Faithful Fundraising:

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Faithful Fundraising

• Resource Development for
• Instructional Technology Projects
• Liberal Arts ITS

Emily Cicchini, Special Projects Manager - June 07
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Why go for external funds?

• To gain resources for use by you and your
  students that otherwise might not be available
• To grow your own personal network of like-minded
  people, inside and outside of higher ed
• To expand and evaluate your own ideas about the
  possibilities and limitations of instructional
  technology.

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Old Sage Development Sayings

• Fundraising is friend-raising/match-making
• Fundraising is sales/is not sales
• Get your ducks in a row
• It takes the same effort to ask for 1 as it does
  for 1 million
• Dont grant-chase
• Every day is a good day to fundraise!

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Name This Tune

• You can't always get what you want
• But if you try sometime, you just might find
• You get what you need.

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Grant writing equals project planning

• Need (fundamental, universal, compelling)
• Proposed Solution (innovative, clearly addresses
  the need, the big idea)
• Project Design (logical, sequential, thoughtful)
• Overall Goal (long-range, large impact, BHA - Big
  Hairy Audacious)
• Objectives (tasks, ordered by priority,
  measurable)

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Orthe usual ducks, continued.

• Timelines with milestones linked to objectives
• Budget (total project income/expense)
• Qualifications/history of project team
• Evaluation plan (how will you measure it?)
• Dissemination plan (how will you share what
  youve learned?)
• Sustainability

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Evaluating a true, pressing need

• Think about what you are ALREADY DOING. Ask
• What would an IT project that successfully
  enhanced what we are already doing LOOK LIKE?
• 5 minute writing exercise
• Describe it in one paragraph.
• Focus on tangible images.
• What exactly would people be doing with it?

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What would success look like?
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Envision how you will use it.
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What will make it happen?

• Time
• Talent
• Knowledge
• Equipment and Supplies (digital, video, audio)
• Software Licenses, Other Fees
• All can be expressed in terms of cash value

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What do you need to get there?

• What do you need first?
• What do you need most?
• What will be the hardest to obtain?

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Bad needs statements

• Research
• I lack the free time to do my own work
• I could do it if only I had more money
• I cant get the things or people I need from my
  department chair

• Instructional
• The students dont pay enough attention in class
• The students arent as literate as they were 20
  years ago
• The students spend too much free time playing
  computer games

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The so what? test

• Funders dont need to know the gory details.
• Funders dont like whiny, negative language.
• Funders dont care what problem it solves for
  you, but how you are solving a problem that
  effects others.
• Education funders, in general, arent often that
  impressed by personal recognition.

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What do funders want?
Finally, I know what they want.

• To change the world.
• To help people, generally, the more people, the
  better.
• To fix a specific problem or issue.
• To know what the positive impact will be.

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Better needs statements

• Research
• To examine and document a previously overlooked
  topic
• To study and present knowledge about a new issue
  or challenge that has developed in your field
• To test an idea, process or procedure for
  creating new knowledge

• Instructional
• To find better ways of conveying complex
  information to students
• To increase evidence of higher order thinking in
  students
• To find new ways to measure and improve student
  performance

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Trends in Project Evaluation The Logic Model
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Embracing Dissemination

• Publication
• Lectures
• Presentations
• Conferences
• Online networking
• Motto NO dissemination really is BAD
  dissemination. Tell people about your work.

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Sustainability equals diversity

• Individuals (Annual Funds, Major Gifts)
• Corporate Sponsorships (Sports, Ads)
• Corporate Foundations (Strategic Giving)
• Private Foundations (Families, Legacies)
• Public Foundations (Community Efforts)
• Special Events (Sports, Parties, Sales)
• Local, County, State, Federal Govt Agencies

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BREAK
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Some trends in IT project funding

• Open Access Resources making scholarly
  literature and knowledge freely available
• Gaming, scripted, collaborative and interactive
  instructional applications (hello, Second Life)
• Extensive, comprehensive searchable databases and
  digital archives of hard-to-find materials
• Analysis tools, synthesis tools, visual motion
  models, and other applied research projects

