Center For NonProfit Success

Winning proposals: a tour of four successful case studies

Even when you understand the principles of effective proposal writing, it can still be challenging to understand why a certain proposal stands out above the others. In this session, we will take you on a tour of four winners so that you can learn what makes a proposal truly fundable:

The session will provide an advanced analysis of tone, writing style and format, and includes a discussion of the following topics:

Building the case for support: how to make a favorable impression from the outset
Sustainability: giving funders the comfort they need that you will be around after they leave
Testimonials: using the power of stories to create a strong impression
Project outcomes: describing outcomes in a way that the funder can immediately understand them
Project budgets: avoiding the pitfalls that bedevil this section of the proposal
Sources of support: what is the funder looking for here, and what if you don't have them?

This session is intended as a follow-on to the first session on proposal writing.

Speakers for this session:

Michelle Eisenberg

Consultant

Schultz & Williams

Michelle Eisenberg is a consultant with Schultz & Williams, a firm specializing in non-profit development, management and marketing. She has participated in development planning studies, campaign feasibility studies, and interim staffing assignments. Michelle began her career at the National Constitution Center, as it grew from a small start-up into the major museum that opened on Independence Mall in 2003. As Director of Foundation and Corporate Support, she cultivated, solicited and stewarded donors for the $77 million private campaign and the Center’s post-opening operating fund. Her grant writing skills helped the Center win support from funders such as the National Endowment for the Humanities, Institute for Museum and Library Services, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Michelle holds an MBA from Temple University and a bachelor`s degree from the University of Pennsylvania. She is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

Dan Jurman

Director of Development

SouthEast Lancaster Health Services

Over the past ten years, Dan Jurman has been a leader in development in several non-profit organizations in Lancaster County. He is currently the Director of Development for SouthEast Lancaster Health Services. He has submitted applications to over 70 funders including the Kresge Foundation, The U.S. Department of Education, and the PA Redevelopment Capital Assistance Program (the latter produced a $500,000 award plus a $500,000 match). His research and narrative skills have come to bear on grant requests totaling over $1,000,000 this year to date ($760,000 pending - $280,000 achieved). Dan has been highly successful as a grant writer, which he credits to his Bachelor`s Degree in Literature and Minor in Creative Writing (Rowan University) as well as his Master`s Degree in Theology (Lancaster Theological Seminary).

Eileen Kelliher

Director of Outreach

Bristol Township School District

Eileen Kelliher joined the Bristol Township School District in 2006 with responsibility for fundraising. In two years, she has raised over $1.5 million for the school district in competitive national, state and local grants. Her work has enabled the school to launch several important programs including a pre-kindergarten and Bristol Township Healthy Kids, a movement to fight childhool obesity. Kelliher directed development for the Bucks County Opportunity Council before joining the Bristol Township School District. With the Opportunity Council she doubled annual campaign results. She has been a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and executive director for a large corporate foundation. She is a member of the Assocation of Fundraising Professionals, Greater Philadelphia Chapter and holds a BA Degree in English Literature from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Ann Mintz

Director of Fundraising and Development

University City District

Ann Mintz is the Director of Fundraising and Development at University City District running a one-person development department with responsibility for all aspects of contributed income in a $8 million per year non-profit, which derives most of its contributed income from grants, annual giving and special events. She has written more successful proposals than she can count, managed six-figure grants from public and private foundations and funding agencies, obtained underwriting for special events, and has been on the leadership team of three capital campaigns that raised $150 million. Twenty years of experience has taught Ann that it`s equally important to keep track of details and stay strategically focused on the big picture.

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

Register Now

Click on any seminar title or the arrow on the right side to learn more about that seminar Sort seminars by: