplace, including the Student Development Office, the Office of Multicultural Development and the Center for Vocation and Career (CVC).
Kathy Nguyen, office coordinator for the CVC, said she mostly uses Marketplace with students purchasing a CliftonStrengths test, which helps takers assess their personal and professional strengths.
“It took me a little bit of time to get used to Marketplace,” Nguyen said. “I have to pay for the CliftonStrengths test code myself on a different website, and I also have to distribute the code on Marketplace. It can get a little weird because I have to keep track of two different websites.”
Nguyen later told the Record that besides that complication for CliftonStrengths test submissions, she had not noticed any issues with Marketplace.
There are currently 31 clubs and organizations listed on Wheaton Marketplace. Some of those include Gospel Choir, Abide, Unidad, Koinonia, Amplify Acapella, and the Wheaton College Sailing Club.
Jacob Elsen, a senior biology major and president of the Sailing Club, said the new system has been fairly easy to use.
“On our side of things, at least, it is not that difficult,” said Elsen. “We just tell Kimberley Fair what we need to set up our store on Marketplace, and I can pull out my phone and buy one Sailing Club outing ticket. Anyone could just go online and buy their Sailing Club outing ticket.”
David Jimenez, a junior applied health science major, is one of the public relations staff for Koinonia, a cultural group for students from Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander backgrounds. He said he sees the benefit in using Marketplace but hopes the college can improve on the system in the future.
“It would be nice to have a more seamless Marketplace experience, like a tap-to-pay feature or card reader linked to the system,” said Jimenez. “We are moving further into a technological age, and strengthening the process and making it easier for people to engage, as well as making it more suitable to the fundraising process, would be really useful.”
