posted on July 31, 2000 11:18:45 PM
I've recently picked up the baton again on our Search & Rescue Teams fundraising work and would like to toss out a few of my ideas for feedback.
Our yearly operating budget runs around 10K and we are looking at another 10K on top of that for upgrades on equipment, etc. So, I need to round up a minimum of $20,000 over the next year for basic expected expenses. We aren't in immediate need of funds as all our operating expenses are well in hand and the team has no bills other than normal monthly communications bills, etc. But, I want to work pro-actively toward garnering the upcoming expenses.
Other than my husbands contacts, my usual method is to get on the phone and call small to large businesses looking for discounted equipment or donations, etc. We've been successful with that but we're growing to a point now that I really need to streamline the entire funding end—so we can put more energy into other growth areas within the team. We have a few regular donators but need to increase that # to meet our growth.
I want to look into grants—but have no experience with that and very little time to study it. My understanding is that it can be very profitable, but that there are a lot of ins and outs to it and that it’s very time consuming. I've been told that colleges can be helpful in that an instructor may assign students with grant work, or public relations work etc. as a “class project.” In other words, they might take some aspects of our fundraising work as an assignment? I’ll call the local colleges, but wondered if any of you have had experience with that kind of arrangement and your opinion of it?
Selling items like the Mary Kay donated products did bring in profit, but it is very time intensive considering the $$$ amount it brings in. We've done a few standard fundraisers and have met with mixed success - but, I'd like to move away from that and concentrate on either applying for grants or soliciting corporate memberships. My thought was that XYZ could be a Corporate Sponsor for X amount of $$ per year. We have done that in the past on a limited basis. The incentive (other than helping out a non-profit group) for the company was that their name would be placed under the heading “Sponsored By” on our Command/Communications vehicle which is seen by a lot of people. In other words, free advertising for them. All of these ideas require preparation and proposals, etc.
Do any of you have suggestions or ideas as to how I can best approach this?
posted on July 31, 2000 11:55:39 PMmybiddness: Go to your public library! You will find many books on writing grant proposals as well as sources that list companies/organizations that have money to grant & their requirements for applicants.
posted on August 1, 2000 12:05:45 AM
I'm hoping that with the amount of time that that would require that I can locate a college class that is studying grants to take that up as a project. I just haven't talked to them yet - on the agenda for next week though. I'm not sure which class that might be though - just a tidbit of info someone passed on to me that I'm hoping is true.
posted on August 1, 2000 05:06:46 PM
Doing a web search for government grants. There are plenty of sites out there with the information. But, beware some of them want to charge you for the privilege of telling you the info. E-mail me and I will try and find some for you and send the info to you. I may already have some of them bookmarked.
