DEVELOPMENT AND FUND RAISING, December 15, 1998, morning
Attending: Phil Francis, Frank Harris, Jack Ranney, Jody Flemming and Paul Super (scribe)
Goals and Mission: The roll of development is to create resources to support DLIA and ATBI with the following goals:
Identify resource needs within ATBI/DLIA and rank within working groups,
Formulate business plan elements,
Develop list of funding sources (foundations, corporations and individuals),
Present proposals to potential donors with follow-through.
Immediate priority: locate the $150,000 matching funds
Duties Assigned/Deadlines:#1 priority--seek partnerships with existing fund-raising sources
Put together sample for education committee to show what need for fund raising packet.
Please see write-up on meeting. Want to see proceedings, or better, about five-page summary of meeting highlights of meeting so kept in mind. Build up documentation. Have some documents to hand to people (various levels of information) when meeting about fund raising, proposals, etc.. Also wish had levels of needs available so can direct funding to source. Menu of projects available for funding (of park) was major success of Friends group: different categories, then prioritized within categories. This would be good to apply to ATBI/DLIA. Break science plans into logical units and assign costs. Develop brochure? Develop folder, which can be customized for individual needs outer cover and basic overview, then interchangeable sheets. Need business plans for (example): science and Ed center (with dorms), with sublistings for maintenance, facilities, user costs (support costs of using facility). Something in hand with quality, looks good, has a lot of thought, and is very important. Suggested product (could be done in-house by NHA): have ATBI brochure, Purchase Nob brochure, outlines of proceedings from last two meetings, (pages from Web Site?), cost break-downs (costs of keeping scientists in the field, student stipends, etc.), held within a heavy-paper folder giving basic orientation to park and project.
Who will do this? Partnership with other groups. Input from other teams to keep fund raisers asking for right stuff.
Development also needs to look outside and identify sources: corporate, individuals, etc. Once have materials, where do we take it and how often do we take it there? Some of this can be fed to Congress so representatives can lobby for funds.
List of donors is limited: need to coordinate this, so don't work against= each other, going after same chunk of money. Joint proposals? Piggy-back proposals from more weakly supported sources with proposals from stronger institutions? Need to coordinate with Friends. Are there any sources who haven't been approached yet who might be friendly? Need to tie into Friends donor lists. Need to contact other groups, which might benefit from this project and might help with fundraising: friends of rivers groups, universities, etc.
Need membership option. Sponsor an organism? $15.00 supports another caddisfly, $500 gets another vascular plant, etc.? Get access to some of these lists for direct mailing: NPCA, NWF, TNC, Sierra Club, NPF, etc.
How about a VISA or Master Card that supports ATBI/DLIA? Sign-up through Friends and/or Gatlinburg businesses.
Need executive director to take on the fundraising and development. We are too big to run this "out of our back pocket". Should help getting this to a self-sustaining organization. Needs a lot of development experience. More important than science experience, but would be nice to have both. Some things can be done before the director is in place.
Need to form a work group to get the matching funds. The people in this position are already very busy.
What parts would make this work? Present park facilities cannot accommodate this. Have been working with local architect to develop floor plan for new facility (cost $3.8 million), probably at Twin Creeks. Expanding view to include a "campus" which would include dorm/lodging facilities, and a science and education center, which would become self-sustaining financially (put ATBI results on display). All of this in partnership with universities and DOI. Cost to get this going now estimated at about $15 million. Can't get going until funded. Next congressional opportunity is FY2000. Need to get fund raising for other parts of vision, as part of incentive to congress. Also, Purchase Knob as residential science center needs funding. .
How much funding through DLIA? Scientists will have to write the proposals for scientific funding. From DLIA, most science support may be in in the form of housing, lab space in park, etc. Probably have to fund themselves. Needs for many scientists and institutions to have proper credit for what they do, overhead costs, etc. Donating person-power by having researchers and assistants here.
Many funding institutions will not let funds go to "indirect costs". Indirect costs are the costs of doing business: overhead (lights, rent, phone, staff, etc.).
Lodging costs: more expensive to contract operations of dorm out to concessionaire, rather than park? Probably cheaper to contract.
Do we need a tool to move these funds around? Probably need some sort of standard form contract agreement. "Sticky wicket" is who owns intelllectual property rights? Probably, IPR reverts back to NPS, based on Yellowstone precedent. Need to get this formally established. Can DLIA benefit from IPR side-benefits (because DLIA is not the government)? Need to work this out. What sort of IPR do funding sources get?
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