This week was more interesting than I thought it would be in regards to fundraising and development. I am not much of a salesman or a numbers person, so I was nervous coming into this class. After the first day of class I realized that it was not necessarily about selling, but was more about creating an emotion for your product. The product, in our particular case, is the brand of your university. There are many people, alumni on particular, that identify with a school for a number of reasons. Some of them because they graduated from there, some because of an academic or athletic tradition, and even some that just love the school colors. Whatever the reasons may be, they are all potential donors. These people do not need to be “sold” on the greatness of the school, but only facilitated to give back.
For my final project I had to create a booklet, pamphlet, or flyer that would help convince your shareholders to contribute to an endowment scholarship fund. In my case, I created a school and it was the Vermont State University. I touted a rich athletic experience coupled with the athletes appreciation for the financial help. The project let me use creativity, which I was happy to have found, to create this piece. I was extremely satisfied with the outcome and hope to use it as an example of my work moving forward.
The class this week taught me that fundraising and development does not have to be a daunting task, and in the right context, can be quite enjoyable. With such a necessity for this kind of work, I gained a new respect for the art of creating emotion and obtaining monetary value from it. I will not be working in this field, as it is not my cup of tea, but I feel great about my new stance on the subject.
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