Finding Foundation Funders: the art of successful research | Seattle, WA

Finding Foundation Funders: the art of successful research

According to a recent survey of grantmakers, between 40% and 75% of the proposals that they receive do not fit their guidelines. It is now recognized that the more thoroughly you conduct your research, ask smart questions, and cultivate foundation contacts, the more your organization will stand out from the crowd.

This session will cover the following topics:

Prospecting for new money: how to find suitable grantmakers in expected and unexpected places
Computer resources and technology: where to find the best information on grantmakers on the web
Making sense of foundation guidelines: and how to read between the lines
Is there a fit: how to decide whether a foundation's priorities are compatible with your mission

This session is ideal for beginning grant seekers who are getting their feet wet, and need step by step guidance on how to find appropriate funding.

Speakers for this session:

Richard Bray

Director of Donor & Community Relations

Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Seattle/King County

Richard has been involved in fundraising for 22 years. In his current position, he is responsible for researching funders, writing proposals, fostering relationships with foundations and coordinating funding proposals to local city governments. He also performs other development and communications activities. Previously, he worked as Director of Planned Giving for Catholic Community Services of Western Washington and also facilitated grantseeking. Prior to this, he was the Director of Development at Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Seattle/King County where he was responsible for researching funders and writing grant proposals. He oversaw all development efforts and communications. Richard earned BA in Business Administration from University of Puget Sound and a Graduate Certificate in Non Profit Management from Regis University. He is a member of Puget Sound Grantwriters Association, Washington Planned Giving Council, Greater Seattle, Renton, and Kent Chambers of Commerce and Knights of Columbus. He is passionate about philanthropy and enjoys speaking about and writing on how each of us can make a difference.

Dave Brown

Principal

Dave Brown Communications

Dave has been involved in development for 21 years. In his current position, he is responsible for identifying, researching and securing funds from corporate and foundation funders for educational institutions and non-profit agencies. Previously, as the Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations at Western Washington University (WWU), Dave was responsible for managing a comprehensive regional university corporate and foundation relations program, including prospect research, gift solicitation and stewardship in support of 9 colleges and departments, raising funds for scholarships, projects, endowments, events and faculty research. Before that, he worked as the grantwriter at the Boys & Girls Clubs of King County where he directed a centralized grants and contracts program for a large multi-unit organization, working successfully with branch-unit directors, educational program specialists and capital project architects to secure corporate, foundation and government (federal, state, county, city) grants and contracts supporting operational, program, capital, and endowment needs. Dave currently serves on the Board of Directors for the WFC Rangers Soccer Club. He earned a master’s degree in education and a bachelor of music from WWU. He is a member of Council for Advancement & Support of Education (CASE) and the Puget Sound Grantwriters Association.

2010 Seattle 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 Seattle Summit focuses on the relationship aspects of fundraising, and offers you several ways to enhance your relationship management skills:

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. In 2009, we are also introducing a two-day pass so that attendees can attend all sessions at a reduced price.

ONE-ON-ONE MENTORING SESSIONS
In 2010, we are adding an exciting new component to our Summits: one on mentoring sessions. In these 30 minute sessions, you can sit down with an experienced nonprofit fundraiser to discuss specific questions not addressed by the seminars. Mentoring sessions will cover the same topics as the seminar topics. However, each mentoring session that you sign up for will focus entirely on questions facing your organization.

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 on the Seattle University campus, in the Student Center Building. The full address is:

Seattle University
901 12th Avenue
Seattle, WA 98122

Driving Directions
Traveling from South (including Sea-Tac Airport)
Take WA-518E then exit left onto I-5 Northbound toward Seattle. Drive northbound on I-5 for nearly 10 miles. Take exit 164A Dearborn Street toward James St/Madison St. Follow signs for Madison St/Convention Pl and merge onto 7th Ave. Turn right at Madison St. Turn right at 12th Ave. Turn right at E Marion St. Seattle University will be on the right.

Traveling from North
Take I-5 southbound towards Seattle for nearly 6 miles. Take exit 165B to merge onto Union St. Turn right at 7th Ave. Take the 1st right onto Pike St. Turn right at 12th Av. Seattle University will be on the right.

Traveling from East
From SR-520 westbound go to I-5 South. Take exit 165B to merge onto Union St. Turn right at 7th Ave. Take the 1st right onto Pike St. Turn right at 12th Av. Seattle University will be on the right.

From I-90 westbound take exit 3B for Rainer Ave N. Merge onto Rainier Ave. Slight left at Boren Ave S. Turn right at 12th Ave S. Seattle University will be on the left.

