Grants and fundraising/Fundraising

This is a learning project to study fundraising, how it is done and how it is tracked.

Funding is the lifeblood of any venture -- without some money, there is no way to pay for lights and heat that allow a meeting space to be used.

Most modern funding takes the form of project funding -- money given for a certain project with a certain duration. Some organizations are endowments, whereby a large amount of money is invested, and the earnings that money makes is used to run the yearly "operating" budget.

Types of Funding/Fundraising
Initially, we are going to look into the area of grant funding, where a funding agency requires a proposal to affect a certain well-defined set of goals.

Later on, we could review the process of formal fundraising, whereby entities raise small amounts of money by public appeal.

Motivation for fundraising: Vision
To effectively raise funds, organizations need a vision of what the purpose for the funds will be. Often this is a project scope, but many times it can be the sole purpose for an organization. With a vision, the organization requiring funding can field a budget and build a proposal which can be submitted to various funding agencies.

Ideas for Grants
Video (in conjunctions with Wikinews) - This is the current focus. Hoping to incorporate this as an "outreach" proposal.

Writing bounties of some sort

OpenMoko/Internet_Kiosk

Study of how a large Internet site deploys software (MediaWiki for Wikimedia projects)

U.S. Grants

 * $2 Million Digital Media and Learning Competition
 * Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA)
 * Advanced Learning Technologies (ALT) Grants
 * A wiki grant for 300K
 * Scionline.org's government grant to run their site info
 * Grants by Category
 * Science and Technology Grants.
 * Art Grants
 * Community Development Grants
 * Other Grants
 * Energy Grants
 * Education Grants
 * Business and Commerce Grants
 * Agricultural Grants

WMF grant links and groups

 * Wikimedia Meta Grant Department
 * Wikimedia Grants Page - Access by Permission Only

There is also an IRC channel dedicated to Wikimedia fundraising at: #wikimedia-fundraising (on Freenode)

Proposal Development
Steps to follow:
 * Write for Application forms and guides
 * Call a past grantee
 * Call a past reviewer
 * Contact the program officer

State the problem you are addressing, and how the project will meet the grantor's objectives with regards to this project.

Resources for writing grants

 * Resources for writing grants for JISC - some useful analyses of previous grants, and thing to keep in mind for putting together a successful bid