Minutes:Fundraising Committee Meeting Minutes 20190507

Agenda for Fundraising Committee 05-07-2019

Chair: Mel

Old Business

Update from Steve on online fundraising research

In Steve's folder on the i3 fileshare he has a collection of grants he found

We should move the files from the fileshare to somewhere that everyone could see them (Wiki? GDrive?)

Some are matching, some just give you money

Also some places like to give equipment (DigiKey)

A lot are focused on education for children

NAME conference - Met a guy who knew about NOVA labs getting $$$ from Google for lab updates

Mel: We should be looking into "passive philanthropy" systems - make sure we're covering all of them

Mel: We should do more vocational stuff (good crossover between education and what we do ) grants for that?

Vivian and Leora on grant writing class

Vivian checked the calendar for the grant writing class is in the next week or two

Lew can bring someone who is experienced in grant writing to the next fundraising meeting or to teach a standalone grant writing class

Mel would like to go too

Mel MEDC

Next steps are to send out a message to the membership list to get volunteers to help crowdfunding

MEDC program runs 60 days, it should include MakerFaire, but where should MakerFaire fall in the schedule?

How much should we target? $10k-50k

Jan: Starting in Early July puts MakerFaire right in the middle will help us gauge how much we need to push at MakerFaire and in the second half

Lew: We should brainstorm creative ways to collect donations to the fundraiser

Plaques for the B-side wall levels of donation

We could do something like Kickstarter rewards for donors (this can be done through Patronocity) make stuff on the lasers or something

Action Item: Mel - Send out message to the membership before the board meeting requesting volunteers for organizing the MEDC project

New Business

Marketing/Fundraising

Having tables at local events to get our name out there and direct people to donate as part of fundraising

Lew: Will research events that would be a good fit for us to have tables and talk about the space

Craft Fair

James T. is interested in hosting a craft faire for crafters at i3 to sell wares and make some money for the space

Lew suggests charging table fees to guarantee i3 actually gets money which we won't get with percentages of sales

Mel: How can we get people to pay table fees if we can't guarantee people will be here?

Lew knows a guy who can help attract attendees to such an art fair

James' request is approved contingent on CoO issuance - Lew will work with him

Proposal:
Contingent on the CoO happening, authorize a craft show fundraiser to happen on B side sometime in the next couple months.
Moved by Mel, Seconded by Paul
7 Ayes / 0 Nays
Result: PASS

Other New Business

Lew: Can host a group photo shoot event on B-side as a fundraising event - needs to be done between issuing of CoO and when build-out happens

Vivian: The organization as a whole needs a mission statement

• We also need to get ourselves organized so when a donor approaches us we have all the pieces (mission statement, vision, how we allocate funds, etc.)
• It really comes down to the board to decide what the mission is etc.

Steve: That grant writing class will provide useful information so the board knows what the grant providers are looking for

Action Item: Mel - Get all ZCs to fill out their wishlists

We can support donations to the space at large or a zone specifically

Vivian: What are our next steps? If we're going to solicit members to help us we need to get that started before people get bogged down in their own projects for MakerFaire

Vivian: Spoke with a UofM professor interested in involving i3 more in the school of social work program (getting more students involved like last semester)

Action Item: Vivian - Talk to the board about creating a vision and mission statement

Meeting Metrics

• Time completed: 7:20?
• Attendees:
  1. Vivian
  2. Mel
  3. Steve N
  4. Jan
  5. Paul
  6. Lew
  7. Tanya
  8. Matt C

Action Item Summary

Action Item	POC
Get all ZCs to fill out their wishlists	Mel
Send out message to the membership before the board meeting requesting volunteers for organizing the MEDC project	Mel
Talk to the board about creating a vision and mission statement	Vivian

Proposal Summary

Proposal	Moved By	Seconded By	Aye	Nay	Result
Contingent on the CoO happening, authorize a craft show fundraiser to happen on B side sometime in the next couple months.	Mel	Paul	7	0	PASS

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