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LAITS Showcase Solutions

• Texas Politics open access multimedia textbook
• Français Interactif open access multimedia
  textbook
• Danteworlds mulitimedia supplimental
  instructional resource
• The Daily Intelligencer unique web-based
  learning environment

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IT Sites We Like

• Carnegie Mellons Open Learning Initiative,
  http//www.cmu.edu/oli/
• The Sloan C Consortium http//www.sloan-c.org/
• MITs Open Course Ware Project,
  http//ocw.mit.edu/index.html

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Top Twenty Web Sites

• 11 yahoo.co.jp
• 12 microsoft.com
• 13 megaupload.com
• 14 sina.com.cn
• 15 blogger.com
• 16 hi5.com
• 17 facebook.com
• 18 rapidshare.com
• 19 ebay.com
• 20 sohu.com

• 1 yahoo.com
• 2 msn.com
• 3 google.com
• 4 youtube.com
• 5 live.com
• 6 myspace.com
• 7 baidu.com
• 8 orkut.com
• 9 wikipedia.org
• 10 qq.com

Retrieved from alexa.com June 9, 2007
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Rights and Permissions

• Inside Class, UT Fair Use

• Open Access Not Fair Use

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Got Ducks?
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Basic 5-step fundraising cycle

• Research - 70 of your time (including gossip,
  internal coordination, and rejection).
• Cultivation - 4 of your time.
• Solicitation - 15 of your time.
• Closure - 1 of your time.
• Stewardship - 10 of your time.
• Once you start, it is a cycle, it never ends.

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How to evaluate a prospect

• What do they say they want to accomplish? What
  is their self-image?
• Who do they say theyll give to? Who do they
  really give to, how often, how many different
  groups?
• What things have they given for in the past?
• How much do they give/do they really have?
• Who are the people actually in charge? Whats
  the decision making process?
• Are they stable or in flux? Whats the
  deadline/timeline?

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The Usual Suspects

• National Endowment for the Arts
• National Endowment for the Humanities
• Department of Education
• National Science Foundation
• Moody, Meadows, Brown, Houston, Webber
  Foundations
• Austins lack of philanthropic infrastructure

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Online Research Tools

• Federal Register http//www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/index
  .html and grants.gov
• Texas Register and grant alert
• http//www.governor.state.tx.us/divisions/stategra
  nts/grantalert/view
• Chronicle of Philanthropy
• The Foundation Center/The Grantsmanship Center
• Guidestar.org, or how to read a 990.
• The Internet - The Meadows Foundation
• http//www.mfi.org/grants/grant_guidelines_english
  .asp

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Exercise Plan a grant for

• Grantees
• wikipedia.org
• openoffice.org
• pbs.org
• creativecommons.org
• thestoryoftexas.org
• gutenberg.org
• moma.org
• artsedge.kennedy-center.org/

• Grantors
• NEH Digital Start Up
• NEA Fast Track
• Humanities Texas
• NSF Informal Science Education
• MacArthur Foundation
• IES Reading and Writing Education Research
• DOE Star Schools
• The Meadows Foundation

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Example Wikipedia to NEH

• Need An online thesaurus tool
• Proposed Solution an application that can
  search and cross reference words by tags, use and
  associated meaning
• Project Design plug-in to be developed by
  programmer and linguistic scholar
• Overall Goal To create new functionality for
  the worlds most used multilingual open knowledge
  base
• Objectives to create a functional tool that
  helps users create digital thesaurus entries

• Timelines prototype, year 1, release year 2
• Budget 50,000 per year, 1/2 to scholar, 1/2 to
  programmer
• Qualifications They are both fabulously
  brilliant, connnected and experienced
• Evaluation Wikipedia foundation will conduct
  usability studies
• Dissemination A press conference and full web
  documentation
• Sustainability Wikipedia Foundation will commit
  to sustaining it

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How to build a prospect list

• Dont take on more than you can manage on a part
  time basis, maybe 5 at a time
• Meet on a regular basis (monthly) with a team
  (student, colleagues) and go over the list
• Determine next step more research, internal
  clearance, crafting a pitch, or (lucky you!)
  completing a report
• When prospects are pretty much dead ends, replace
  them with new ones

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Final Thoughts

• Yes, you need to know people
• but you can get to know them, particularly
  through web.
• If you work your list, the money will come.