筹集
choú jí · HSK 7
to raise funds
💰 CHOW on JELLo at the fundraiser — choú jí = raise funds
Chóu sounds like chow (eating), jí like jelly. Link them: chowing on jello at a charity dinner where everyone is raising funds. 筹 means planning/arranging, 集 means gathering — together they mean collecting money for a cause.
筹 — bamboo radical 竹 + 壽 (longevity, phonetic)
Originally written with the bamboo radical over 壽, 筹 depicted small bamboo sticks used as counting tallies or chips in ancient China. From this concrete sense of 'counting rod' it extended to mean 'to count, plan, or scheme,' as seen in modern words like 筹划 (plan) and 筹码 (chip, bargaining counter).
集 — bird 隹 on top of tree 木
集 is an ideograph showing a bird (隹) perched on a tree (木). The original form depicted three birds gathering on a tree, later simplified to one. From 'birds flocking together' it extended to mean 'gather, collect, assemble,' and by extension 'collection' or 'volume' of writings.