Posted by allisonm on March 24, 2001, at 22:26:53
In reply to Re: advertising, posted by Lorraine on March 24, 2001, at 19:45:03
Hello all,
Bob suggested I bring this to the PBA board, so for what it's worth...
I have been looking into the chances of obtaining one or more grants from one or more foundations. I work at a university. While I work in public affairs, there are people who work in my office who do this kind of fund-raising for a living and they have been very helpful in making suggestions on soliciting grants. I began by going to the public library and searching their CD Rom database from the Foundation Center, a non-profit group that profiles foundations and tracks their giving histories.
I have gone through about a hundred different profiles and narrowed it down to maybe 30. From those, I narrowed it down to about 15 with the help of my friend in development. I am in the process of gathering information on how to apply for particular grants. Of the 15, 6 of the foundations that look most promising give to groups that are furthering treatment of mental health, or running mental health support groups, or are focused mostly on depression and only give to groups in Illinois or the Chicagoland area. Three others are nationally focused with giving directed toward mental health services, depression treatment/support/information. There are two that are very technology oriented (one phone company and one cell phone company) that give to health-related fields that make use of technology such as the internet to deliver their services. There are a couple that are very mental-health focused, but give to other demographic areas. It might be possible to convince these groups that PB serves those demographics.
I have discussed with Bob several things.
-- he needs money now to pay for the hosting.
-- he doesn't want hardware because maintainence is a big issue
-- being compensated somehow for the time he spends is important, as well as having funds for other costs such as conferencesI have discussed with my friend the feasibility of funding PB. We have talked about whether it would be better to apply for funding as an entity that is part of the University of Chicago or whether to apply as a separate non-profit entity. The upside of applying as a part of UC is that the university has a long history where PB has been in existence for a few years. On the other hand, the number of years that PB has been in existence is significant considering the newness of the medium.
We have discussed the possibility of starting an endowment that would generate interest that would pay for the hosting of the site and other expenses. However, if it were connected to the university, the money would always stay there no matter if Bob left the institution and took PB with him. If Bob were to form an independent 501(c)(3), he could keep monies in an account that could act as an endowment -- skimming just a small percentage of the interest every year. It also might be possible to raise enough money to act as an endowment, but have Bob keep it in a university account the way he does now. However, he might have to discuss this arrangement with the university. If he were to use this set-up, all of the monies would be at his disposal and if he ever chooses to leave the university, he could spend it down where a real endowment could not be touched or moved.
We calculated at one point how much endowment we would need to finance with 6% of the interest the current cost of hosting the site: we'd need $66,000. Some foundations give only to endowments; others say straight out that they don't fund endowments, capital campaigns, or annual funds. Some give money mostly for operating costs. However, few foundations are interested in giving money to a cause that's going to need it again next year. They want to see some tangible solution that an organization is working toward that will not require annual funding.
The lastest idea we have come up with is to solicit bridging money to pay for current hosting costs while we solicit donations from the PB community to build an endowment or a fund that would function as an endowment. We think it's important to show foundations that those using PB believe in it enough that they would be willing to help finance its continuance either through donations or through membership. Bob has been considering memberships for awhile. If we get bridging funds, it might give us enough of a relationship with a foundation to go back later and ask for money for the endowment/fund. Of course, we can solicit many foundations, tailoring our letter to fit their giving histories.
I have been pretty busy at work the last couple of weeks and have not gotten as far on writing letters as I had hoped. Also, Bob has given me a great list of the largest corporations in Chicagoland that I will investigate to see whether they have foundations connected to them and what the giving histories are.
That's where I am right now. Happy to discuss.
Allison
poster:allisonm
thread:619
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20010315/msgs/892.html