Meta Fund Raising

INTRODUCTION TO FREEGEEK FUNDING META PROCESS (FMP)

In the beginning there was fund raising, at it was good. Now we have a fund raising working group, and the group is giving birth to itself as a fully integrated part of the larger Free Geek operation in Portland, and then beyond Portland. When there is birth, there are questions like “Why am I here?” “What is my purpose?” “How should I be day to day?” “How will I affect others around me, and those who come after me?”

On this page, the fund raising working group is addressing the questions:

Q: What should-be the big picture around funding at Free Geek? Q: What does a fund raising process need to achieve?

=FUND RAISING PROCESS GOALS= We are starting with the following goals for any good fund raising process:

The fund raising process should include a formally recognized process for establishing formal agreement that pursuing a particular grant is a Free Geek priority.
(from random referrals to council approval)

The FRP should provide guidance for sorting through “great opportunities” to separate the “wheat from the chaff.”
(see grant-writing triage)

The FMP should provide guidance on prioritizing staff and volunteer time in real time.
Remember that almost every step in a fund raising process is reiterative. That is, each circle of activity loops around over and over. finding grant RFP <---> filling out proposal <---> tracking proposal process <---> filling out reports <---> generating new grant opportunities etc.

The FMP should provide records about contacts with funders and other organizations related to specific grants.
(For example, we need to know when we first heard about or made contact with a funder, then when it was solidified.)

The FRP should provide actual time-lines for a particular grant.
(which is a mixture of RT and wiki documentation). Time-lines are needed for both the FMP and for individual grant proposals. For example: Black can be contact information and blue can be grant RFP (request for proposals) deadlines. Green can be milestones in FreeGeek's strategic plans and visions of the future. proposal1: each grant gets a ticket? proposal2: RT tickets are projects with owners, for example, creating a triage format is a project. It has a “wrangler” or owner. Another task-project is keeping the grant opportunities list up to date.

The FRP should include a strong coordination function, that is, it must keep others in the loop, other FG people, working groups, and other organizations.
Example1: coordinating with budget writers; Bean Counters so their documents are available and make fund raising easy. Example2: coordinate with council by advocating for clarity on long range programmatic planning.

The FRP should be a working part of strategic planning.
FMP needs to show where long term planning fits in. For example: Which planning documents best represent the current consensus of long range thinking? +Long Range Planning category on the wiki +Vision Statement for 2010 FMP must also show how it uses those documents.

The FRP should prevent losing accomplished work when a volunteer or staff person leaves a project
(Question: How to do this simply? RT, open wikis, secure wikis and more?)