Difference between revisions of "Team:UMaryland/fundraising"

 
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<p style = "font-size: 32px"><b>A Step-By-Step Guide to Successfully Financing Your iGEM Team</b>
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<h1 align="center"><b>A Step-By-Step Guide to Successfully Financing Your iGEM Team</b></h1>
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<p style = "font-size: 24px">By Kevin Fan, Finance Director of UMaryland iGEM 2015
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<h2 align="center">By Kevin Fan, Fundraising Chair of UMaryland iGEM 2015</h2>
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<p style = "font-size: 18px">"Kevin has successfully started several non-profit companies focused on enhancing science education among younger students. From his experiences, he has had prior training in accounting, management, and leadership. He is thus uniquely qualified to address the topic of acquiring team funding, which he does so in the following piece."</p>
 
<p style = "font-size: 18px">"Kevin has successfully started several non-profit companies focused on enhancing science education among younger students. From his experiences, he has had prior training in accounting, management, and leadership. He is thus uniquely qualified to address the topic of acquiring team funding, which he does so in the following piece."</p>
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<p style = "font-size: 16px" align = "right">-- Iowis Zhu, President of UMaryland iGEM 2015</p>
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<p style = "font-size: 18px" align = "right">-- Iowis Zhu, President of UMaryland iGEM 2015</p>
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<li><a href='#whyfundraise'><span>Why Fundraise?</span></a></li>
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<li><a href="#whyfundraise" class="smoothScroll"><span>Why Fundraise?</span></a></li>
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<li><a href='#preliminary'><span>Preliminary Steps</span></a></li>
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<li><a href="#preliminary" class="smoothScroll"><span>Preliminary Steps</span></a></li>
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<li><a href='#sources'><span>Where to look?</span></a></li>
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<li><a href='#sources' class="smoothScroll"><span>Where to look?</span></a></li>
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<li><a href='#grind'><span>The Grind</span></a></li>
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<li><a href='#grind' class="smoothScroll"><span>Making Cold Calls</span></a></li>
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<li><a href='#management'><span>Effective Management</span></a></li>
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<li><a href='#management' class="smoothScroll"><span>Effective Management</span></a></li>
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<li><a href='#misc'><span>Misc. Advice</span></a></li>
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<li><a href='#misc' class="smoothScroll"><span>Misc. Advice</span></a></li>
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<li><a href='#conclusion' class="smoothScroll"><span>Conclusion</span></a></li>
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<a name="whyfundraise"><h2><b>Why Fundraise?</b></h2></a>  
 
<a name="whyfundraise"><h2><b>Why Fundraise?</b></h2></a>  
 
<p style = "font-size: 18px">Fundraising is a critical component to successfully navigating the iGEM competition season. It is perhaps one of the most important yet underappreciated activities of any organization.  
 
<p style = "font-size: 18px">Fundraising is a critical component to successfully navigating the iGEM competition season. It is perhaps one of the most important yet underappreciated activities of any organization.  
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Like lab work, fundraising is not a straightforward process, and will lead to many dead ends and failed attempts before bearing fruit. In writing this guide, I hope to make fundraising fun and easy for your team.</p>
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Like lab work, fundraising is not a straightforward process, and will lead to many dead ends and failed attempts before bearing fruit. In writing this guide, I hope to make fundraising fun and easy for your team. This guide will walk you through the process that UMaryland went through to successfully meet our fundraising targets and send 16 members to with money to spare, and includes the actual documents we sent to our sponsors to solicit funds.</p>
  
 
<a name="preliminary"><h2><b>Preliminary Steps</b></h2></a>
 
<a name="preliminary"><h2><b>Preliminary Steps</b></h2></a>
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<p style = "font-size: 22px"><i>Budget Plan</i></p>
 
<p style = "font-size: 22px"><i>Budget Plan</i></p>
 
<p style = "font-size: 18px">Before delving into the fundraising process, there are a few documents and analyses that you need to prepare. First and foremost is a Budget Plan for all expected expenditures leading up to the competition. This will vary from team to team, but generally will include registration fees, lab expenses, and expenses related to travel, food, and lodging. Some teams may want to include a stipend for their students as well. UMaryland iGEM’s 2015 Budget Plan is linked below.</p>
 
<p style = "font-size: 18px">Before delving into the fundraising process, there are a few documents and analyses that you need to prepare. First and foremost is a Budget Plan for all expected expenditures leading up to the competition. This will vary from team to team, but generally will include registration fees, lab expenses, and expenses related to travel, food, and lodging. Some teams may want to include a stipend for their students as well. UMaryland iGEM’s 2015 Budget Plan is linked below.</p>
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<a href = "https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/e/e3/UMarylandiGEM_BudgetPlan_2015.pdf">
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<div id = 'button2'>
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<p>Click here to read our budget plan</p>
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</a></div>
 
<p style = "font-size: 18px">Note that many of the values in the Budget Plan, particularly the registration and lab expenses, can be highly variable and flexible.</p>
 
<p style = "font-size: 18px">Note that many of the values in the Budget Plan, particularly the registration and lab expenses, can be highly variable and flexible.</p>
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<br>
 
<br>
 
<p style = "font-size: 22px"><i>Executive Summary</i></p>
 
<p style = "font-size: 22px"><i>Executive Summary</i></p>
 
<p style = "font-size: 18px">After you figure out how much money you will need, the next step is to prepare an <b>Executive Summary</b>. This should be a one-page document detailing your mission and goals. Keep your audience in mind when writing the executive summary: what kind of initiatives do deans, department chairs, and corporate leaders want to give money to? There’s no need to go into heavy detail about the science behind your work; instead, emphasize the impact iGEM has on students and the community. UMaryland iGEM’s 2015 Executive Summary is linked below.</p>
 
<p style = "font-size: 18px">After you figure out how much money you will need, the next step is to prepare an <b>Executive Summary</b>. This should be a one-page document detailing your mission and goals. Keep your audience in mind when writing the executive summary: what kind of initiatives do deans, department chairs, and corporate leaders want to give money to? There’s no need to go into heavy detail about the science behind your work; instead, emphasize the impact iGEM has on students and the community. UMaryland iGEM’s 2015 Executive Summary is linked below.</p>
 
<br>
 
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<a href = "https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/2/26/UMarylandiGEM_ExecutiveSummary_2015.pdf">
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<p>Click here to read our executive statement</p>
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</a>
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<p style = "font-size: 22px"><i>Informational Brochure</i></p>
 
<p style = "font-size: 22px"><i>Informational Brochure</i></p>
 
<p style = "font-size: 18px">The executive summary is great for professional use, but creating a <b>Brochure</b> can be a more effective way to reach out to people. Brochures, in general, are easier and more interesting to read, and is more likely to captivate the audience. UMaryland iGEM’s 2015 Brochure is linked below.</p>
 
<p style = "font-size: 18px">The executive summary is great for professional use, but creating a <b>Brochure</b> can be a more effective way to reach out to people. Brochures, in general, are easier and more interesting to read, and is more likely to captivate the audience. UMaryland iGEM’s 2015 Brochure is linked below.</p>
 
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<p style = "font-size: 22px"><i>Video</i></p>
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<a href = "https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/c/cd/UMarylandiGEM_Brochure_2015.pdf">
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<p style = "font-size: 18px">Last, but not least, compiling a <b>Video</b> is a good way to spread the message to a large number of people. If your video is interesting, people will want to watch it and share it, creating organic growth that your team can take advantage of to make money. Having a video is also a critical component of crowdfunding. UMaryland iGEM’s 2015 Video is linked below.</p>
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<div id='button2'>
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<p>Click here to read our brochure</p>
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<br>
 
