Fundraising for Your Library: Generating New Revenues in Challenging Economic Times
An Infopeople Online Learning Course
Dates: Tuesday, February 7, 2012 – Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Fee: $75 for those in the California library community and Infopeople Partners, $150 for all others (about payment)
Instructor: Kevin McArdle
Public libraries are experiencing the most challenging economic times perhaps in history. Years of budget cuts, staff reductions and service eliminations are likely causing you to explore new revenue opportunities that will not only help maintain your great services, but will also allow you to develop new programs and facilities in the upcoming years. While many public libraries have been engaged in various fundraising activities for years, now is a great time to consider enhancing your fundraising program to generate considerable new revenues. A successful fundraising campaign will not only generate much needed new funding, but can also be effective in building a much larger community of support for your library.
- Do you know how to identify a potential donor and what motivates them?
- Do you understand the critical components of a successful fundraising campaign?
- Are you aware of how to avoid the most common mistakes made in fundraising?
- Can you plan a successful fundraising campaign from beginning to end?
- Are you familiar with some of the fast changing trends in fundraising techniques?
In this course, experienced fundraiser and long-time City Department Director Kevin McArdle will help you:
- Understand the most important principles of fundraising, including acknowledging and overcoming fundraising challenges
- Expand your fundraising horizons far past the typical book sales, telethons and silent auction type events
- Get into the minds of potential donors, understanding what motivates people to make charitable donations
- Prepare yourself and your fundraising team to successfully make major donor solicitations
- Avoid the most common fundraising mistakes and limitations
Upon completion of this course, you will not only have a much broader knowledge of fundraising strategies and techniques, you will also have developed a personalized and real life fundraising campaign plan that you can put to work in your library.
Course Description: In this online course, you will explore and share actual past fundraising experiences and learn from those examples. You will also identify and discuss the challenges and realities of fundraising and consider strategies to overcome those potential obstacles to success. You will learn about the critical components to a solid fundraising plan and how to develop a plan that will lead to new revenues. In this workshop, you will delve into the minds of donors, explore the fast changing trends in fundraising techniques and become comfortable in the most important component of successful fundraising…preparing for and making the major donor ask. Finally, throughout the course you will put what you learn to practical use by developing a real life fundraising plan for your own library, based on your own experience and job responsibilities.
During this four week course, you will be reading background materials and online fundraising articles, participating in weekly online discussion forums and building an actual fundraising plan. The instructor will also be providing many real life fundraising stories relevant to the weekly discussions and will reference additional fundraising resources for you to consider.
Preliminary Course Outline: Using your web browser and your Internet connection, you will log in to the Infopeople online learning site and complete the following learning modules:
- Week 1: Understanding Fundraising Basics
- The challenges and realities of fundraising
- Anatomy of a good fundraising plan
- Fundraising campaign options and opportunities
- Week 2: Into the Minds of Donors
- Tried and true fundraising principals
- Donor types and motivations
- How people contribute
- Week 3: Preparing for the Donor Ask
- Six steps to success in fundraising campaigns
- Potential donor identification and ownership
- Effective donor prospecting concepts and techniques
- Successful donor cultivation activities
- Week 4: Soliciting the Gift
- Effectively making the ask
- Stewardship of your newest supporters
- Most common mistakes made in fundraising
Pre-course Assignment: Before the course begins, you will be asked to complete a quick pre-course survey relating to your library’s recent budget trends and the service impacts resulting from them. You will also be asked to provide an overview of current fundraising activities taking place within your library. The results of this survey will be distributed to participants as part of the Week 1 activities to serve as a foundation for fundraising needs.
Time Required: To complete this course, you can expect to spend up to 2½ hours per week, for a total of 10 course hours. Each week's module contains readings and various options for assignments, discussions and online meetings. You can choose the options most relevant to your work and interests. Although you can work on each module at your own pace, at any hour of the day or night, it is recommended that you complete each week's work within that week to stay in sync with other learners.
Who Should Take This Course: This course will be valuable to any library staff involved in fundraising activities, or are interested in generating new revenues to enhance/expand library programs, services or facilities. It will be of particular relevance to library directors, assistant directors, and other administrators with fundraising responsibilities. The course will also be very helpful to library Board members and members of Friends organizations who are engaged in supporting the library.
Online Learning Details and System Requirements may be found at: infopeople.org/training/online_learning_details.
Payment: Your invoice will be emailed to the email address of the person who completed the registration. If that is not the person paying the invoice please forward invoice to the appropriate person. Payment is due within 30 days. If you have any questions about your invoice or payment please contact Gini Ambrosino at assist@infopeople.org.
Course Start: This online learning course starts on Tuesday, February 7, 2012.
After the official end date for the course, the instructor will be available for limited consultation and support for two more weeks, and the course material will stay up for an additional two weeks after that. These extra weeks give those who have fallen behind time to work independently to complete the course.
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