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Financing:
Finding Funds for Technology - Part 5
In the last few issues of Instruments of Change, we discussed the steps taken before approaching corporate sponsors. Now, as you prepare to search for funds, keep in mind that you will have more luck getting many small grants than you will have getting one large grant. And sometimes you won't even get money, but donations like computers and other equipment corporations no longer need. I once heard of a school that received laser printers as a donation! The trick to this is saturation and preparing to talk to many people.
Hopefully by now you have done these things:
- Talked to your administrator and the "technology" person at your school.
- Prepared an introductory "cover letter"
- Prepared a budget for what you would like to acoomplish
- Prepared a short position statement and justification for your music tech department
- Prepared a series of benchmarks to indicate success
- Prepared a few reasons local businesses might benefit from donating to your school
- Prepared a list of local businesses and parents' employers to contact about your proposal.
With these documents, prepared (or once again, have a parent prepare) a nice-looking proposal. It does not need to be professionally done. Remember, you are not trying to wow business people with your business skills, but instead show them you are serious and passionate about teaching music and music technology. In many cases, a proposal that is too slick takes away from what you are trying to do.
That being said, make sure your proposal is easy to read. Use lots of white space, or even color to emphasize points. Use shorter "sound-bite" paragraphs and put the most appealing comments right up front. Go light on history and heavy on future.
How many proposal packets will you need? Generally speaking, you should make twice as many packets as the number of businesses on your contact list. And prepare to give them out like water. The first place to start is your local business organizations like Kiwanis, Rotary Club, The Chamber of Commerce, etc. If your students have parents in any of the service organizations (Elks, Masons, etc) ask for a contact name. Next on the list would be the employers of your students' parents. It is always best to have a contact name. IN the next edition of IOC, we will talk about the best way to deliver a proposal.
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