SUMMARY:
Fundraising is more than just asking for money or sending out grant appilcations. It involve a lot of research to determine the most likely funders as well as gathering accurate information to write solid proposals, determining the alignment of our mission to the funders’ priorities and identifying personal connections to potential funders.
For our next steps, the Team is asked to identify which of following aspects of the fundraising process in which they are most interested. Please send this information to Kristin in an email and copy the rest of the team. Kristin will get back to each of you to confirm what tasks you are going to do.
If you think of something that is not on the list, or something that shouldn’t be on the list, feel free to let Kristin know.
July and August will be heavy months for submitting proposals, so if you agree to take on a task, please let Kristin know if for some reason you cannot complete it.
TASKS:
- Everyone should keep their eyes open for potential fundraising opportunities. These may include connections to or ideas about corporate funders, ideas you pick up from visiting other art museums or cultural activities (i.e., program brochures that list funders) and any personal connections you may have to people who are interested in supporting a worthy cause.
- Demographic research: Please identify which geographic area(s) or entities (schools) you would like to research. This will involve getting just hard numbers (such as from the U.S Census) and/or narrative descriptions of a geographic area. See below:
Please check off your interest in the following:
Geographic Area Statistics Only Narrative (which will include students)
- Kensington
- Fishtown
- Northern Liberties
- West Philadelphia
- Lower Northeast (Mayfair, Oxford Circle?)
- South Philadelphia (metro area only)
- Public schools in the area (please identify which ones)
(If I have left any significant areas off, feel free to add them in!)
3. Grant Writing: If you are interested in writing a proposal, please let Kristin know, She will assign a proposal to you and send you a prototype. All drafts should be sent to Kristin for review before submitting. Do not send any proposals on your own as we want avoid duplication (which would look very unprofessional).
4. Research funders on the web: If you are interested in this please let Kristin know and she will send you a list of potential funders. Feel free to submit your own ideas for funders as well. Information gathered should be put into a form (which Kristin will send you)and will involve such things as deadlines, mission, how grant should be submitted (online, hard copy, email etc.). Note-even if a deadline is not immediate, we should have this info. To put into the database so it is available for the future. Funders often change their criteria from year to year, so work needs to be done on a ongoing basis.
ASI Fundraising Intern Projects
- What is a non-profit?
- Status
- Governance
2. Types of campaigns
- General operating
- Project
- Capital
- Capacity Building
3. How do non-profits make their money?
- Individual contributions
- Grants (government, foundation)
- Earned income
- Inkind
- Investments
4. What is a fundraiser? What do they do?
5. Grantwriting — How to put together a proposal
- Make your case
- Why is this program needed? Back up research.
- How will the program be implemented?
- How will you know if you have reached your goals? Made a difference?
- Sustaining the project?
- Budgets
6. Other ways of soliciting funds
- Direct solicitation- Peer to peer, mass marketing, technology
- Events
- Site Visits
- How can you identify donors? Who makes the best donors?
7. Application: What organization interests you? If you were asked to raise money for that organization, would you want to? If so, how would you like to do it? What would be a success for you? How else could you help the organization besides fundraising.
Reading:
- Principles and practices of Non-profit Excellence
- Smart & Caring
- The Artful Journey
- Reinventing Fundraising
- Proposal Planning and Writing
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