Cancer Fundraisers

>> good afternoon. my name is vanessa and i will beyour conference operator today. at this time, i wouldlike to welcome everyone to the fundraising and resourcedevelopment conference call. all lines have beenplaced on mute to prevent any background noise. after the speaker's remarks, there will be a questionand answer session. if you would like to ask aquestion during this time,

simply press star,then the number one on your telephone keypad. if you would like towithdrawal your question, press the pound key. thank you. i will now like to turn thecall over to ms. sharon rabb. please, go ahead ma'am. >> welcome to fundraisingand resource development. i'm sharon rabb withcampaign consultation

and we are a training andtechnical assistance provider with the corporation fornational community service. this web shop ispart of a series of monthly web shops designedto provide tips and assistance to help you navigate your vistaservice and perform the work that you've been assignedby your organization. please took to the right --look to the right on your screen and you'll see thatwe are asking you to answer a few questions.

these polls will help usknow who is participating in this webinar and direct them to our needs -- yourneeds, sorry. you may have been assignedthe task for fundraising for your organization as part ofa team or as a single fundraiser with a special areaof responsibility. the truth is, everyone who worksfor a non-profit is responsible for the well beingof an organization. so whether you are a grantwriter, an events coordinator,

or a community liaison, wehope there will be something for you in this webinar. today's team we havemyself, sharon rabb and i am a project specialiston campaign consultation. jill freeman is a training andonline curriculum developer at education northwest andshe will be talking to you about communications tips forcommunicating with prospects. danielle ricks is ameeting specialist with campaign consultation andshe is our tech person today.

she is sitting in for suzanneknizner so if you have a need to communicate with suzanne -- with danielle, direct yourinformation or question to suzanne and otherwise,keep it open for everyone. >> okay. thank you sharon. we're going to go over acouple of tips, but first, i see a lot of chat goingon and so i just want to do some house cleaning first. if you would like to speakto me personally as the host,

if you'd like to have a privateconversation then you would click on privately andit will just go to me. if you want to chat witheveryone, however, and you want to have a conversation backand forth with everyone on the phone then you'regoing to click on everyone from the drop down menu,otherwise i'm the only person who gets to see whatyou're saying. a couple of other thingsthat we want to give you, i know that some folksare having a problem

with the pass code soif you're on the line and you can hear this,[laughter] the number, the pass code is 8942114. so okay. let's go oversome tips for using webex. if you lose yourinternet connection, reconnect using the linkthat was emailed to you. if you lose yourphone connection, redial 1-877-297-9359 and onceagain the pass code is 8942114 -- i'm sorry 2114.

this web shop is beingrecorded and will be available in the vista campus tourpage along with the archives of previous web shops. so the phone lines rightnow are going to be muted and you may ask questionsin the chat at the right and we will try toanswer questions, as many of them as we go along. and if time permits we'll alsoopen the phone lines a little bit later on so youcan is questions there.

again, please makesure that when you're, you're communicate thewith everyone in the chat that you click thatdrop down menu and everyone else can see youotherwise the only person that's going to be able toread it is myself. thank you so much and i'm going to turn this backover to sharon. >> hello. i'm sorry for allthe confusion that we have. that pass code again ifyou're not sure is 89421124.

that should get youinto the telephone call. well, for today's agendafor welcome introductions that we have just completed,we will then have a discussion over what the difference is between fundraisingand development. those two terms are oftenused interchangeably, but there is a difference. then we will talk aboutwhere the money comes from, rather important informationto have because you will need

that to know where tosolicit your funds. a full complement offundraising methods. there are many differentways that you can raise funds and we will talk abouta number of them. the all-important ask, iswhat you need to have -- information that you needto have before you can go to a prospect and request funds. we'll spend some timeon the vista campus. and then we will offeryou some next steps.

there will be time for questions after the class then wewill have an evaluation. next, i'd like tointroduce andy king. he a vista trainingspecialist with vista, the ncs and he has a fewwords to say to you. andy? >> thank you sharon. and, good afternooneveryone or good morning, depending on where you are.

as sharon said, my nameis andy king and i work in the vista training unitand on behalf of vista, i want to welcome all of youto this afternoon's session. thank you for joining us,and thank you for investing in your professionaldevelopment. we at vista look at youryear of service as one, not only where you willprovide capacity building for the communitybut also it's a year of personal capacity building.

developing your own skills andyour own professional portfolio so that at the end of your year,you're in a much stronger place than you were when you started. just like the communitywill be in a stronger place than when you started. then, of course,fundraising is a skill that will be useful notonly in your vista service, but in many othersettings as well. so we hope that you'll see thisas a good investment in time.

i'm glad you've taken time outof your schedule to join us and i'm going to turnyou back over to sharon and jill for today's session. >> thank you andy. we may have the poll ready. is the poll ready for revealingat this time so we can find out where people stand? >> yes, it is. it looks like an answer,does your vet assign --

that very first question, wehave -- hold on one second. does your vet assign youresponsibility for fundraising and resource development and an overwhelming majorityof you have said yes. are you building a newfundraising resource development activity or continuingan established one? and many of you have said yes,but it looks like we're divided between a new and established. and some of you didnot answer that one.

