Center For NonProfit Success

Proposal writing

Winning a grant isn't easy and often the process of writing a proposal seems intimidating. Most of the difficulty comes from not knowing what exactly goes into an effective proposal. This session will cover the following topics:

The essential components of a grant proposal package
Important writing techniques that make your proposal stand out from the pile
Layout and design of a strong proposal
Customizing a proposal to match a grant maker's interest and using your proposal as a relationship building tool

You'll go back to the office with a well honed plan for ensuring that your proposals cover the right bases every time.

Speakers for this session:

Michelle Asadourian

Director of Foundation and Government Support

The Curtis Institute of Music

At The Curtis Institute of Music, Michelle is the Director of Foundation and Government Support. She specializes in grant writing, reporting, and relations for Curtis’s foundation and government prospects. She is responsible for raising more than $750,000 for the Institute annually and is currently helping the Institute raise $65 million for their upcoming capital project. Prior to joining Curtis, Michelle was the Development Manager for the Friends of the New Jersey State Museum where she managed all aspects of fundraising, marketing, and donor relations. While there, she was responsible for grant writing, museum educational programming, and major gift solicitations. She significantly increased fundraising and enhanced museum educational programming while the museum was closed to the public for two years due to a major renovation. Michelle holds degrees in Accounting, Music, and Theater from Lehigh University and a Master of Music from Florida State University.

Lori Pepenella

Destination Marketing Director

Southern Ocean County Chamber of Commerce

At Southern Ocean County Chamber of Commerce, Lori has received state funding to work with Nonprofit organizations to develop programs to strengthen their mission and establish funding for projects that would successfully promote the Long Beach Island Region of the Jersey Shore. From Eco-Tourism, Cultural programming and Historic Projects Lori provides consultation in preparing, writing and reporting on various proposals. Prior to joining the Southern Ocean County Chamber of Commerce, she served as the Marketing and Development Manager for United Way of Ocean County developing the county wide Financial Stability and Success by 6 Pre School Readiness Initiative by researching funders and creating a series of project proposals. Lori is a member of AFP and has qualified for her CFRE. She serves on the board of directors for several regional non-profit organizations. Lori is a graduate of Berkeley College and holds various certifications in Non-Profit Management, Grant Writing and Hospitality

Philadelphia Fundraising Summit

A relationship approach to fundraising
Nonprofit fundraising has become highly specialized, and each segment of your donor market requires a different set of relationship management skills. Whether you are reaching out to private foundations, wealthy individuals or your own members, you need to understand who they give to, and why. The Philadelphia Summit focuses on the relationship aspects of fundraising, and offers you several ways to enhance your relationship management skills:

Day One:
In the morning, listen to a panel of private, corporate and community grantmakers who will openly discuss their philosophy on grantmaking, how they operate, and most important, how you can build a more successful relationship with the grantmaking community. In the afternoon, participate in seminars led by experienced grant seekers who have successfully secured many foundation grants, and have built successful relationships with the grantmaking community.

Day Two:
Attend a series of fundraising seminars covering the hottest areas of fundraising (capital campaigns, major gifts, annual giving campaigns, and many more). Panels of experts will discuss the latest developments in these fields, and then enter into a dialogue with the participants that addresses their most pressing questions.

WHY ATTEND THE FUNDRAISING SUMMIT?
Fundraising is primarily a relationship business, and with increasing pressures facing all nonprofit professionals to build key relationships, it is becoming more important, though much more difficult to meet people face-to-face. Our innovative Summit format provides the most efficient and cost effective use of time away from the office by enabling attendees to interact with experts in the field, as well as other nonprofit leaders.

CAN ONE ATTEND SPECIFIC SESSIONS ONLY?
We understand the demands that are placed on you and on your time. That’s why you can attend only the seminars that are of interest to you. Come for the day or stop by for a couple of hours. You pay for only the seminars you wish to attend and only for the information relevant to you. It’s a novel approach to learning that allows you to get exactly what you’re looking for in a short amount of time.

WHAT IS THE FORMAT OF THE SEMINARS?
Each seminar features a panel of 3-4 experts who will give a short overview of the key developments in that field. After that , we will move into a moderated discussion to explore what these developments mean for nonprofit organizations. During the seminar, panelists will engage with the audience in an interactive manner to ensure the real-world implications of these developments emerge, and the session will end with a summary of practical next steps.

