View Single Post
Old 06-12-2007, 09:03 AM   #3
jennifer paige smith
 
jennifer paige smith's Avatar
Dojo: Confluence Aiki-Dojo / Santa Cruz Sword Club
Location: Santa Cruz
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 1,049
United_States
Offline
Re: Aiki-Grant Writing I

Quote:
Nick Hennecke wrote: View Post
Do you have any suggestions on where to start looking for available grants? I'm part of an Aikido group that is working on starting out on our own. Any advice/pointers you might have would be more than welcome. Though not impossible, it's harder to enter and blend when you don't know where your partner is. :-)

Thanks!

Nick
One piece of advice I would offer is to establish exactly which service to the community you know your dojo to provide. Do you do work with youth-at risk, dis-advantaged populations, drug or alcohol rehab? Can you provide evidence that your dojo and art contribute directly to the betterment of a distinct population? This is what you may want to drill on. After you figure it out, go to a organization that is interested in that service directly. Say, county mental health, and match your program to their current funding. In CA we recently got a huge windfall of mental health dollars because of a statewide proposition. So we've been matching our grants to meet that money.
Otherwise, it can look like people having a good time looking for someone to fund it.
Not to lecture you,cuz I'm not, but training for ourselves isn't service enough to ask for community dollars. Only when we are in full circle with the community can we expect to recieve anything appropriately. Otherwise we become self-serving. No bueno.
If you need more help, check back with Lynn or PM me and I'll se if I can help.
jen

Last edited by jennifer paige smith : 06-12-2007 at 09:15 AM.

Jennifer Paige Smith
Confluence Aikido Systems
  Reply With Quote