Development Team


This is where we will develop a concept paper and attempt to get this work funded.



Committee Members:


Committee Meeting Notes

May 15 Conference Call Notes:
On call: Buffy Bye, Susan Tenby, Megan Keane, Malin Coleridge, Catherine Hurd, Shaun Lynch, Ron Sidell

--Looking over rough document for feedback on how to improve/reframe template. Template from Catherine Hurd based on approach that has been successful for her for development opportunities.

Feedback:

--meetings most important part, that should be highlighted early in document (Buffy)
--need to mention the blog (Buffy), need for a position for ongoing website development/updates
--all the things NPC has done/is doing to support NPC in order to define what it is need further contributions for. Demonstrate pilot phase, what went into it, what need to take it to implementation, next stage to lead into (Shaun)
--What is it that we want to fund? How does group want to focus efforts?: paying for management of community, developer network, capacity building funding, logical next progression of the pilot project—moving into production with increased demand.
--need to have dedicated FTE to project, funding to do so
--(Ron) good to have menu of options to propose so can be tailored to different funders make it so easy to translate into funding for other things
--what does “you” (you=Nonprofit Commons) want to accomplish
--ideas: increasing capacity, pilot studies,
--2 avenues: micro-fundraising and bigger funders, not mutually exclusive, multiple avenues

More simplistic if micro-fundraising—i.e. it costs “x” to do this, can you fund this part of it, but also more compelling/exciting to fund project/infrastructure as a whole

--Next steps: define different various approaches to have for funders (Catherine)
--good way to incorporate testimonials from tenants (Buffy); perhaps questionnaire document could also be placed to start w/ goals of org. (Megan)
--McConnell Foundation (Canada)—Catherine to determine if they can fund US-based nonprofit


Action:

--Ron to draft his approach to document by 5/27.
-- Shaun Lynch to email Catherine his potential contacts that might be interested in funding
-- Susan today has asked to have “donate now” box added to NPC website
-- Catherine & Susan to incorporate changes/feedback and flesh out document further by 5/27 (next con call to be scheduled in early June)


April 8 Conference Call Notes from Development meeting.doc


Possible Funding Resources for Glitter to contact:

Discussions

support

Comments on 4/8/08 mtg notes

support 11 April 2008 01:18:55

Thanks Megan for taking and posting the notes from the meeting. Following are my comments, corrections, and suggestions for the document:

Attendees should listed, preferably rl, sl, job title, and email info. I think the list includes: Bye, Buffy LCS:EX; Susan Tenby; Coughran Mayo; Kyle Reis; Malin Coleridge; Jani Myriam; Ron Sidell; christiaan@givengain.com; slynch@alcor.concordia.ca

"--CSI Island—contacts there, idea to run mystery on islands w/ them, would bring in commercial endeavor..." shoul read CSINY SL presence..." instead of or in addition to "CSI Island..."

"--foundations still figuring out if and where this might fit into their programmatic guidelines..." The term "foundation" has a specific meaning in the nonprofit world. Foundations are special legal entities and most NPO's do not want to be misclassified as a foundation. Foundations may be a good source of funding, but we should probably look to corporate sponsors for sizable donations.

"--micro-financing approach" Ideas mentioned, confusingly responded to, and details missing from these notes. Ron suggested that an alternate way to get money from corporations is to seek personal donations from individuals, then encourage them to apply for matching donations from their employers. This sneaky approach avoids the complexity of applying for corporate funds, with similar or possibly greater payoff. For example, if ten Sun MicroSystems donate $500 each, that brings in $5000. Sun will automatically match these donations (well, almost automatically), resulting in $5000 more in donations from Sun corporate. Total donations in this example would be $10,000... not so micro after all!

We need a list of action items, assigned to (whom?) and due date. Here's a start on that list:

Ron/Buteo:
1. get CSINY contact info, approach contact regarding possible collaboration
2. Organize May 17 Aloft block party fundraiser, including implementing idea to raise US$ through rl art image sales
3. Pass on (to this team) some of the documentation from Heron Sanctuary regarding measurable benefits of use of SL to improve patient outcomes, shorten hospitalization time, etc.

Susan/Glitter:
1. Share documentation w/ everyone (largely distilled from Susan’s Congressional testimonial and develop statement from) after re-worked with development department into suitable format
2. Schedule follow-up meeting in 1-2 weeks
3. work on/update video

Sandy to pass on potential survey to committee (done!?)

Unassigned, but probably belongs to someone in TS:
1. publicize TS NPC budget to get community behind; feeling that the perception in the same boat as TS
2. Draft case statement for NPC—(Catherine Hurd of TS working to translate Susan’s congressional testimony into case statement for potential funders)
3. other implicit action items...??



Those are my comments for now. I hope this helps, and that I am not offending anyone with my words. My work style is to jump in and help through action.

Cheers!
Ron/Buteo

support
support 15 May 2008 22:56:10

Yes, you got correct attendees on the call. Future notes will include this.

--As discussed, foundations are just one funding source, as our corporate sponsors. These are not mutually exclusive, we will be pursuing multiple funding opportunties. "Foundations" comes from Bennett, TechSoup Development Director's extensive experience with foundations they've approached in the past regarding this project.

--Thank you for clarifying one example of a possible microfunding approach.

Action Items addressed (done) for next meeting:

--Susan/Catherine to distill congressional testimony into sample draft funding document

--Updating video (we just had new, updated video made of NPC that is now on wiki & blog)