so hopefully when we getdone, we will be able to have covered allthe topics for you that you're going to need. >> and your last question, name your project's three mostpromising donor prospects. of course it will bedifferent for each one of you, but we want you tostart paying attention to those donor prospectswho will be most likely to provide supportfor your program

so that you should haveyour donor prospects ready on the tip of your tongue. okay. so let's talk aboutfundraising versus development. fundraising is a finalstep that follows a series of activities intendedto build relationships. development activities stimulatea prospective donor's interest in a commitment to your program. many of these activitiesare things that you are probably alreadydoing and you don't think

of them as fundraising. development is a continuumof effort that results in successful fundraising. all members of your staff canbe involved in development. for example, program staff areusually the most articulate about the projects thattell the story in a way that is compelling to stimulatea prospective donor's interest. many major donors will expectto receive and ask only from the executive directorso you may be serving

as a coach for that director. in other cases, the leadershipvolunteer may be the best person to ask for a gift andyou may be serving as support for him or her. now let's talk about wherethe money comes from. if you look closely at the cashthat your organization raises, you should see that it comes from a number ofdifferent sources. the balance developmentprogram with requests from gifts

from more than onesource indicate a healthy fundraising program. over dependence in one sourcesuch as foundations is risky because the loss of funding in that area can cause yourwhole finance support system to crash. this chart, which you willfind on the vista campus, outlines the benefitsand challenges to the six sourcesof fundraising.

so, we'll start withthe big three. the first one, individuals. they provide over 80percent of the gifts in the u.s. they provide thebase for your annual fund drive for operating support. treated correctly, they willgive to you year after year and often increase theirgiving as they become more invested in your program. and eventually can leadto a large planned gift.

they will support programs basedon their emotional connection and therefore often are thelargest source of funding for controversial issues. however, be aware that theyrequire more time and effort than other sources of funding. it may take several yearsto bring an individual into your fold and it takes agood deal of planning and work with fundraising volunteers. there should be individualdonor prospects among your most

promising donor prospects. foundation funders involvefewer people to solicit. they will give seed grants and they will oftenfund start-up projects. they can give bigmoney, but as a rule, they only provide fundingfor a limited time. ten to twelve percent of allfunding to non-profits comes from foundations and they oftenrequire that you demonstrate that you have supportfrom other sources.

they also fund on their scheduleand there is little chance of getting operating or emergency supportfrom foundations. >> everyone. can you bear withus for a moment? we're going to try to -- iknow many of you are putting in the chat that youare not able to hear. you're having difficulty so maybe let's trya couple of things.

we'll try the volume,turn the volume up on the headsetsover on this side. move the speaker alittle bit closer. much, much closer. better? and then for those ofyou at home, if you would turn up the volume on your speakers. i know you said that you triedthat and that didn't help. so let's see if wecan fix this for you. so sharon, go ahead andstart talking and you guys

in the chat, let me knowif that's any better. >> thank you. i'm sorry. i have the volume turned up andi hope that you can hear me now. people think of corporations --sorry talking about foundations. foundations. they will get seed grants they can give bigmoney but as a rule, ten to twelve percent of allgiving to non-profits comes

from foundations and they alsorequire that you demonstrate they also fund on their scheduleand there's little chance or emergency supportfrom a foundation. i see you are hearing me better. so thank you forletting us know. then we'll talk aboutcorporations. corporations should be a goodsource of support, but remember, that businesses are inbusiness for their own profit. only five percent of thefunding comes from business.

you have the best chance ifyour mission is compatible with the business' product. businesses seldomfund operating costs and the gifts usuallyare not large. keep in mind, though, thatcorporations can be good sources of in-kind gifts and this maybe a valuable asset for you. now you hear a squeaking sound. i'm going to try puttingyou on a different line. just hold for a minute.

don't go anywhere. >> and while we'regetting situated over here, and we apologize for someof the technical problems that we're having, i justwant to remind everyone, especially the people thatcame on a little bit later, if you want to speak tothe host, to me privately, that's fine, but some ofyou have some great points and some great questions here and it's actuallymeant for everyone.

so in the drop down menu in thechat you'll see a little section that says send to andjust click on everyone and then everyone will beable to see that and in answer to some of the questions, yes, this presentation willbe available later on the vista campus and yes,that is vistacampus.org. >> okay. so we're trying anotherway to communicate and hoping that you can hear me now. i also see some questionsthat are interesting

and that we will get to later. someone has askedabout the vista campus and i will show you howto get to vista campus and where the fundraisingtools are there. but in the meantime, thenext source of money comes from government --sorry, three more. government funding. right. did you know thatapproximately 25 percent of all u.s. non-profit bills arepaid for by government funding?

there are some very large grantsavailable if you are a priority. there is difficulty, however,in acquiring those funds. the application and reportingrequirements are very time consuming and sometimesexpensive when staff time is considered. some organizations, which relyheavily on government funds, find themselves in troublewhen they are no longer in a targeted priorityarea for funds. federated organizations.

these are organizationssuch as the united way, associated black charities. [ beeping on the line ] they are often a good sourceof supplemental funding when you have other sources. the workplace-giving programmakes it easy for people to give but some of them,there are large gifts that are received this way. some organizationsreceive grants directly

from a federated organization. lastly, we have specificorganizations and clubs. lion's clubs, the elks,sometimes known as the animals, rotary, kiwanis andreligiously affiliated groups and fraternities and sororityoften make small gifts. these groups are a fertilesource for volunteers. remember, one of the dangers of fundraising isreliance too heavily on any one single source.

currently, in this economicsituation, this has been pointed out when organizations losefunding from a major source. now we're going to try totalk about fundraising methods and yes, i'm hearingthe beeps too. [ laughter ] they seem to have stopped. okay. the thing to keep inmind about raising money is that the closer and strongerthe personal relationship, the greater the chance ofgetting the desired gift.

many times, you willnot be the one with the closest relationship. so you'll need toturn to board members and fundraising volunteerswho can be a major benefit when asking for fundsin this case. sometimes more than onefundraising method is used for single prospective donors. you may write a letter tofollow it up by a phone call to set an appointment

for a personal visitto ask for a gift. and then just remember, thatthe personal touch is always preferred becausepeople give to people. so i'm going to talk about thebenefits and how to use some of the differentfundraising methods. personal visits. as you can see personalvisits are the top producers. if you have a largebase of donors though, it's highly unlikelythat you'll be able

to make personalvisits to everyone. this method is best forseeking larger or special gifts. it can be used for annualunrestricted support or restricted support but saveit for your best prospects. this method is also most aptto bring positive results when the solicitor is a peeror a fundraising volunteer who has made a donationof comparable size. seventy percent of those askedusually give about fifty percent of the requested amountin a personal visit.

telephone calls. these can also be very personal. this method is often used toinitiate a personal contact as a prelude to a face-to-faceask for unrestricted or restricted support. phone a-thons can be used to supplement annual funddrives and upgrade support. try to match callersto people they know. twenty-five percent of thoseasked usually will give

twenty-five percent ofthe requested amount. personalized mail. personalized mail can be used when you are solicitingnew or repeat gifts. it's specialized when youinclude the person's name on the letter. this method is often applied toannual fund campaigns and is -- usually brings in ten percent of the people asked willusually give about two

and a half percent ofthe suggested amount if it's a new donor and established donors willrespond at a higher rate. when a direct mailcampaign is initiated, that's one that's not -- doesnot contain a donor's name, the response willbe much smaller. the more targeted the mailing,the better chance you have of a positive response. you're probably familiarwith written grant proposals.

these can go to foundationsor corporations and sometimes evento individuals. occasionally, ifyou are involved in a major capital campaign youmay be asked to write a proposal to an individual to fund aspecific program or project. grant proposals usually comewith specific guidelines. be sure that you have theguidelines before you start your proposal and if necessary,contact the funder for guidance if there are questions.

foundation staff usuallyare receptive to calls from grant seekers duringthe proposal writing process. many vistas are involvedin special events. in addition to fundraising,special events can serve to showcase and publicize yourproject to the wider community. they also involve manyvolunteers and may be a way to involve the businesscommunity in a form of gifts in kind. these can both become funderslater when they learn more

about your programthrough their involvement. with special events, be awareof your return on investment. that is, you should not bespending more on your event than you are bringingin in revenue. is your website servingyou well? online giving can be a good source for newdonors and has been proven to be a very effective way toraise funds during a crisis. at the very least, you need

to have a donate nowbutton prominently displayed on your website. learn to make useof facebook, twitter and other social mediatools that bring awareness to your cause and to yourneeds and don't forget to use standard email. planned gifts areusually directed to a special purposelike endowments. in addition to bequests,they can include gifts

of personal property suchas stock or real estate. they're a great way for longtime major donors to provide for your organizations. sometimes they're knownas the ultimate gift from a long time donor. and lastly, we havetributes and memorials. these are usually not putinto your fundraising plan because one is never surejust when you're going to get a tribute or memorial.

they are often directedby a long-time funder who is asking friends tomake a gift as a tribute or sometimes they aredone as a memorial for someone who has died. now we're going totalk about the ask. this slide, the five is ofdevelopment explains the process of relationship building. and relationship building is oneof the most important tenants of fundraising and development.