HOW IS THE SUMMIT DIFFERENT FROM OTHER EDUCATIONAL EVENTS?
The Summit offers a unique format to help you accomplish the following:

Build relationships: to ensure maximum exposure to the experts and other nonprofit leaders, each seminar offers structured networking before the session starts
Hear different perspectives: the experts are drawn from different sectors of the nonprofit community to ensure cross-pollination of ideas and practices
Provide a global view: speakers give an overview of key issues so that you can eliminate any gaps in your understanding of the subject
Drill down to the specifics: speakers will also focus on providing specific answers to real-world questions that are common to most attendees
Obtain information you can use: the emphasis in all sessions is on avoiding theoretical discussions in favor of practical tools and techniques that nonprofit leaders can actually use

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SUMMIT?
The Summit is organized by the Center for Nonprofit Success, a nonprofit organization that specializes in bringing highly relevant information that nonprofit leaders need to run their organizations successfully. We developed the Fundraising Summit series as a follow-on to the Nonprofit Success Forum, a highly successful educational series on grantmaking that has been taking place around the country for the past two years. The Fundraising Summit drills down into specific areas of fundraising to give nonproft leaders cutting edge tools and techniques.

HOW DO I REGISTER FOR THE SUMMIT?
Simply click on the seminars listed below to learn more about the topics that will be covered in each seminar. Then select only those seminars that you wish to attend.

Location/Directions

The Summit will take place at the Campus Center, which is located on the Rutgers University Camden Campus. The plenary sessions will be held in the Campus Center Main Lounge. The Main Lounge is on main level of the Campus Center. The Campus Center is easy to reach by public or private transportation, and is located in the heart of the metro Philadelphia area. The full address is:

Rutgers University Camden
Campus Center & Conference Services
326 Penn Street
Camden, NJ 08102

(Located at the corner of 3rd Street and Lawrence. The front of the building faces away from Lawrence. Penn Street does not actually cross in front of the Campus Center as a physical road but that is the street address for the building.)

Public Transportation
The Campus Center is accessible by PATCO Speedline and RiverLINE light-rail system.

PATCO Speedline
The City Hall PATCO station is the closest to the campus. It is located at Fifth Street and Market Street. It is about three blocks from the Campus Center. When leaving the Campus Center, turn left on Lawrence Street away from Third Street. Turn right on the next street, which is Fifth Avenue, and walk two blocks to Market Street.

From Philadelphia take the PATCO from the 15-16 Street, 12-13 Street, 9-10 Street stations to the City Hall station.

From the east, take the PATCO from Lindenwold, Ashland, Woodcrest, Haddonfield, Westmont, Collingswood, Ferry Ave, or Broadway stations to the City Hall Station.

RiverLINE light-rail system
New Jersey Transit’s RiverLINE light-rail system has a stop on the Rutgers-Camden campus at 2nd and Cooper Streets.

Directions by Car
If Traveling Southbound on I-95
If traveling south on I-95 take Benjamin Franklin Bridge into New Jersey. Take the Sixth Street exit toward Camden/Broadway. Turn Right on Cooper Street. Turn right on 3rd Street. Turn right on Pearl Street. Turn right on 4th Street which is the Police horseshoe. Turn on your emergency flashers and go inside to buy a permit for parking in the Main Parking Lot 7. It is $2.00 per car per day. You must bring cash. Place permit in your windshield.

To get to the Main Parking Lot 7 turn left on Pearl Street. Turn left on Delaware Avenue. Lot 7 will be on the right at the corner of Delaware Avenue and Cooper Street. The shuttle service will pick-up / drop -off every 20 minutes starting at 7:10 am until 8:10 a.m. on the corner of Cooper Street and Delaware Avenue. From 8:10 a.m. until 3:10 p.m., the shuttle service will run every 10 minutes. From 3:10 p.m. until 11:30 p.m., the shuttle service will run every 20 minutes. Get on the shuttle that picks up on the corner and go to the first stop at 3rd and Penn, which is by the Campus Center. It takes less than 5 minutes to walk to Lot 7.

If Traveling Eastbound from Philadelphia
If traveling east, take the Benjamin Franklin Bridge/I-676 E/US-30 E via the ramp to I-95 N. Take the Sixth Street exit toward Camden/Broadway. Turn Right on Cooper Street. Turn right on 3rd Street. Turn right on Pearl Street. Turn right on 4th Street which is the Police horseshoe. Turn on your emergency flashers and go inside to buy a permit for parking in the Main Parking Lot 7. It is $2.00 per car per day. You must bring cash. Place permit in your windshield.

To get to the Main Parking Lot 7 turn left on Pearl Street. Turn left on Delaware Avenue. Lot 7 will be on the right at the corner of Delaware Avenue and Cooper Street. The shuttle service will pick-up / drop -off every 20 minutes starting at 7:10 am until 8:10 a.m. on the corner of Cooper Street and Delaware Avenue. From 8:10 a.m. until 3:10 p.m., the shuttle service will run every 10 minutes. From 3:10 p.m. until 11:30 p.m., the shuttle service will run every 20 minutes. Get on the shuttle that picks up on the corner and go to the first stop at 3rd and Penn, which is by the Campus Center. It takes less than 5 minutes to walk to Lot 7.

