Researching Foundations and Agencies:

1. Researching Foundations and Agencies: Resource Development for Instructional Technology Projects Liberal Arts ITS - Session Two Emily Cicchini, Special Projects Manager - June 08

2. 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.

3. Old Sage Development Sayings • Fundraising is friend-raising/match-making • Fundraising is sales/isnot sales • Get your ducks in a row • It takes the same effort to ask for $1 as it does for $1 million • Don’t grant-chase • Every day is a good day to fundraise!

4. The “so what?” test… • Funders don’t need to know the gory details. • Funders don’t like whiny, negative language. • Funders don’t care what problem it solves for you, but how you are solving a problem that effects others. • Education funders, in general, aren’t often that impressed by personal recognition.

5. Trends in Project Evaluation: The Logic Model

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

7. 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 Gov’t Agencies

8. BREAK

9. 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

10. 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

11. IT Sites We Like • Carnegie Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative, http://www.cmu.edu/oli/ • The Sloan C Consortium http://www.sloan-c.org/ • MIT’s Open Course Ware Project, http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html

12. 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 Top Twenty Web Sites Retrieved from alexa.com June 9, 2007

13. Inside Class, UT = Fair Use Open Access = Not Fair Use Rights and Permissions

14. Got Ducks?

15. 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.

16. How to evaluate a prospect • What do they say they want to accomplish? What is their “self-image?” • Who do they say they’ll 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? What’s the decision makingprocess? • Are they stable or in flux? What’s the deadline/timeline?

17. 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 • Austin’s lack of philanthropic infrastructure

18. 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/stategrants/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

19. 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 Exercise: Plan a grant for…

20. 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 r and linguistic scholar Overall Goal:To create new functionality for the world’s 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 r 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 Example: Wikipedia to NEH

21. How to build a prospect list • Don’t 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

22. 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.