if you remember,people give to people. so the first step is identify. so you need to identifythe prospects who might support your program. they may be peoplewho come to events or they have family members or friends involvedin your project. they may have made giftsbefore in other ways. do some research to find

out about a prospect'scapabilities and interests. next, you need tointerest a prospect. and that you do bydoing your work in a way that those prospects willnotice and be interested such as publicize in thecommunity or hold events that allow individualsto see the kind of work that you're doing. inform. send newsletters,generate publicities, send out press releases, postto facebook, hold special events

to inform your prospects aboutthe need in the community that your program is meeting. you might take a specialopportunity to invite a prospect to your program so that that person can see thework that you're doing. next we do involve. the more prospectors involved inyour program the more they care. ask for advice. request help on shortterm projects.

we hope that by using thisprocess you'll be able to get the moneythat you ask for and that the prospects willinvest in your program. investing is the final stepin which they make a gift. so the ask. asking for money scares a lot ofpeople but it might be helpful to keep these thoughts in mind. few people give moneyunless they are asked. when was the lasttime you went looking

for a place to give money away? nearly everyone feelsgood when they give money. there's at leastsome small impression that you have made the world or at least someone'sworld a better place to live when you make a gift. most giving is doneby people of income that are less than 60,000. don't think you can onlyask rich folks for money.

in fact, those with fewer assets and less income give a higherpercentage of their income. also, the rise of online andweb-based giving is coming from younger donorswho have the potential to become larger donors ifyou capture their interest. when you ask people youknow for a contribution, at least half ofthem will say yes. that's why it's importantto build the relationships. we're taught early on thattalking about religion,

politics, sex andmoney are taboo. we're raised to believethat it's rude to ask someone what theirsalary is or how much they paid for their house or their car. in fundraising, however,we're not trying to find out how much money a personhas or how much money -- or how they came by their money. we're asking for specificgift of a certain size for a specific purpose.

at this time, i'd liketo introduce jill freeman from education northwest. jill is going to -- i'm sorry. when you ask people -- sorry. that didn't get revealed. at this time i'm goingto introduce jill freeman who is an advisor in training. an online curriculum developerat education northwest in portland, oregon and she isgoing to give us some pointers

on communicating with donors. jill. are you there? >> i am. thanks sharon. so today, in talking aboutasking donors for money, we need to consider also howwe communicate with them. and i'd like to talk toyou about seven key points in forming your communicationwith any sort of donor, whether that be a donoryou're asking in person, a donor you're asking overemail, or through a letter,

or at a pitch at afundraising event. it's really important thatyour solicitations are strong and compelling andthat they appeal to the interest of the donors. so knowing who yourdonors are is important as part of this process. and that links back to whatsharon was talking about earlier with making relationshipswith people. so the first step withsolicitation is story.

you want to make sure thatyou're engaging your reader by presenting a compellingnarrative portrait of the problem or needof the organization. it's much more effective to letthem know who's being helped by the organization andhow you're making an impact through a narrative than givingthem dry and boring statistics. a story is somethingthat tugs at heartstrings and that will help people infeeling motivated to donate to your organization and cause.

whether that be financialor donations of time or even any other resourcesthat you might possibly need. the next ask that you wantto consider is shared values. and this links back, like i saidto that relationship aspect. you want to make sure thatyou're appealing to the values and motivations of the donors. that includes things possiblylike being part of the solution or being part of somethingthat's larger than themselves. making a visiblemeasurable impact.

someone who's beenaffected by something that the organization deals with in their personal lifemight feel very motivated and making sure you'reappealing to that in a way that's very earnestand sincere is important. next up is solutions. you want to make sure when youare talking to a donor, again, in writing or in person, thatyou're providing a description of the need that establishes alogical solution to the problem

and lays the groundwork for the ask. in other words, you want toshow how your organizations work and by extension thosesupporters of that work, is an essential part ofthe solution at hand. show how you're effective and show how you'resolving problems. next. you want to deal with whatwe call the so what question. and this is important incommunication in general. it's really about the impact.

you want to discuss the problemin a way that makes the reader or person you'retalking to in person, sees that a change musthappen as soon as possible. you want to discuss what happenswhen solutions aren't offered or supported and what happenswhen solutions are offered. and finally when appropriate,you want to use experts to help make the case. basically, you want to tellsomebody why they should care about this issue and why theircontribution will help improve

the situation around it. next, you want tomake a specific ask. you want to make a strongand direct ask of the donor, which includes cleardirections for taking action. if you're doing this in writing, you want to providelinks to websites. you want to apply -- make sureyou are providing envelopes that people can send donationsback to your organization in. make it easy for people and tellthem what you want them to do

in a way that gives thema clear course of action that is easy and specific. next, you want to make surethat when you're asking someone to support your organization,you're keeping it simple and making it sincere. you want to be persuasive but not overwhelm yourreader with information. use simple language that is easyto understand and avoid the use of jargon or anyterminology that's specific

to your organization. abbreviations, acronyms arereally things you want to avoid. you obviously want to make sure that you're practicingprofessional communication behaviors like checking yourspelling and your grammar. making sure your languageis appropriate and your tone of speech is indicative ofyour organization and the cause that you're representing. make sure you are notemotionally manipulating

your audience. you want to be respectfuland sincerely grateful for their time and support,in whatever form it comes. that's the best way torespect the relationship that you've built and makesure that you're keeping honest to your cause and theneeds of your organization. i'll turn it backover now to sharon. thanks for your time. >> thank you jill.

