Fundraising
From The Open Forum Foundation Community
This is the overview of our fundraising strategy and the current situation. It is intended to be a center point for all of our research and efforts. Within each section, you will find links to more details.
This page is updated following each fundraising meeting. To see what we're currently working on, visit the Progress page.
To suggest new ideas or capture possibilities for future fundraising projects, add them under the appropriate section on the discussion tab.
Contents |
Overview
The goal of our strategy is to supply startup funding while establishing a foundation for sustainability. For instance, we need to establish long-term relationships with funders and developing rapport and trust. Similarly, we need to build a community of individuals that will be the beta testers and initial users and backbone of the system once it's up.
This strategy is based around two principles:
- Using our existing networks to reach the right people and get them involved or interested.
- Researching the appropriate foundations, corporations, and individuals and figuring out how to reach them.
Individuals
Strategy
Two avenues for our individual donors:
- Small donors: Build a community of people that are interested in seeing this project come to fruition. This group will serve as much more than just donors, they will also be involved in usability testing, beta testing, and be the first citizen-users of the system. We need to empower them to be evangelists for us. This effort is being documented on the Social Media page and is also the foundation for our sustainability model.
- Large donors: Approach high net worth individuals for large contributions. Not only are we looking for monetary contributors, but also individuals who are passionate about government communication and want to be part of our community. Of course, the two are not mutually exclusive.
As an organization, we will also be establishing relationship with many individuals that share similar interests.
Current Situation
- We have established relations with many people vital to our success
- Several key congressional offices
- Jim Gilliam -developer of NationBuilder and WhiteHouse2
- Establishing relationships with
- Mark Walsh
- Pierre Omidyar and the Omidyar Network
- Researching individuals that are sponsoring similar projects
- Researching funders of politically centrist, liberal, and conservative organizations
Foundations
Strategy
Foundations should be an excellent source of startup funding as well as a portion of sustainable funding. We are current searching for the right foundations to build relationships with while we await 501(c)3 status.
Current Situation
- Currently Researching
- Application processes for our list of compatible foundations
- Making contacts at
- Case Foundation
- Annie E. Casey Foundation
- Christorpher Reyonlds Foundation
- Through our research we have developed a substantial list of foundations with similar interests
- As a result we are Currently Applying to
- Draper Richards
- Wallace Global Fund
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- The Ford Foundation
- As a result we are Currently Applying to
Advocacy Groups
Strategy
By working with advocacy groups in developing the platform, we may be able to use them to solicit individual donations and develop our user base before the platform is even complete.
Current Situation
We're still in the planning stages on this.
Corporations
Strategy
Approach three main types of corporations:
- Vendors of Congressional CRM (constituent relations management) software
- Attempt to engage them as partners in the development of the project.
- They stand to benefit from its development.
- Vendors of e-advocacy solution
- Attempt to engage them as partners in the development of the project.
- They stand to benefit from its development.
- Corporations with an interest in or history of donating to similar projects
- Supporters of CMF's Communicating with Congress reports (6 parts)
Research corporations who have an interest in or history of funding this type of project. For example, look at the ‘Reporting to congress’ report- who funded that?
Look into technology-heavy foundations (Microsoft, Google, etc.)
We need to start by talking to people at these corporations and creating relationships. Through these relationships, we will find out if our project is of interest to the corporation. This strategy also lends itself to being referred to others, which will further build our community.
Current Situation
- We are currently researching coroporations that fund projects with similar interests or politically central organizations.
Government Funding
Strategy
While we are very concerned about accepting money from government in any form that may influence our independence, either in fact or in perception, this is a potential source of money that we need to be investigating.
Current Situation
We are currently waiting for the Social Innovation Funding which will begin in October --Colby Hopkins 02:44, 30 July 2009 (UTC)
Social Entrepreneurship
Strategy
There are a number of organizations that support budding social entrepreneurs to enable them to get their ideas off the ground.
Current Situation
- Currently researching grants for social entrepenurship
- Looking for additional ways to benefit from social entrepreneurship
