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Your networks and, increasingly, technology are important to
securing donations
This section outlines ways to attract donations both in terms of identifying potential donors and in terms of
making “the ask.” It looks also at some more recent mechanisms that involve more formal giving networks.
Giving is also being helped greatly by technology, notably the internet, social media, and crowd-resourcing
platforms. Since more and more people are spending more and more time online, it makes sense to try and reach
out to them via those channels.
A range of traditional avenues
There are a lot of practical ways for you to identify potential donors, the most common of which are outlined
in Table 3.9. People that use the assets are the most obvious source of donations — although not everyone is as
blessed with past users as Detroit PAL, which has created an Alumni Association 60 to re-engage alumni of the
Police Athletic League system from as far back as 1969, some quarter of a million people.
Not all neighborhoods have wealthy individuals. However, if yours does, you might consider asking around to
identify who the wealthy current and former residents are and who knows them well enough to make contact
and ask for support. In Detroit, an approach to rock musician Jack White saw him give $170,000 to baseball at
Clark Park, something he had enjoyed as a kid growing up in the neighborhood. 61
Figure 3.15: Got a connection to a generous celebrity? Detroit’s Clark Park has
Jack White
(source: Teresa Sedó/Flickr)
60
http://detroitpal.org/about/alumni-association/.
61
White has never formally acknowledged this, but others have identified him as the donor, see http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20090910/OPINION03/909100367.
99 | The New Barn-Raising