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You are in trouble raising the funds for your participation in one or more of the laboratories at the Academy of Visionautics? This should not be an obstacle. We will help you to find sponsors.

The 10 steps for your successful fundraising project inspired by John Croft’s Power fundraising (Dragon Dreaming):

Step 1 – demand

Add your travel expenses to the cost of the laboratory your’ve chosen.

Step 2 – self-contribution

Saving money: Think about how much money you will save by not having your usual costs. What would you have spent on food at home? Can you sublet your apartment/room while you are away? If you travel by car, can you register at a car sharing agency?
Value: How much do you feel it is worth for you personally to take part in the laboratory? Is it an investment into your future or the future of your company? Or the key to a happier life? Or just a curiosity? According to where you see the value you might be ready to renounce on other expenses and give this course a higher priority in the list of your expenses (e.g. if you think it will be a key to a happier life it is easy to spend the money in the laboratory instead of an expensive holiday trip, or if you think it is a good investment into your professional career it is easier to spend the money on the course trusting you will have good chances to gain it back quickly supported by the benefits of the ).

Step 3 – sponsoring objective

Naturally, the difference of demand minus self-contribution is the sponsoring objective.

Step 4 – the first 30 sponsors

The sponsors who are willing to bear your costs will mostly be people who know and trust you. If you already have a vision/idea for a future project, the users/clients of your project will be possible sponsors, too. Also there might be other direct and indirect beneficiaries of your newly gained skills or your implemented project.

Make a list of those people and prioritize them. Who of the persons on your list would you like to deepen your relationship with? Fundraising is an excellent tool to do so. This also means better remove from the list those people/companies you don’t feel comfortable with to be in contact with. It is so much easier to fundraise when your heart can fully support you…
End up with a list of 30 persons. It is not important if these people are solvent or not. Imagine your sponsoring objective is the amount of 450€, i.e. an average of 15€ per person would already make you reach your target.

Step 5 – evaluate your sponsors

Now, note a certain amount of money next to each person on your list you estimate he/she would be willing to contribute. This amount should be reasonably large to make the person reflect upon their contribution. If it would be a too small amount of money, it may be seen as a cheap charity given quickly without any emotions. The effect of a deepened relationship will not be attained. Sum the 30 amounts up. If the sum does not meet your sponsoring objective, think about other people you might ask for support.

Step 6 – fundraising platforms

Actually you could even start now by arranging meetings with each of your candidates. But there are also powerful tools to simplify this work – fundraising platforms, e.g. betterplace.org or kickstarter.com or indiegogo.com .

There your successful fundraising efforts can be published and maybe you will be lucky and receive further support from strangers. Just set up your personal profile (in case you have not done that yet). Arrange a case/project where you state that your planned participation at the Visionautic laboratory requires sponsoring. Describe it that way that potential sponsors can easily understand the benefit they generate by supporting you. Ask your sponsors to donate via those platforms, that gives you the best possibility to track all donations and also encourages sponsors to add their share if they see that there is more support from other persons.  Furthermore, you have the chance to thank your sponsors in public.

Step 7 – personal approach

Make appointments with your sponsors. It is important that your conversation will take place in a calm setting and only between you and the sponsor. The reason is to make sure that the person asked does feel free to react according to his/her feelings and does not feel pushed and/or embarrassed to say no in front of other people. Even if it is only about 5€!

Be aware that you give the person in front of you a chance to contribute to something good. It can be a great and satisfying experience to support another person and to receive support from other people. It is not you begging. It is an eye-level contact. Both of you are contributing to a good cause – you because you take action and the other person because he/she supports you with money. Allow yourself and your sponsor this lovely experience.

Step 8 – advocates

As an in between step to a direct request for money you can also advertise for advocates, i.e. people who support your plan immaterially. To locate these persons is doubtlessly easier and does help at fundraising platforms to create trust. And who knows, maybe one of your advocates also finds that he or she would like to support your idea by a donation.

Step 9 – let us know

Let us know about your fundraising activities and send us the link to your fundraising platform entry. We can become your advocates and can relocate sponsors from our network/who contact us to your profile, so they can find a sponsoring project that corresponds with their values, interests, ideas and aims.

Step 10 – keep your sponsors updated

The sponsoring activity is not finished by having collected the money. Please let your sponsors know what has become out ouf your laboratory, of your new skills, of your project. They have invested in you as a person or in the idea you stand for. So be aware they are curious to know how the story is going on. Don’t consider this a bothersome duty but feel happy about the fact that there are people who bother what has become out of you and your project!