Breakout session 2, Tuesday morning: Giving Funders What They Need

Goals:

-Identify a clear definition of stewardship
-Keep the momentum of the forum going
- Think of funders as collaborators and not just moneybags. There’s a two way street in utilizing
-Put together shared metrics to present a more unified, easy-to-understand message
-Think about ways that funders can work collaboratively to fund this movement
-Be creative in fundraising and reaching different audiences through technology and social media
-Be honest with funders about what we need and don’t assume we know what they need
-Asses how to measure qualitatively in addition to quantitatively to present to funders
-Have funders understand the difference between communicating/presenting information to the public, and educating
-Know our individual funders and their priorities (political v. not political, issue-focused v. not)
-Continue the communication among our organizations (through the stewardship forum blog or other media)

Actions:

-Convene a broader coalition and identify who is at the table and who is not. (eg. Environment, agriculture, schools, public health, tourists, entertainment)
-Clearly connect our goals to programs/issues that funders already want to fund (ex: GOCO and youth and families)
-Identify mapping statewide priorities and gap analysis current funders
-Create a clear message or brand to present to funders (from the definition of stewardship). Perhaps make a video or multimedia message. Stress the passion of individual organizations and of the collective movement in this PR campaign.
-Create a one-page summary or youtube video of the overarching goals of the stewardship movement to present to funders
- Funders are looking for collaborative projects. Identify overlap and show that we can leverage resources by sharing them with each other
-Invite funders to participate on projects, see work on the ground
-Keep an open dialogue between funders and fundees
-Do a gap analysis on a large, state-wide scale
-every organization should contribute resources to the gap analysis
- Set goals for committees/teams for timelines to draft vision statement, next steps, start outlining the steps to put strategic plan together.
-Reconvene on 19 January lay out specific steps for ad hoc coalition.
-Ask funding panelists if/how their thoughts on funding this movement have changed due to the forum

Resources:

-current funders and supporters
-the forum blog and Jan 19 meeting
-a shared, standardized metric system (needed)
-marketing and branding experts