Workshops from Access Philanthropy:

National Funders – Becoming Nationally Fundable

Competition for national foundation and corporate giving dollars is aggressive and difficult. Being good and being different is no long enough. This workshop helps organizations of all sizes discover and frame their own nationally fundable characteristics, identify characteristics of funding prospects, and generate long-term tactics for becoming nationally fundable. Caveat: This workshop is not for those with short-term visions or funding needs. Expect sustainable results in the two to three years.

National Funders – Who Are They

There are several different types of national funders with different missions, funding procedures, relationship development methods, and motivations. Know who they are, how they break down into five-six categories, and how to approach them.

Corporations – Getting to Know the New Big Dog on the Block

Corporate giving programs now offer more money, more sources of income, and more long-term relationships than private foundations. Get to know the arena, the motivations and systems, funding procedures, and all the different partnerships and relationships that you can develop with local and national corporations.

Corporations – Who Are They

Corporate solicitation is very different from the run-of-the-mill grantseeking. Different portals, different motivations, and different funding programs offer thousands of opportunities for the organization willing to spend time researching who is who. This workshop provides several good leads and shortcuts to developing relationships.

Local/Regional Funders – Who Are They

Who is located and funding in our backyard? We go beyond the usual suspects to smaller family foundations, public charities, religion-based funders, smaller companies, and national corporations which have a presence and a funding program in your hometown.

Employees: The New Philanthropy Gateway

Matching gift programs, Dollars for Doers programs, employee affinity groups, plant-based giving, and giving criteria based on employee participation are just a few reasons why you need to know the relationship between employees and corporate giving. It’s big and getting bigger all the time. What will your organization do to keep up?

Philanthropy in the Buffett-Gates Era

Buffett-Gates are not the beginning of a new era in philanthropy, but it is the high water mark in a major philanthropic paradigm shift. This workshop presents the background leading up to this new era, information on the current status and coming attractions, as well as an analytical framework for watching the new age of philanthropy develop.

Key Research Preparation, Plans, and Techniques

Perhaps the most technical and certainly the most important aspect of grantseeking is the prospect research on foundations, corporations, and other giving entities. The workshop focuses on three aspects: Identifying your own best frames, identifying the type of prospects you want to approach, short cuts to identifying these prospects.

Applied Philanthropy Prospect Planning

Even with a good prospect list, you still need to get the word out. This workshop focuses on three aspects: (a) developing a calendar and an approach plan, (b) preparing key lenses, messages, frames, and program proposals, as well as (c) writing template proposals, letters of inquiry, and online applications. We also talk about balancing long-term, labor intensive requests with quick short-term, short-return requests.

Key Messaging

How do you talk about your organization, and how well do you talk about your organization? Get started in the business of framing who you are, what’s so special about you, and how to talk about your organization with funders, sponsors, the media, and other key stakeholder groups. The workshop presents basic key messaging tools, techniques for working with your organization leadership, and immediate lessons in identifying your unique selling propositions.

Focused Relationship Building

A combination of our Key Messaging workshop and a “how to” workshop for board members who want to approach individuals for mid and large gifts. The workshop includes an overview of Key Messaging and then moves into individual sales and relationship techniques, including qualifying prospects, engaging in the phases of fundraising/sales (relating, discovery, confirming, advocating, and closing), meeting agendas, objections, and “the pause”.

Evaluation Start Up

An evaluation process is critical to satisfying some funders and to supporting organizational planning. However, there is immense gap between knowing you need evaluation systems and actually implementing them. This workshop addresses some of the basic start-up issues – determining reasons for evaluation, establishing goals and benchmarks, formulating the best methods for collecting information, and creating simple systems for assembling the data.

Online Applications

Online applications seem like a great way to reduce both the grantmaker’s and grantseeker’s time, energy, and labor. But only if the grantseeker knows the rules, which are sometimes obtuse and sometimes clear as mud. Learn about the different types of “online applications” and how to use the medium for your organization’s best presentation.

Customized Research and Workshops

Goal: We will customize any of the workshops above or develop additional training to meet your individual needs and interests.

Details: More than half of corporate and institutional grants are awarded to organizations within 100 miles of the funder’s home. Additionally, in difficult times, funders narrow their focus to eliminate the number of proposals they receive. Therefore, proposals with well-focused geographic areas and those, which are most aligned with a funder’s issue areas, are most likely to be funded.

How do we find these focused funders? These days, half our fundraising time is spent on research – To whom? For how much? What purpose? When? Using what approach?
How about using the same research team used by PBS affiliates, colleges, national disability groups, nonprofit trade associations, and major foundations? Access Philanthropy will research and publish an online customized report especially for your geographic area or area of interest, followed by a 4 hour briefing on those funders and their funding patterns.

Participants Will Receive:

A four-hour participatory briefing on 100+ private foundations and corporations which award grants in your community or to your special constituency; including info on both local and national funders, but only funders which have a recent history of local or specialized funding.
A customized report including your environmental funding scan by region or focus area The book is researched and written especially for the workshop, but can be sold separately by workshop sponsors as an independent income source.
Exclusive time-limited entrée to Access Philanthropy’s web page database of national and local funders, the workshop PowerPoint presentation, and articles on foundation giving and fundraising strategies.