If Traveling Northbound on I-676
If traveling north on I-676, take exit 5B marked “Last Exit Before Toll – Benjamin Franklin Bridge.” Turn left onto Linden Street at the first stoplight. Continue one block to Seventh Street and turn left again. At the foot of the Seventh Street Bridge, turn right onto Cooper Street. Turn right on 3rd Street. Turn right on Pearl Street. Turn right on 4th Street which is the Police horseshoe. Turn on your emergency flashers and go inside to buy a permit for parking in the Main Parking Lot 7. It is $2.00 per car per day. You must bring cash. Place permit in your windshield.

To get to the Main Parking Lot 7 turn left on Pearl Street. Turn left on Delaware Avenue. Lot 7 will be on the right at the corner of Delaware Avenue and Cooper Street. The shuttle service will pick-up / drop -off every 20 minutes starting at 7:10 am until 8:10 a.m. on the corner of Cooper Street and Delaware Avenue. From 8:10 a.m. until 3:10 p.m., the shuttle service will run every 10 minutes. From 3:10 p.m. until 11:30 p.m., the shuttle service will run every 20 minutes. Get on the shuttle that picks up on the corner and go to the first stop at 3rd and Penn, which is by the Campus Center. It takes less than 5 minutes to walk to Lot 7.

If Traveling Westbound
If traveling west, take I-295 S to Route-70 W. Get onto US-30W/Admiral Wilson Blvd. Proceed on Route 30 West for approximately one mile where the road forks. Take the right fork marked "Local Traffic Only, Last Exit Before Toll". Continue straight ahead to Seventh Street and turn left. At the foot of the Seventh Street Bridge, turn right onto Cooper Street. Turn right on 3rd Street. Turn right on Pearl Street. Turn right on 4th Street which is the Police horseshoe. Turn on your emergency flashers and go inside to buy a permit for parking in the Main Parking Lot 7. It is $2.00 per car per day. You must bring cash. Place permit in your windshield.

To get to the Main Parking Lot 7 turn left on Pearl Street. Turn left on Delaware Avenue. Lot 7 will be on the right at the corner of Delaware Avenue and Cooper Street. The shuttle service will pick-up / drop -off every 20 minutes starting at 7:10 am until 8:10 a.m. on the corner of Cooper Street and Delaware Avenue. From 8:10 a.m. until 3:10 p.m., the shuttle service will run every 10 minutes. From 3:10 p.m. until 11:30 p.m., the shuttle service will run every 20 minutes. Get on the shuttle that picks up on the corner and go to the first stop at 3rd and Penn, which is by the Campus Center. It takes less than 5 minutes to walk to Lot 7.

Parking at the Campus Center
There are two options for parking:
1. There is a non-university owned parking garage that is about a block and a half walk from the Campus Center. To get to the parking garage you will come down Cooper Street and turn right on 6th street just past the Bookstore. Then turn right on Penn Street. The entrance to the garage is on the right.

To get to the Campus Center from the parking garage, come out onto Cooper Street and turn right. The Campus Center will be on your right about a block and a half.

Cost to park in the garage is:
$3.25 for 1 hour
$6.50 for 2 hours
$8.25 for anything over 2 hours
They take cash, debit cards, or credit cards.

2. Park in Campus Main Lot 7. Upon arrival, you must purchase a parking permit from Campus police. To get to the Campus Police from I-676, take the Rutger's University exit. Turn right on Cooper Street. Turn right on 3rd Street. Turn right on Pearl Street. Turn right on 4th Street which is the Police horseshoe. Turn on your emergency flashers and go inside to buy a permit for parking in the Main Parking Lot 7. It is $2.00 per car per day. You must bring cash. Place permit in your windshield.

To get to the Main Parking Lot 7 turn left on Pearl Street. Turn left on Delaware Avenue. Lot 7 will be on the right at the corner of Delaware Avenue and Cooper Street. The shuttle service will pick-up / drop -off every 20 minutes starting at 7:10 am until 8:10 a.m. on the corner of Cooper Street and Delaware Avenue. From 8:10 a.m. until 3:10 p.m., the shuttle service will run every 10 minutes. From 3:10 p.m. until 11:30 p.m., the shuttle service will run every 20 minutes. Get on the shuttle that picks up on the corner and go to the first stop at 3rd and Penn, which is by the Campus Center. It takes less than 5 minutes to walk to Lot 7.

Hotel Accommodations
Most hotels near the Summit venue are within the $160 - $240 per night range. The following hotels are within a two-mile radius of the hotel:
1. Comfort Inn Downtown Historic Area                    BOOK NOW          1 mile from venue
2. Hyatt Regency Philadelphia at Penn's Landing    BOOK NOW     1.04 miles from venue
3. Sheraton Society Hill Hotel BOOK NOW 1.2 miles from venue
4. Best Western Independence Park Hotel               BOOK NOW           1.2 miles from venue
5. Omni Hotel Independence Park    BOOK NOW     1.36 miles from venue

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