Managing Individual Tasks

Development and Fundraising

Identify the "what".

1.  What is the project supposed to achieve?

The Indiegogo account that I am managing is responsible for raising $2,950 in order for Visions to be able to fly in as many Undergraduate filmmakers as we can. The project of contacting sponsors is meant to receive sizable donations from corporate, local and private donors. The goal for this semester is to raise $500 for corporate donors.

2.  Who is the customer?

The particular customer that Visions is looking for to donate to our festival and conference would be people of all ages looking to support the arts (particularly film) at an Undergraduate level. The Indiegogo customers might be a more tech-savy, younger audience while the donor customers that we will be sending sponsorship packets to might be anywhere from grandparents who do philanthropy to large corporations to local businesses.

3.  What are the deliverables of the project?  (These are tangible and intangible.)

Tangible deliverables will be in the form of donations; whether that be cash donations, in-kind donations, or awards donations. Most of these sponsor donations will be coming via mail. The deliverables for the indiegogo will also be cash but sent electronically through PayPal. The customers who donate to Visions will also receive deliverables. Depending on the amount of money they donate on Indiegogo, they will receive certain perks as a Thank You for their support.

Identify the "how".

4.  What is the budget?

The budget for mailing out sponsorship packet for the fall semester will cost approximately $25.76. So for next semester, if we send out the same number of sponsorship packets as the fall then the expense will be $51.52 for the year. 

5.  How long will it take?

Once the process starts which should be this upcoming week, initial email contacts will be first. We have set aside one week to get personalized emails organized and sent out by each development/hospitality team member. Then we will move onto contacting local donors and small businesses in the Wilmington area the following week. Once mail-outs start, the sponsorship packets will take approximately 3-5 days to arrive. We plan on sending follow up emails and phone calls at a week's interval for each means of communication.

6.  What specific skills are needed?

Organizational skills are strongly needed. An excel spreadsheet was made with sponsor contact information, how we will contact them initial and follow up contact as well as who from the team is contacting that particular sponsor. It is a good way to keep track of how each person is contributing to the group and if they are keeping up with their work. There is also a calendar to remind everyone what work they will need to do for that week. 

7.  What special resources are needed?

Special resources that are needed for this project include Indiegogo and time. It is important to not fall behind on the schedule and become too overwhelmed to perform what needs to be done in a timely manner. The entire film festival and conference reflects on how much money, we as a staff, are able to raise. It is important to think about the big picture constantly when dealing with development.

8.  Who is working the project?  What is each person's job?

Zoe, Audra, Ally and I will be working this particular project for development which includes contacting various sponsors and following up with those sponsors. We don't just want their support, we want them to donate to Visions.

Me: managing and updating the indiegogo account, dividing work amongst the group, staying organized and making sure the group is following the calendar. I will also be in charge of mailing out the sponsorship packets and getting quotes for shipment.

Zoe, Audra and Ally: They will contact various donors with the hopes of them donating to the Visions Film Festival and Conference. They will follow up with each donor and be responsible for filling out the excel sheet for who they have contacted, how they have contacted, and how many times they have contacted. 

Ally and Zoe: will be organizing and planning the ending party for the Indiegogo campaign

Audra: she will be wrapping up any last Funday Mondays that we have planned for the semester.

9.  What is the schedule?

Below is a tentative schedule for the rest of the development schedule:

• Week of 11/11: Indiegogo goes live (updates daily/weekly), group personalizes e-mail letters and in-person delivery letters for their assigned donors. 
• E-mails will go out on Thursday (11/14)
• Contacting businesses in person will begin over the weekend (11/15-11/18)
• Week of 11/18: Group will personalized letters for mail-out (mainly corporate sponsors)
• Also 2nd contact for emails/in-person deliveries will go out later during the week to follow up with initial e-mail/contact (11/21 or 11/22)
• Week of 11/25: Group will do third contacts for initial e-mail and delivery customers and second contact for the mail-out contacts. 
• Week of 12/2: Final follow-ups will be made
• 12/4: Indiegogo party 
• Week of 12/9: at this point I hope we were super successful in receiving donations from corporate, local and private donors. Everyone put in a lot of effort to raise funds for the Visions Film Festival and Conference!
• 12/10: Myself, along with the rest of the development and hospitality team, will update the rest of the Visions staff on how we did with raising money from donors and sponsors.

Other considerations.

10.  What are the risks?  (Small vs. large impact, likely vs. unlikely)

The largest risk with the greatest impact would be that the development team does not raise enough money to fly in filmmakers and scholars. I would hope that is unlikely because I have not had any experience with raising large sums of money from corporate donors before. However, it is a risk that needs to be acknowledged. A specific example of an unlikely risk with a large impact is that a donor makes the check out to the wrong organization or that a sponsorship check gets lost in the mail. A large risk that is likely for this project might be that there is a delay in the mail-outs. This could be detrimental and push us behind schedule. A small impact that is likely to happen with this project would be if someone spilled coffee on one of the packets. We could easily reprint paper and get a new envelope if this were to happen. A small impact that is unlikely to happen would be if there was a typo in an email. This would be unlikely because the entire team will be proof reading sponsorship letters and emails. 

11.  How will you communicate with your team?

We all have each others phone numbers, e-mails, we can contact each other on facebook. If there is something that is not 100% we will utilize the to-do table requesting a specific duty that we need done from that person.

12.  How will you determine if the project is successful?

We will know if the project is successful if we reach our goal of raising $500 for the semester and approximately $2750 on Indiegogo after taxes are taken out.