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<p style = "font-size:22px"><b>Video</b></p>
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<p style = "font-size:18px">Last, but not least, compiling a <b>Video</b> is a good way to spread the message to a large number of people. If your video is interesting, people will want to watch it and share it, creating organic growth that your team can take advantage of to make money. Having a video is also a critical component of crowdfunding. UMaryland iGEM’s 2014 Video is below.</p>
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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ReEBV5vmKRs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
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<a name="sources"><h2><b>Funding Avenues: Where should an iGEM team look for money?</b></h2></a>
 
<a name="sources"><h2><b>Funding Avenues: Where should an iGEM team look for money?</b></h2></a>
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<p style = "font-size: 22px;text-align: center;"><i><b>Individual Donations</b></i></p>
 
<p style = "font-size: 22px;text-align: center;"><i><b>Individual Donations</b></i></p>
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<p style = "font-size: 18px">Account for a very small portion of the fundraising. It is unlikely that any individual will contribute more than a few hundred dollars. I was able to give a presentation at the Gaithersburg Rotary Club about a topic we were researching that was of interest to them, and they featured us in their newsletter. I’m not sure if anybody donated because of that, but individual donations en masse can add up to a significant sum.</p>
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<p style = "font-size: 16px">Account for a very small portion of the fundraising. It is unlikely that any individual will contribute more than a few hundred dollars. I was able to give a presentation at the Gaithersburg Rotary Club about a topic we were researching that was of interest to them, and they featured us in their newsletter. I’m not sure if anybody donated because of that, but individual donations en masse can add up to a significant sum.</p>
 
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<a name="grind"><h2><b>The Grind: Using the Shotgun Approach</b></h2></a>
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<a name="grind"><h2><b>Cold Calling: The Shotgun Approach</b></h2></a>
 
<p style = "font-size: 18px">Don’t have any corporate connections? No worries, the shotgun approach is a systematic way to contact a large number of companies without becoming discouraged or fatigued. It allows you to send a personalized email to each company without spending hours researching that company. Furthermore, this method breaks down the outreach process into manageable chunks and applies assembly-line kinetics to simplify this complex task. It takes a bit of time to set up, but will save time in the long run.</p>
 
<p style = "font-size: 18px">Don’t have any corporate connections? No worries, the shotgun approach is a systematic way to contact a large number of companies without becoming discouraged or fatigued. It allows you to send a personalized email to each company without spending hours researching that company. Furthermore, this method breaks down the outreach process into manageable chunks and applies assembly-line kinetics to simplify this complex task. It takes a bit of time to set up, but will save time in the long run.</p>
 
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<p style = "font-size: 18px">3. START EARLY! We probably missed out on $5,000 - $10,000 because some connections were formed too late. Also, not having any money inflows for the first half of summer is extremely stressful.</p>
 
<p style = "font-size: 18px">3. START EARLY! We probably missed out on $5,000 - $10,000 because some connections were formed too late. Also, not having any money inflows for the first half of summer is extremely stressful.</p>
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<p style = "font-size: 18px">4. Buy a domain name. It's much easier to type in "umdigem.com" than "https://2015.igem.org/Team:UMaryland", and gives your team a cleaner touch.</p>
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<p style = "font-size: 18px">5. Expect to fail. Expect to be ignored. Unless someone explicitly tells you no, don't give up! That being said, courtesy dictates that you send no more than one soliciting email per week.</p>
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<p style = "font-size: 18px">6. Part of fundraising is networking. The larger your social network, the more people you can reach out to. Try to attend networking events whenever possible.</p>
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<a name="conclusion"><h2><b>Putting it all together</b></h2></a>
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<p style = "font-size: 18px">This guide is meant as a walkthrough for your team's fundraising efforts, and is designed to complement the existing iGEM fundraising guide by Andrew Hessel. In writing this, I tried not to re-state any of the information that was already on the Hessel guide. https://2008.igem.org/Funding</p>
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Latest revision as of 21:31, 18 September 2015