Faithful Fundraising:

1
Faithful Fundraising

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

Emily Cicchini, Special Projects Manager - June 07
2
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.

3
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!

4
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.

5
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)

6
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

7
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?

8
What would success look like?
9
Envision how you will use it.
10
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

11
What do you need to get there?

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

12
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

13
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.

14
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.

15
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

16
Trends in Project Evaluation The Logic Model
Task or activity Inputs Outputs Short Term Goal Long Term Goal
Building an educational website Amount of Time Qualifications of People Amount of Money web pages of key functions of students logging in To get students more engaged To increase student skill in a specific task To increase access to materials To improve learning To lower cost of learning To increase efficiency of learning
17
Embracing Dissemination

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

18
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

19
BREAK
20
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

21
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

22
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

23
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
24
Rights and Permissions

• Inside Class, UT Fair Use

• Open Access Not Fair Use

25
Got Ducks?
26
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.

27
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?

28
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

29
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

30
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

31
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

32
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

33
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.