This is a set of handy cards filled with advice and provocative quotes to help you get starting in thinking about working with donors and funders. They could be useful in a leadership activity or as reminders when planning communications.
This is a set of handy cards filled with advice and provocative quotes to help you get starting in thinking about working with donors and funders. They could be useful in a leadership activity or as reminders when planning communications.
Comments
These are great Joye thanks. I think for most of us this is new territory, and we need all the help we can get.
I've set my priorities in this area for the year as:
Create development plan for 2011-2012 fiscal year
Meet quarterly with Mason Development
Secure and meet with 15 prospective investors
Identify, rank, and pursue high potential grant opportunities
Create CASE STATEMENT
Create central resource file to store our best writing about the NVWP and our programs
Develop plan for maintaing ongoing relationships with donors generally, apart from gift-specific recognition: dinner? Shwag?
Develop a plan for celebration of NVWP to energize and engage partners of the NVWP: TCs, Donors, Parents, School Leaders, Mason Admins.
Ensure timely issuance of letters of acknowledgement for tax deductions to investors.
Develop an external advisory board with fiduciary responsibilities.
This is really hard work, but will needs to be a part of our strategy and business model. The nice thing is here at Mason I HAVE a development person I can go to who is helping. The thing is that she can help me better because I do have a plan and specific goals. We're working on a "soft" campaign to ask for scholarship support for deserving teachers who want to do the SI but can't, as well as scholarships for our young writers program. We'll keep you posted on our progress.
Paul,
Your priorities for the coming year look very much like mine. Development certainly is a new aspect of our work. Having the resources from both NWP and our University development officers has really helped educate me and others at the site. I agree with you that having specific goals worked out in advance of meeting with the university development folks makes a difference. I realized that one of our initial tasks is selling our site to them, too, so that they'll perceive us as having fund-raising potential for the university.
One question: We're also thinking of creating an advisory board that is distinct from our Executive Board of teachers. What sort of folk are you envisioning for your advisory board?
Yes, thanks, Joye. Very helpful. Viewing the flip cards makes me painfully aware of how text-heavy everything I create is. They will be helpful for our site as we revise some documents and create new ones. I admit, though, to resisting becoming too breezy and having our materials look too much like corporate PR materials. Maybe that's just something I need to get over.
A number of the flip cards also seem relevant to the composition of our newsletter.