Guest Speaker- Marlon Wright

Marlon Wright came to speak to our class on Wednesday, February 8 and told us a little more about his role as the Associate Director of Development at the School of Kinesiology, which houses our Sport Management degree. Marlon shared a little about his background and tips about fundraising in an academic setting. Marlon spoke to our class about multiple aspects of his role, and fundraising as a whole, in particular, I think that his 5 stages of development were extremely helpful in terms of our fundraising process and goals for the project. The steps are as follows:

1. Identification - Finding and identifying potential donors for our foundation. It is important to find what connects possible donors to our cause.

2. Qualification - Are they interested in supporting your cause?

3. Cultivation – Learn what motivates the potential donor in his or her donations. Marlin stressed that this was an extremely important step, and was something that he told us to spend quite a bit of time doing.

4. Solicitation – Asking a potential donor for a donation.

5. Stewardship – Thanking donors for their donations, while showing tangible benefits and updates on their gift.

I think that all 5 of these steps will be key in trying to meet our fundraising goal of $3,000 to accompany the $10,000 learning by giving grant. If each person in our class can follow these 5 steps and secure donations, we should be able to attract donors for this current project and set up possible future donations to other learning by giving projects for the sport management program.