Traveling from West
Take a ferry across the Sound if traveling from the West. Take either Seattle (Main) - Bainbridge Island, Seattle (Main) - Bremerton, or Seattle Pier 50 - Vashon Island. You will arrive into Seattle Ferry Terminal. Head east on Seattle Ferry Terminal/Yesler Way toward Alaskan Way S. Continue to follow Yesler Way. Turn left at Broadway Ave. Turn right at E Jefferson St. Turn left at 12th Ave. Seattle University will be on the left.

Parking near the Seattle University Student Building
There are two parking lots available for CFNPS guests to utilize during the event. These are the only two lots that have pay boxes to purchase the parking permits. You must have a parking permit to park on campus.

A. Murphy Garage - This lot has the most parking spaces available.
The Murphy Garage does not have a street address; it is on Cherry Street between Broadway and 12th Avenue. It has no attendant and permits must be purchased at the yellow pay boxes on the ground floor of the Murphy Parking Garage. The pay boxes accept cash, Visa, and MasterCard.
Visitor parking fees start at the following rates:
0-4 hours: $6.00
2-4 hours: $10.00
4-6 hours: $12.00
6-24 hours. $15.00
In the summer months, parking is widely available in this garage as there are several hundred spaces. They are on a first come first served basis as none are set-aside for our group.

Walking Directions from the Murphy Garage: Take the North elevator from any level to the Skybridge "SB" level. Walk straight out of the elevator across the Skybridge into the Student Center and turn right inside the building. In a short distance, there are stairs heading down; take these to the main floor and then make a U-turn to go into the lobby for registration. For those individuals with mobility issues, instead of proceeding down the staircase, proceed down the hallway to the right of the staircase and an elevator will be at the end of the hall. Take the elevator to the first floor, and then turn right out of the elevator into the lobby area for registration. It will take approximately 5-10 minutes to walk from the Murphy Garage to our registration area.

B. Pigott (Visitor) Parking Lot
The Pigott Lot does not have a street address. It is located at the intersection of 12th Avenue and E. Marion It has no attendant and permits must be purchased at the yellow pay boxes on the ground floor of the Murphy Parking Garage. The pay boxes accept cash, Visa, and MasterCard.
Visitor parking fees start at the following rates:
0-4 hours: $6.00
2-4 hours: $10.00
4-6 hours: $12.00
6-24 hours. $15.00
In the summer months, parking is available in this lot but it is a very popular place for people to park, so there aren’t often a lot of open spaces. This lot has a couple hundred spaces but they fill up. The Murphy Lot is the best place to park.

Walking Directions from Pigott Lot: Once you are parked, look for the bell tower, which is to the west of the parking lot. (Put another way: 12th Avenue, which is to the east, will be at your back as you look at the bell tower.) The bell tower is along a long walkway called the Lower Mall; go to the left and straight down the lower mall. The Student Center is at the end of the walk. Once you enter the building doors, head to the right through the lobby and hearth to registration.
It will take approximately 5 minutes to walk from the Pigott Lot to our registration area.

Public Transportation
The only public transportation option to Seattle University is the King County Metro Transit (bus service). To plan your trip, use the Trip Planner function on the King County website: http://tripplanner.kingcounty.gov/cgi-bin/itin_page.pl?resptype=U

The most widely used bus services to the Seattle University Student Center are:

1. Route MT #3 or #4.
Get off at 12th and Jefferson, and walk one block on 12th Avenue towards Cherry Street. Cross the street by the stoplight and make a left. Enter the campus at the SE entrance; you will make a right into the campus (the Student Center building will be directly in front of you). Enter into the lower mall entrance of the building and take a right. All the meeting rooms are on the first floor.

2. Route MT #2 or #12 (11th Avenue & Madison)
Get off at 11th and Madison and make an immediate right on Madison. Enter into the campus at the NE entrance onto the lower mall. You will make a left. Take the lower mall to the Student Center Building. Stay on the lower and walk two blocks. The Student Center building will be at the South end of the campus. It is the large building with glass. Enter into the lower mall entrance of the building and take a right. All the meeting rooms are on the first floor.

*There are large campus maps at every entrance of the university

Alternative Transportation Options
Yellow Cab: (206) 622-6500
Orange Cab: (206) 957-0866

Hotels
Most hotels near the Summit venue are within the $169-$228 per night range. The following hotels are within a one-mile radius of the venue:
1. Homewood Suites by Hilton BOOK NOW                          0.6 miles from venue
    Seattle Conv Ctr/Pike Street
2. Crowne Plaza Seattle Downtown BOOK NOW                          0.7 miles from venue
3. Renaissance Seattle Marriott                   BOOK NOW                          0.7 miles from venue
4. Hilton Seattle                                            BOOK NOW                          0.7 miles from venue

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