| This is a grantsmanship and funding development workshop conducted nation-wide as a U.S. Chamber-endorsed training resource program. This is what you can expect to achieve from it.
Our Ways-And-Means-Opportunities© (WAMO) workshop costs $3,000, lasts eighteen hours (two consecutive days, including two catered lunch hours together), plus teaches non-profit organizations’ volunteers and staffers how to develop short- and long-term funding in four categories: grantsmanship, corporate sponsorships, planned giving, and fundraising.
Grantsmanship teaches how to write a grant proposal, to whom to send it, how much to ask for, and when to ask for it. It shows how to get the donors into "your sphere of influence" and how to "grease" a proposal by effectively utilizing your collective clout. More importantly, however, in the eighteen hours, you actually write an initial grant proposal (which will, of course, have many blanks that need to be filled in later as you collect the information to do so). You will see examples of successful proposals. You will actually develop a surprisingly large list of valid, "qualified" donor targets.
Corporate Sponsorship teaches how to identify target corporations and how to get them to sponsor your project. In many cases, the approach requires a written proposal, so you learn how to write a successful one based on their operating procedures, giving history, application formats, etc. You are also introduced to numerous data sources that most people are unaware of, giving you the edge for such funding.
Planned Giving teaches how to set up your non-profit organization so it can receive specialized, often deferred, gifts such as annuities, charitable remainder unitrusts, life insurance policies, real estate, and bequests while providing the donors with very real tax benefits and financial leverage. You learn how to work with financial institutions to establish funding instruments.
You learn how to develop a "money machine" that produces interest income in perpetuity. You'll learn how to provide for continuity in your organization despite the annual elections that often result in having to frequently re-invent the wheel.
Fundraising will teach you how to analyze your present fundraising projects. Such analyses will result in eliminating ineffective projects and streamlining those with unleashed potential. It will show you some of the most effective and ineffective fundraisers in the country.
Finally, WAMO will teach you how to integrate all four of these key funding development categories into an effective program. It requires a significant number of attendees (at least five for each of the four categories) so you will have the necessary group dynamics as you split into separate "break out task forces" during the workshop's eighteen hours. They will need to arrive fresh, ready to learn, research, brainstorm, and plan (not just listen).
Likewise, you need to bring rough outlines or "blueprints" for the projects you want to fund (to include the amounts you need, the principal "players" who will implement the program, and proposed action steps with estimated deadlines). It is essential that attendees come to both sessions of the two-day workshop since the materials and subjects are interwoven.
As the founder and conductor of the WAMO workshop, I've designed the workshop to help participant organizations crystallize their collective thinking in terms of objectives and methods, learn to work as a team, marshal resources previously unknown to them, and, of course, locate and bring significant amounts of money to bear so your organization will not be stuck with small programs to meet large challenges. |
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| Your Funding Development Committee, which will evolve during the WAMO workshop, will help your organization integrate all four of the key funding development categories into a synergistic, effective Funding Development Plan. It usually requires between 20 and 30 people to be informed and enrolled in the long-term nature of the Funding Development Plan.
If you decide to sponsor the workshop, first create a rough outline or blueprint for the projects you want to fund (to include the amount you need, the principal "players" who will implement the program, and proposed action steps with estimated deadlines). This will provide a quick start for you in the WAMO Workshop.
A typical WAMO presentation we gave to 36 attendees was held in Las Vegas at a branch of PriMerit Bank's board/conference room. The training was cosponsored by PriMerit Bank and Safekey (an after-hours educational day care program conducted within the Clark County School System). Both days we met at 7:30 a.m. for continental breakfasts, commenced the workshop at 8 a.m. sharp, broke at noon for lunch in place, started up again at 1 p.m. and broke promptly at 5 p.m. Many of us dined together the first evening for further brainstorming.
Another recent workshop was held in Reno at their main library and hosted by the Nevada Future Farmers of America (FFA). Each person gets a graduation certificate suitable for framing, and the chairpersons of each funding development subcommittee (grants, corporate sponsorships, planned gifts, and fundraising) get distinctive WAMO leader patches.
So, your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to field a 20-person+ "team" of serious citizens committed to two years of planning, implementation, and follow-through. Many types of organizations have succeeded implementing the WAMO principles, but if your organization is typical, you have major groundwork to do, and old perceptions to overcome before you successfully "quantum leap" from your present "treasury-only" organization to a "funding development" organization. WAMO helps you step out of the present financial comfort zone that is, in very real terms, probably limiting your organization to restricted-scope programming. No longer will a mere 1-year plan suffice for your organization.
By attending the WAMO workshop, your board and key volunteers will evolve an entirely new way of doing things, with less dependence upon volunteers and members since you'll be getting "serious new funds" to put paid, expert staff to work on long-term and short-term projects. Likewise, you'll implement means to assure perpetuity funding. Your organization can establish a Funding Development Plan that is limited only by your planning, rather than always by lack of funds.
By attending the WAMO workshop, your board and key volunteers will evolve an entirely new way of doing things, with less dependence upon volunteers and members since you'll be getting "serious new funds" to put paid, expert staff to work on long-term and short-term projects. Likewise, you'll implement means to assure perpetuity funding. Your organization can establish a Funding Development Plan that is limited only by your planning, rather than always by lack of funds.
Now we need to review the arrangements needed to hold this workshop locally. |
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