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Double a Donor’s Impact with a Challenge Grant

We recently worked with one lucky school district in Hudson, New York that is fortunate enough to have an endowment fund with $200,000 specifically for arts and humanities in their district!  While their fortune was based on both luck and profound generosity, it teaches us all the lesson to think out of the box when it comes to raising funds for our performing arts programs.

The district’s amazing stroke of luck was to have the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation offer a challenge grant to their community.  If the community could raise $100,000 through donations for programs in the arts and humanities, the Foundation would match it and secure the Hudson Schools’ Arts and Humanities Fund for many years to come.

We love the concept of securing a challenge grant as a way to motivate donors and double their impact.  While this school district in New York was able to do it on a grand scale, any amount would help.  For example, imagine if one of your student’s parents worked at a law firm or other professional office that could fulfill its own philanthropic goals by offering a $5000 matching grant.  Wouldn’t that make it easier to go out and solicit other donations to raise $10,000 for performing arts in your schools?

If those numbers still seem unrealistic for your community, take it down another notch.  No matter what, the company offering the challenge grants gets loads of positive publicity, thanks in part to press releases you can write and distribute on their behalf.  And again, your potential donors will be more motivated to be generous knowing that even a small contribution is doubled.  A challenge grant builds community as everyone pitches in to do their share to make sure the goal is reached and the extra funding is awarded.

We encourage you to give your entire community the opportunity to stand strongly behind their school by giving a gift that serves as a vote of confidence in the power of the arts and humanities to transform students’ lives for the better.

Here are three great links to websites with information on available grants:

• ArtsEveryDay.org:  Inspire students, enhance learning
• Grant Wrangler:  Find funding fast for K-12 schools
• GrantsAlert.com:  A great website to search for education grants and identify new funding opportunities for organizations, schools, districts and state education agencies.

These two links are for group funding — a funding platform where you submit your proposal online and receive donations and pledges:

• DonorsChoose.org
• Kickstarter