Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/fishing-for-dollars-in-philanthropic-waters/5011107/
Every child care director, at some point, has confronted the fact that parents (even well-off ones) just can't pay enough to support good child care services. The savvy director is always looking for new sources of funding and evaluating whether they're worth pursuing. If we could become a United Way agency, would the effort be worth it? What could we do as a fund raiser besides another bake sale? Is buying lottery tickets a good investment? Somewhere in this process, the idea of soliciting foundations comes up. Probably right after you hear that some national child care group just got a multi-million dollar grant from You-Name-It foundation, you think: "Why couldn't we do that?" This article is for you.First, let's be clear that foundations are not now (or ever) going to be the direct source of funding that solves the compensation-affordability problem. Foundations are not - and never will be - the main source of funding for any child care center's operation. The direct services or general operating expenses of any organization are almost never supported by philanthropy. The role that foundations play in a field is something like what ...