at this point, we're goingto open the phone lines. vanessa, can you open thephone lines for questions? >> yes, ma'am. at this time, i would like toremind everyone if you would like to ask a questionpress star one we will pause for just a momentto compile the q&a roster. >> in the meantime, someoneasked about what to do if a business says nosoliciting on their grounds? we want to make it clear thatwhen you're doing fundraising,

you don't start withthe ask for the gift. you develop a relationshipfirst. so if you use the five isand develop your relationship so that you know peoplewithin the corporation and they can providean entry for you, then you shouldn't have a problem with solicitinga business. >> while we're waitingfor the phone lines, we also had another questionin the chat sharon, --

>> um-hum. >> -- that maybe youor jill can answer. her question is, if youhave certain organizations and local prospects,what's a good way to develop new relationships? >> that's when youuse your volunteers. people give to people andespecial people that they know. they don't so muchgive to organizations. your board of directors

or perhaps a separatefundraising committee should be out there making connections foryou and they should be the ones who are introducing you to thesepotential funders, individuals, corporations, andfoundations in the community. >> and george had aquestion about jill. jill, could you just say yourfull name again and your title and where you're located? >> sure. i'm jill freemanand i am a training and curriculum developerfor education northwest.

i'm also the facilitator of the online vista blendresource development course. and if i could justadd really quickly, to sharon's last answer, i thinkthe other thing is in terms of making those relationships,volunteers are great, board members are great butyou really want to identify where the relationshipscould possibly be. so i think doing abrainstorm session and something called a prospectmap can be really useful.

that's where you get a keygroup of people in a room. get some big pieces of paperand literally draw a map of your organization where youstart with your organization in the center and thenlink out to relationships that exist in the room. so asking board membersvolunteers, key staff. who are the folks that share amission with us, share values with us, share clients orshare an interest or need to participate inour organization.

what are their motivations and what are theresources that they have? and when you start to buildthat kind of map you'll begin to see those connectionsreally clearly and then you can do the -- youcan follow the five is and start to develop thoserelationships from there. >> and we have -- >> and -- >> one other question-- oh, i'm sorry.

go ahead. >> go ahead. i see there's a questionabout a prospect map model. there is, if yougoogle prospect map and a gentlemen namedcraig bowman, b-o-w-m-a-n, you'll find it and i thinkactually it's also something that eventually willend up in the campus. >> a little earlier on,someone in the chat asked, how do you develop arelationship with a foundation

or corporation thatis out of state? >> yes, i saw that. those are usually funders. i assume that you areaware of what they fund so you've done some researchon the prospect ahead of time. you perhaps have gone to thefoundation center online or one of the foundation center books and if you don'thave a subscription to the foundation center,you can check out one

of the libraries thathold the materials. they are located in every state. and if you look at thefoundation center's website, they will tell you wherethese libraries are located. and in those materials you willfind out how to make a contact. of course they know that theydon't know you personally, but they may ask for instance, for some materials beforeyou submit a proposal. something about yourmission and about your --

what you're going tobe asking for money for and their guidelines willusually tell you whether or not you're a goodprospect for that foundation. i also see there are a lot ofpeople who are using volunteers and i'm very pleasedto see that. >> and then i don'tknow, jill or sharon, if you have any software. someone asked a question; erica wants to know what isthe best software program

for donors? >> oh goodness. there are many, many ofthem and they range in price from very inexpensive to quitesophisticated and expensive. any of the blackbaud projectsoftware systems are probably at the top of the line andwill be out of the budget for smaller organizations, buttechsoup, which is a partner with the corporation, doesprovide some assistance in how to find appropriatesoftware for your fundraising

and i see peoplehave used etapestry. that's a good one. any number of ones i can'tendorse any one in particular. but techsoup should bea good starting point if you are starting from zero and don't have any idea whatyou need to use for software. vanessa, do we haveany questions? >> yes, ma'am, we do. your first question comesfrom the line of mona philips.

>> hello mona. >> yes, how are you? >> i'm fine, thank you. >> thank you so muchfor getting with us and we really appreciatethis information that you are giving to us. one of my big concerns is iswe are, you know, a big portion of our community-based area andwe do have a lot of programs, in general, but you know, whenyou want to key in on you know,

certain grants andcertain community -- like i had asked before, what'syou know another good tool because i feel sometimeswhen you try to go to certain big businesses andcertain bigger organizations, you have to keep in mindthat there are other areas and other organizationsthat are going to be going to them as well. so you know, what's abetter way to connect with some even smaller ornot so heard of organizations

that could be instate or out of state? >> yes, the competitionis very tough and that's all i canreally say about it. the best way to get an insidetrack on donations from -- well, certainly fromlocal businesses is from local volunteers. you're fundraising committee. >> right. >> put people on yourfundraising committee.

