Description: 

Fundraising is often (mistakenly) seen as little more than asking people for money, but it actually has a lot to do with successful advocacy: the art of inviting others to join you in promoting and producing positive change within the communities you serve. This highly interactive session will begin with an exploration of what connects advocacy, activism, and fundraising; continue with explorations of how advocates for libraries and other organizations develop short- and long-term coalitions to tell the stories that attract funding and other forms of engagement; and conclude with a brief exercise designed to help participants put together a first-draft version of a fundraising plan for an advocacy effort they are currently pursuing or want to pursue.

Goal:

Participants will be prepared to apply successful fundraising techniques to their advocacy efforts.

Objectives:

By the end of this session, you will be able to:

Identify at least three steps you can take to creating a fundraising plan that supports your efforts as an advocate for libraries and the communities they serve

Cite at least three ways you can adapt, into your own fundraising efforts, what others are doing to produce positive, measurable results in fundraising and advocacy 

Cite at least three resources you can use to further hone your fundraising skills in ways that support your advocacy efforts

Presenters/Facilitators:  

Nanette Fok is a grantwriting consultant working with nonprofit agencies based in the greater Seattle area. She has the privilege of helping to build the capacity and sustainability of organizations that support the health, well-being, and empowerment of innumerable community members. She has worked in fundraising and organizational development for over 20 years, with broad-based experience that includes grantseeking, grantmaking, individual donor development, special events coordination and strategic planning. She currently sits on the boards of Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience and Mu Films.

Paul Signorelli, CLA Library Advocacy Training Project Manager, has been involved in successful grant-writing and other fundraising efforts for a variety of projects, including the Hidden Garden Steps, a $467,000 community-based effort to create a large-scale public art and garden site in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset District. As author of "Change the World Using Social Media," he captured the stories of advocates working in libraries and a variety of other settings, and he continues to work with individuals and organizations to help them hone their collaboration skills to create productive coalitions to produce positive results.

About the Ursula Meyer Advocacy Fund Training Series

This program is part of an ongoing series of monthly online sessions organized offered through the Ursula Meyer Advocacy Fund Training Series; sessions are generally held online on the second Wednesday of each month, beginning at 10 am PT. The series honors the memory of Ursula Meyer, 1977-78 CLA President, California Library Hall of Fame inductee, longtime director of the Stockton-San Joaquin Public Library, and fierce advocate for library services and intellectual freedom. The Ursula Meyer Fund was established to provide for the training of librarians in all stages of their careers, and library supporters, in political advocacy and political action, in honor of Ursula’s belief that librarians need effective political skills to advocate for library support at all levels of government. Archived recordings of previous sessions are available on the California Library Association YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@californialibraryassociati2705/videos