We need to set a concrete goal of how much money we need to raise over a specific period of time. This money will allow us to build x plants and do x research in x amount of time. This goal will focus our fundraising efforts.
We will divide our fundraising efforts into three categories. Outreach as it relates to fundraising includes placing information about AguaClara in places where potential donors can see it such as with the Cornell Annual Fund. Contacts means actively exploring personal and professional relationships to help us find potential donors. Grant applications and direct solicitations includes the actual requests for money. This step epitomizes the phrase "one who does not cry gets no milk." We need to raise money for construction of plants in Honduras, research and design work at Cornell and to send AguaClara engineers to Honduras to help train and educate Hondurans on water treatment process.
The Cornell Annual Fund plans on including information about AguaClara in their mailings and hopefully we can get a link about AguaClara on the Cornell Fund website. Other ideas for outreach for fundraising purposes includes posters on campus and continued contact with previous donors. To develop a solid external face we need to do a good job of developing the website possibly contacting the Cornell Web Design League. We could also have a person whose sole job is to work on the website.
We need to sign up for the following events:
Reunion: Sign up is in the next two weeks for a table this June
Homecoming
Trustee Council Meeting next fall
We need to make presentations at Cornell clubs in NYC, Syracuse and other places. When people go home for breaks or if people have jobs over the summer they can make presentations at their local Cornell clubs. We can have a training session at the end of the year or before spring break to encourage this. In order to set this up we will contact the alumni affairs liason from each club and ask them about the most effective time and places to makes these presentations.
Comments from Monroe about the poster.
Needs to be really polished. Start with a good layout. It is a huge space so take advantage of that.
Stress the research component in addition to the actual plants.
We should continue to actively explore personal and professional contacts as ways of gaining information about potential funding sources. We should makes contacts with the Honduran and possibly other Central American embassies in Washington D.C. We should also meet with the USAID mission and U.S. Embassy in Honduras to explore possibilities.
We need to contact alumni affairs and development specifically Jessica Traynor the alumni affairs officer for enginnering. She will help us use the alumni network.
We will specifically look for Cornell alum working for foundations and other potential donors.
We will schedule meetings with people at Cornell ranging from professors who may have contacts at donor agencies to people who work in alumni development to obtain advice and ideas related to outreach and development.
We need to develop a generic form letter that we can start sending to companies, foundations and alumni.
We need to get in touch with Johnson School's Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise and let them know what we are doing. We might be able to get some money/advice from them
Park fellows are MBA students who do a project with a focus on sustainability. They get to choose a project to work on so we could present to them and hopefully we can get one to help us out.
Clint Sydel is the director of the Park fellowship so we could contact him and see what to do... he might be able to help us out apart from the fellowship as well.
We can also try other methods to recruit an MBA student to help us with our fund raising.
We need to contact Lucy Fisher and Larry Harrington both Cornell Professors and set up a meeting to take advantage of their wisdom.
We will assemble a database of potential grants using the foundation directory which can be found at *http://fconline.fdncenter.org/welcome.php?fpc= *
We will look for grants with applications that may be appropriate for AguaClara especially focusing on grants that may be similar to each other so that we can write one grant application and use it multiple times.
We will explore grants from the Global Development Alliance through USAID for potential sources of advice and funding.