remember i said somethingabout asking for advice was a goodway to involve people? >> well, if you know that acompany is funding the community but has not funded youlately, look for someone in that community andinvite them to participate in your organizationin some way. people who are involvedare much more apt to be advocates foryour program. i really appreciate --because that's something i try

to stride myself to do isnot just stick to the same because you don't wantto, you know, make it look like you're justconsistently using them as your only resource. >> no and they don't wantto be the only resource. >> right. so i'm alwaystrying, in my mind, go to places and people that i know may nothave been, you know, talked to or like you saidmaking those personal because sometimes it mightjust be that that one person

or that one group of people thatactually can spread your name. and i wanted to say that earlierwhen typing in, it's important, you know, like you said, to makethose networks because sometimes that face-to-face and thatfriend can spread your name out just as well asif you were, you know, talking or doing it online. so i really appreciate that andeveryone saying that because, you know, for here, andthe years that i, you know, have been doing, you know,this type of activity, it is,

you know, sometimes, youknow, looking outside the box. >> it's just more and more,you know, major organizations and our programs are needingassistance and needing help. so like you said sometimespeople feel like just because you haven't evenasked, you know, is a way and sometimes you haveto just kind of get out of your own comfortzone and, like you said, really do some digging. >> right. keep your eyes open.

see who's fundingother organizations that are doing like work too. >> oh, thank you. thank you so much. >> any other questions? >> in just in general, i wantedto say quickly, another thing that i see is, when you werehitting on a lot of the federal and governmental grants. you know, i know there area lot out in to look for

but when you are trying tonarrow it down, are you wanting to just focus on, you know,the ones that, you know, can hard hit your area ordoes it go by your state? because i know some thati've seen, you know, they break off based off, youknow, where you're located or your region or just by theneeds assessment, you know, for your organization orkind of on those lines. so is it, you know, moreor less that they're going to be focusing onthose particular issues

on the pacifics or isthere more that are general that it doesn't necessarilymatter where you are, what your affiliation toother, you know, networks are but they actually want to justhelp, you know, widespread. >> it's harder to find those. you can look for generalsupport in your -- if you are using thefoundation center, for instance, but mainly foundations andcorporations are very purposeful about their targeted supportso they can have the impact.

>> right. that's what i thought. which is what i thinkespecially if you are trying to get other governmental,you know, they want, you know, to know pacificallythe location area. so should we check,you know, more in, like you said our state areaor, you know, our commerce and things of that nature or dowe need to kind of go further? >> well, i think i'd startlocal and then broaden out.

>> okay. are there any,you know, like i said, ways that you feel, like isaid, that once we branch out that are any goodresources to use outside of this foundation center? >> that would be the best one. yes. it's also grantstation, i believe, that you have access to. >> okay. >> it's more for grants.

>> vanessa, do we haveany other questions? your next questioncomes from the line of sarah [assumedspelling] benavitez. >> hello sarah. >> hey. i -- my question is, i am trying to createan annual appeal letter. i just wanted to get moreinformation on how to -- i guess the best practices for creating an appealletter and um --

>> okay. i can tell youright now, that as soon as the questions are over we aregoing to go to the vista campus and i will show you there whereyou can get information on how to craft an annual appeal. >> oh. okay. >> that's it. >> again to ask aquestion, press star one of [assumed spelling]lacatalis salon. >> hello lacatalis.

>> hello. do you hear me? >> yes, i do. >> okay. i have a question. can i ask for a specificquantity of money for donations or grants? >> yes. absolutely. the more specific you can be, the more likely youare to get success. people want to know exactlywhat their money is going for.

>> all right. >> again, if you would like toask a question, press star one your next question comesfrom the line of lola ching. >> hello lola. and i think we will have tomake this the last question that we take over the phonebecause we are getting on in time so other questionsif you could put into the chat and we will try to answer them. what i will do is i will emailout the chat to everyone along

with the other material, thepower point when we are through. okay? hello? >> miss ching, yourline is open. miss ching? will you unmute your phone line? there is no responsefrom miss ching's line. we can move on to thenext person in queue. >> we can take one more. >> all right ma'am, your nextquestion comes from the line

of carol [assumedspelling] basinski. >> very good. you got my last name right. my question is, howdo you ensure that your public serviceannouncement is actually going to be followed through andyou're going to be able to see it or you'll beable to see it appear on tv as promised and scheduled? >> this might be aquestion for jill.

jill, are you still there? >> i am. i am. you know, television stations, radio stations actually have acertain number of those hours that they have to giveas a requirement by law and they have to keep logs. and so, if you have scheduledit with a specific radio station or television station youcan actually go down to that television stationand ask to see their fcc,

the federal communication's log, and it should bemarked in there. now many organizationsdon't keep those logs, which is actually aviolation of the fcc policy so you have some grounds torequest that they let you know when that has been played. and i would -- theother thing i would say about that is making sureyou understand the guidelines that they set up forthat sort of airing.

