Fundraising for the Nonprofit and Public Sectors
Objectives of the Course
This is a course on the use of grant-writing and direct fundraising skills. Each student in each class will develop her or his own project to raise money in a topic area of personal interest and with a client (self-clients are acceptable). If a prospective student is not willing to raise money for some purpose within the class, then the student ought not register for the class. The course addresses legal techniques (other than taxes) for raising resources for not-for-profit or governmental activities: grants, contracts, direct fundraising, swaps, gifts, deferred giving, etc. The class will include participation of persons from diverse public sector and non-profit institutions involved in the process of raising and managing funds. Topics include: presentation of self and organizations, project development, the proposal process, project assessment, and project financial management. Additional subjects include: diversity of information of grant sources, planned giving, capital campaigns, political fundraising, on-line or digital fundraising, benefit events, annual or renewable giving, strategic fundraising plans, as well as processes for raising and spending money through philanthropy. The course is directed at two sets of participants: working professionals and graduate students. Employees of local/state governments, non-profit organizations, or political parties can benefit from the course by developing skills directly applicable to their current or future jobs. Students with dissertation or thesis research ideas can use the course to prepare funding requests. As this is a graduate level course, it is expected that a person who enrolls either will have completed an undergraduate degree or will have practical experience which is equivalent to an undergraduate degree.
Students are expected to come to class and complete all assignments as indicated in the syllabus.
Grading
Class assignments - 10 percent
Class participation - 10 percent
Presentation of proposal in class - 10 percent
Final written proposal - 70 percent