The UC Berkeley chapter of Delta Delta Delta, or Tri Delta, launched a week-long social media campaign Monday to raise money for the Berkeley Relief Fund.

The Berkeley Relief Fund is a fund created by the city of Berkeley to provide emergency grants to small businesses, nonprofit arts organizations and Berkeley tenants who have been economically impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

“There were 1058 applications to the small business portion of the Berkeley Relief Fund. This is an indication of just how GREAT the need is!” said Jacquelyn McCormick, chief of staff for Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín’s office, in an email. “As a result not every business will get a grant. In order to go deeper into this list we REALLY need for the public to match the funds ($3M) that the City put into the effort.”

The fundraising campaign was planned by Ashley Kawakubo, chapter philanthropy chair of Tri Delta, and Courtney Chau, assistant philanthropy chair. Chau added that, in addition to the sorority hoping to continue its usual philanthropic support of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Tri Delta also wanted to help the Berkeley community during the pandemic.

The campaign will be centered on Instagram and will last until April 26, according to Chau. Each day will feature a different social media event, including bingo and a surprise post challenge, and the events will be conducted mainly through Instagram stories.

Chau said Tri Delta hopes to raise awareness, support and funds for the Berkeley Relief Fund.

“I think it is important to support small businesses at this time because Berkeley itself is highly reliant on small businesses. If we lose these places, we will return to a completely different city,” Chau said in an email. “I am hoping that this campaign sheds light on the severity of this pandemic in relation to the survival of the city we know and love.”

Contact Tarunika Kapoor at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter at @tkapoor_dc.