1. Money (It’s What We Want)
#12NTCmoney
Ruth Williams, ZeroDivide
Andrea Berry, Idealware
Cynthia Bailie, The Foundation Center
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2. Money (It’s What We Want)
#12NTCmoney
AGENDA
• Introductions (5)
• Grantmaking and Technology - Ruth Williams (10)
• Fundraising and Technology - Andrea Berry (10)
• Q&A (10)
• Building Awareness Exercise - Cynthia Bailie (20)
• Finding Funders –Cynthia Bailie (15)
• Q&A (15)
• Wrap up (5)
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3. How to persuade foundations to
fund your technology needs
April 3, 2012

4. Talked to funders
• Conducted a 6 month survey - 41 funders, 13 TSPs
• Learned how and why funders are – and are not –
supporting NPO’s in using tech for social
change/programmatic work
• Exec Sum: http://zerodivide.org/funder_report
or http://bit.ly/e0qgFo (that’s zero, small “o”)
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5. What we learned
• High funder interest; limited familiarity or expertise
• Modest investments; mostly back end
• Investment are tactical, not strategic
• Strategies for impactful tech investment are unclear
• Skeptical about tech ROI
• Better impact measurements needed
• Good News: Future $ possible, Grantees lead the
charge
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6. What we recommend to Funder
• Increase tech education and advising activities
• Expand their pool of investments
• Strengthen TSP infrastructure
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7. Recommendations to Persuade Funders
• Don’t be shy, ask for funds and other tech support
• Provide Funders with good data: modest experiment, show
#’s & commitment
• Propose TA/trainings across a cohort of their grantees
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8. Funding Your Project
8

9. There Are No Magical Tech Funders
Unfortunately.
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10. Can You Lower the Price?
Check Ask hardware See if consultants
TechSoup for vendors about offer a discount or
discount software nonprofit discounts compressed
project
10

11. Will Local Businesses Help?
• Check with local banks
or partners
• Might they donate
(good quality)
hardware or software?
• Are there volunteers
who could help you
design and implement
the project?
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12. Can You Interest Major Donors?
• Do you have donors
who might fund part or
all of the project?
• It’s a nice, tangible
investment for the right
donor
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13. Approach Your Current Funders
• Would they be
interested in
supporting their
mission through tech?
• Consider including it in
a larger project.
• Do they offer any
capacity services or
funding programs?
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14. Building Awareness
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15. 15

16. 16

17. 17

18. 18

19. Finding Funders
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20. GRANTSPACE.ORG
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21. FCONLINE.FOUNDATIONCENTER.ORG
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22. Thank You!
Let’s stay in touch:
• Ruth Williams | Senior Program Officer| ZeroDivide |
ruth@zerodivide.org
• Andrea Berry | Director of Partnerships and Learning |
Idealware | andrea@idealware.org
• Cynthia Bailie | Director, Cleveland Office and Special
Information Initiatives | The Foundation Center |
cgb@foundationcenter.org
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23. Additional Resources
“How a Small Nonprofit Made Simple Tech Tweaks and Saved
$176,000.” By William Grassie - http://bit.ly/eZMFp3
Unleashing Innovation: Using Everyday Technology to Improve Nonprofit
Services. By MAP for Nonprofits and Idealware -
http://idealware.org/reports
Grants for Information Technology - 2011 Digital Edition. By The
Foundation Center - http://foundationcenter.org/marketplace
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24. Evaluate This Session!
Each entry is a chance to win an NTEN engraved iPad!
or Online using #12NTCmoney at www.nten.org/ntc/eval