A group of Oakley non-profits gathered Monday night at City Hall to discuss fundraising opportunities and how to increase revenue via grants in order allow their respective groups to operate more effectively to the people they provide services to.
Led by Diane Burgis, executive director for the Friends of Marsh Creek Watershed and Oakley City Councilwoman, the group focused on grants and membership. Burgis admitted that she is looking into the City of Oakley purchasing a software that will allow kids, small business, and non-profits the opportunity to seek out funding for various causes. She would like to get a letter out this week which anyone could use on a city or library computer–logistics would need to be worked out.
A heavy portion of the meeting focused on grants where the group provided positive feed back from Supervisor Federal Glovers grant writing workshop and will be seeking a second workshop be scheduled in the near future as many could not get into the class.
When it comes to grant writing, the group as a whole explained that if you are to be successful, you need to really look out there and see what is available for what you do.
Burgis urges non-profits to “think creatively” and to get outside of your comfort zone and think outside the box. Sometimes, you can even get away with economic development and job creation because of the economy we are in she explained.
“Don’t undervalue what you have to offer as a match to a grant , you do have things to value,” explained Burgis.
She explained how grants sometimes get real specific and could be many pages long, or they can be a simple as a page or form. She explained that you don’t need to reinvent the grant application each time, you should write a grant and simply make formatting changes depending on the grant requirements.
“A grant is a project you get better as you do them. Most of the time you simply have to make a case as to who you are and what you do. You need to learn how to read and mold the grant response to cooperate with the grant requirements,” explains Burgis.
Delta Science Center executive director Roni Gehlke was quit to point out sometimes you simply want to turn down grants based on money awarded versus time requirements.
“Sometimes the grant is more work than what its worth. Sometimes your time is more valuable than the ground. Sometimes it sounds really great, but its a lot more out of pocket than you realize,” explained Gehlke.
Burgis added that she encourages non-profits to start with the “low hanging fruit” in the beginning and then work your way up from there.
Fundraising is another difficult issue for non-profits. The best way to fundraiser is to capitalize off the opportunity when you have a large crowd gathered. Mike Rosalez and Ray Schaffer of East County Little League explained what they did on opening day as they held raffles and provided additional tickets as part of sponsorship packages–they want to provide value to sponsors.
“Find ways to capitalize on moments when you have a lot of people around. Find ways to raise money and get donations as they can come from those who want be involved or even just want to be associated with your cause,” said Burgis.
Membership became a nice topic as sometimes it becomes tricky for certain groups because not all non-profits are membership driven in terms of sustainability. It was shared how sometimes donors want to know membership numbers, email subscribers, Facebook “likes” and all sorts of different figures. You simply have to be prepared to answer and explain.
The next meeting will be held in May.
2 comments
Great information, thank you for sharing.
This is something the chamber of commerce should be doing with its members. Holding workshops of how to improve your business and outreach is huge. Hopefully the Oakley Chamber is taking notes.
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