>> uh-huh. >> whether or not theyguarantee you a spot or whether they guarantee that they will play publicservice announcements. so whether it's specificallyguaranteed to an organization or just a pile of announcementswill really impact that as well. so make sure youunderstand their obligation to you before you go charging inand accusing them of anything. >> yeah, i know.

i mean, i've just had before -- [ inaudible ] >> we appear to be breaking up. hello? hello? >> carol? >> hello? >> i think you lost her. >> oh dear. okay. well, at this time,continue to ask questions

in the chat if youwill and vanessa, i think we will end the phonechat for now so we can continue with the webinar and we'regoing to go to the vista campus. >> sharon while you'redoing that, can i just add somethingreally quickly from a couple questionsi saw in the chat? >> sure. >> a couple people were asking,you know, do you think it's rude or do you think it's appropriateto ask people for money?

and sharon made somecomments about this earlier. you know, i just wantto say really quickly, that it's a mind shiftthat you have to make. i know personally it has been amind shift for me as well but, really thinking about itinstead of asking people to give something andif that's a burden, you know you're presentingpeople with an opportunity to support something andbe part of a solution. and so if you can kind ofstart to move in that mentality

and just position yourselfaround that thought, i think, i think it will really helpopen up this world for you. so, i just wanted to say that. >> very well said. very well. it is not rude. it is helping people make theworld a better place to live. >> yeah. okay. well at this timewe're going to go right

to the vista campus and i'msharing my desktop with you so that i can showyou some tools that you can usefor fundraising. someone asked about toolsthat they could use in order to find some help and these willbe found in the work section of the campus and especially, ofcourse, in the fundraising box. and if you haven't looked atthe fundraising box before, you will see that thereare four sub boxes. raising funds from individuals.

writing grants and proposals. planning events and the onlinecourse of college credit. we're going to lookat these first three. remember we said thatindividuals get 70 to 80 percent of the money so that everyorganization should have some support from individuals. and talking aboutwriting to individuals. individuals writing toindividuals has a course. and in this course, youwork through a series

of activities and information. and it's loading. as you will see youhave a pre-assessment, which tells you -- woops,start at the beginning. you have a pre-assessment,which it's to find out how much you already know. and then you have someinformation on the elements of an individual appeal. there is a whole package.

it's not just a letter. there is an envelope. there is the letter itself. there is reply devices. there are a number of differentpieces of an individual appeal. also, timing when to write. by the way, you justwork through this course. timing one to writeis important. there are certain times thatget more responses than others.

people are used tothe early fall winter. the fall early winter appeal that comes before theend of the tax year. when you're talking aboutindividual appeals too, don't think that you shouldalways be asking for money. send out information on yourorganization on a regular basis. but if there's a time whenyou are in a real crunch, something has happened, adisaster pull is a good choice. and then whom towrite, the audience.

this section talks aboutsegmenting your mailing. there are different ways to sendletters to different people. some people will get avery personalized note, perhaps from theexecutive director. others will get notes fromfundraising volunteers, perhaps. and then still some otherswill get the standard letter. so think about how you wantto segment your mailing so that it goes todifferent groups of people. the ask. this is theappeal we talked about

and how to write the letter. and there are someinformation on the five points and then you sawjill's seven ss. this is an example of aletter and it shows you some of the things that you mightdefinitely want to include, such as a personalizedfirst line. dear friend isn't very personal. and there are some things thatyou, this letter could have used that would have improved it,but didn't and you might.

keep in mind that a ps, forinstance, is a good thing to include in a letter. sometimes people read theps before they even read the letter. and also, don't forget, thethank you letter is part of your appeal becauseif you don't send out a thank you letter, you canbe pretty sure you won't get another gift. that will be your last.

so this is the course on individuals writingto individuals. we also have amongthe fundraising for individuals buildingfundraising . and this is a six-stepprocess that you can work through to help youemploy volunteers in your fundraising effort. and i saw in the questionsthat somebody said what if your executive directorwon't allow volunteers?

your executive director needsto be persuaded otherwise. so following the six steps of developing a fundraisingvolunteer champion is very important. okay. and next, we have alittle course called the power of direct mail. and it's a little interactivething that tells you again about the different aspectsabout a direct mail package and it's kind of just a fun wayof looking at how you can beef

up your solicitationappeal package. i don't want to say lettersbecause it's more than a package so that it's more effective. it talks about, for instance,ways to talk about the envelope. this will take a minutehere to get going. it's called the carrier here. and so there are someways you can make sure that your letter getsopened, for instance. and then it goesthrough other aspects

of the direct mail package. >> and while sharon is movingonto the next one, i just wanted to point out to everyone that you can continueon with the chat. so at the very top ofyour screen you can go up to the very top, i thinksharon is showing you now, and you can pull downthat menu up at the top and then you cankeep this chat going. i see there are somequestions going back and forth.

