A Strategic Fundraising Guide for Youth-Serving Coalitions

A new pub­li­ca­tion gives com­mu­ni­ty coali­tions a road map to nav­i­gate the com­plex­i­ties of find­ing mon­ey for youth-serv­ing pro­grams. Tak­ing the Guess­work Out of Fund­ing Youth Pro­grams: The Evidence2Success Approach is the sec­ond action guide in the Guid­ing Col­lec­tive Change series. The guide builds on the shared mul­ti­year expe­ri­ences of six com­mu­ni­ties that used the strate­gic financ­ing process to fund their pri­or­i­ties for youth pro­gram­ming. Its authors include sev­er­al illu­mi­nat­ing case stud­ies and lessons from these com­mu­ni­ties as well as step-by-step advice to help com­mu­ni­ty coali­tions devel­op a long-term fund­ing strategy.

The Edna Ben­nett Pierce Pre­ven­tion Research Cen­ter at Penn State Uni­ver­si­ty devel­oped the action guide series with fund­ing from the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion. Each includes a short pre­view that can be down­loaded with the full guide.

Down­load the action guide

“The goal is to have local groups work in con­cert with sys­tem lead­ers to improve how pub­lic and pri­vate funds are used and dis­trib­uted across a com­mu­ni­ty, to best serve the young peo­ple in their neigh­bor­hoods,” said Amir François, a senior research asso­ciate at Casey who worked with Penn State researchers to pro­duce the guide.

Tak­ing the Guess­work Out of Fund­ing Youth Pro­grams details five key steps for bet­ter fund­ing of youth pro­gram­ming and the infra­struc­ture need­ed to imple­ment and sus­tain youth programs:

1. Set financ­ing goals.
2. Iden­ti­fy the finan­cial resources need­ed to implement.
3. Ana­lyze exist­ing pub­lic resources.
4. Select financ­ing strategies.
5. Devel­op a work plan.

The guide also dis­tills lessons from Evidence2Success^® coali­tions into four cru­cial pieces of advice for oth­er coali­tions under­tak­ing this work:

• Cul­ti­vate trust among part­ners and focus on build­ing rela­tion­ships. Being trans­par­ent about motives, goals, the process and the hard work need­ed was an impor­tant step in build­ing trust­ing relationships.
• Iden­ti­fy the right lead­ers and par­tic­i­pants to take part in plan­ning. Vision and atten­tion to detail were key attributes.
• An out­side financ­ing expert can play an impor­tant role. All six of the Evidence2Success com­mu­ni­ties worked close­ly with a finance coach.
• Adapt the strate­gic steps to meet local con­di­tions. Be flex­i­ble and respon­sive to such things as per­son­nel changes or new fund­ing opportunities.

“Orga­ni­za­tions work­ing togeth­er — in the same direc­tion — will cre­ate the syn­er­gy and momen­tum need­ed to imple­ment and improve pro­grams that pro­vide what young peo­ple need,” said François.

The Guid­ing Col­lec­tive Change series is based on the expe­ri­ences of com­mu­ni­ties imple­ment­ing Evidence2Success, a Casey Foun­da­tion frame­work that gives cities and coun­ties a road map for involv­ing com­mu­ni­ties in mak­ing smart invest­ments in evi­dence-based pro­grams. The first action guide, How Youth Sur­veys Guide Col­lec­tive Com­mu­ni­ty Invest­ment and Plan­ning: Ben­e­fits of Using Youth Data, explores using youth sur­veys to inform pro­gram devel­op­ment. Three more action guides will be released in the next year.

Learn more about the Casey’s Evi­dence-Based Prac­tice work