Asking People for Money: A Girl Scout Analogy

Do you get girl scouts selling cookies in your neighborhood? Are you happy to see them when that time rolls around? Maybe you are and maybe you're not, but you likely are comfortable with them checking to see if you want any cookies, even if it does threaten to ruin your healthy diet.

Now, imagine how you would feel if you started to get three or four sets of girl scouts knocking on your door trying to sell you cookies - how would you feel then? It would probably get annoying having to tell each set of girls that you already bought cookies from other scouts, and it might even lead you to swear off buying cookies altogether in hopes that a girl scout would never grace your doorway again.

I heard a colleague use this analogy today to describe why it was important for those faculty researchers looking for funding from individuals or local private foundations to work with the CU Foundation. Our foundation manages our relationships with donors and foundations in the area to make sure that we are not overwhelming them with requests for funding and are only putting projects in front of them that are a perfect match with their mission and goals, thus making it more likely that CU will be funded in some capacity.

Now, happily, when applying for grant funding from federal sponsors in response to an RFP or program announcement, any researcher from the University can usually respond. But, even though it is easier to ask directly for money from these sponsors, it would serve us well to still bear in mind the relationship and fit aspect that is crucial in asking individuals or local foundations for money.

You must understand what your sponsor wants and what their major goals are and then offer them a grant proposal that fulfills all of their dreams and some of yours. Now this may seem a little counter intuitive to what you thought you were trying to do - fund your project. As one faculty member said, partly in jest, "I don't want a lot, I just want everything!" Now, at ORDE, we want our faculty to have everything when it comes to funding their research, but we also realize that everything comes with time to those who are strategic...

Unfortunately, most faculty members do not have their own foundation whose purpose is to fund their research agenda. Therefore, researchers must take baby steps toward their goals. One must write grants that fulfill all of the needs of the sponsor and can further their own research agenda in a smaller way. Even though this can be frustrating, the good news is that in the funding world, money attracts money. As a researcher builds their research and funding portfolio, they show their current and future sponsors that they are worth investing in and can begin to move their work more and more in alignment with their own research goals and agenda. But, again, it takes some time to build rapport with any sort of donor, including federal sponsors.