and you can continue totalk amongst yourselves and chat amongst yourselves but she's giving you somereally good information so we also want you to payattention to the campus as well. >> thank you danielle. >> also don't forget -- oh,volunteer phone a-thons. volunteer led phone a-thons. those are a good way to involvevolunteers in your fundraising and planning a phone a-thoncampaign is both a cultivation

activity for volunteers whomay become potential donors and a way to raise funds. so there's that toolthat's available to you. and on every page inthe forum, we have -- every page of the campus,we have forums and the u in the word forum is the oneto go to if you have questions about the work thatyou're doing, obviously. and don't forget tooffer your advice too. it's not just for askingquestions but it's also

for responding to questions. and there are a few othertools in the bottom here. remember we talked aboutthe sources of giving, that will show up here and youcan take another look at it in a brighter morecolorful version and know where to go back toit again and again. the next section i want togo to in the raising funds from individuals is,there, okay, is the grant -- sorry writing grantsand proposals.

and when we talk about writinggrants and no matter what you do at some point in yourorganization, you need to get to work -- if you don'thave one already -- on writing a case for support. and a case for support isa well-documented effort to explain your organization'svalue to the community, what its needs are and whyit is important for people to support your organization. and this is an interactivetool that is kind of fun to do.

it can take about, dependingon how much of it you do, can take a couple of days if youbuild your own case of support through the question and answertemplate, which you can do. then you pass it around forinput from other people. so you can create a case for support using the materialsright here on this site. another tool on thewriting grants and proposals is producingproposals that work. again, this is aninteractive flash course

that will leave you -- notleave you, but will provide you with a completed proposalwhen you're finished. so making sure thatyou use the guidelines for who you are writingto but you have templates that you can downloadand use those note sheets and get feedback so that youcan write a proposal right in this site. we have a more traditionalkind of proposal writing course that takes you throughthe proposal writing

step-by-step process. one that's like the othercourses in that it starts with a pre-assessmentand gives you a number of steps to work through. and it, too, talks about suchthings as how to do the writing? how to find the supportusing the case for support in the proposal writing. when you're dealing withcorporations and businesses, there are a number of differentways that you can approach them

and that's informationthat you need to know. okay. so the last partis planning events. everyone here -- not everyone,but many vistas are involved in planning events and theseare volunteer heavy activity so again we place the buildingvolunteer champions here along with a couple of other places. this tool keys to success,everything events is like the other interactivecourses that give you a completedproduct at the end.

and if you downloadeverything when you get through you will have a plan that will give you some actionsteps and some resources for planning a special event. there are some materialsthere from the pso that you probablyalready have but this is where they're housed,again, if you're interested and some other toolsthat are helpful to you. okay. other than thefundraising section,

you might find some tools incommunications and marketing. these are divided into anumber of different areas. improving personalcommunications namely and some of them are from the pso. communicating withstakeholders is important since your fundersare your stakeholders. i also want to point out onthis communication the marketing page, the social media section. especially the socialmedia monday pages.

we have another webinarcoming up on august 6. it's going to actuallybe on tools, using tools for connectingon social media. but the archives include anumber of different topics that are useful for fundraisers. such as how to use facebook. how to plan events usingthe social media tools, any number of toolsthat might be of useful to you -- use to you.

also in the sectionworking with volunteers, we have the volunteersfor planning, recruiting, managing the volunteersand these will be helpful if you are bringingtogether a cadre of volunteers for your project. so that is about itfor the fundraising and for on the campus. i am going to stopsharing my screen and pass the controls back and-- i thought i stopped sharing.

okay. move forward one. okay. so for next steps for you,we're going to ask you to do or invite you to doa number of things that we hope canbe helpful to you. you can bookmark the mostimportant fundraising and resource developmentpages on the vista campus. someone asked about a course forfundraising or communications. there are a number of them. they are short courseson the campus.

so take one or two or moreof those in the fundraising or the communicationsand marketing sections. and post a message or respond toa question on the vista forum. especially on the you and yourwork section when you need help with a fundraising question. then take a look at thecalendar of events to search for any training opportunities. okay. next, um-hmm. we have an evaluation thatis going to appear any minute

for you, there itis, on the right. if you wouldn't mindtaking a few minutes to answer those questions. and we can do the next slide. okay. that's it. so thank you foryour participation. if you have furtherquestions, you can reach us through vista campus atcampaignconsultation.com. we have another webinarcoming up in august.

remember, i said these are partof a series of monthly webinars and that one is going beon working with volunteers and it will appear on wednesday, august 22nd at 2:00 p.m.eastern daylight time. and i will send out the powerpoint and i also will send out the chat and i willprobably edit it and clean it up a little bit and answer someof your questions on the chat. so look forward to that coming. it probably won'tbe this afternoon

but i will probably get itto you some time tomorrow. if you want to look for otherinformation for vista tours, you can look on the calendarof events that appears on the first pageof the vista campus. i really have enjoyedhaving you here. you had some really good questions. it sounds like youare very good also at asking each other questionsand at answering them.

so have a very goodrest of the week and we hope to seeyou in august.