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Raising money for an oral history project? It’s not nearly as exciting as planning the project, doing the interviews, and sharing them with audiences. However, unless you have a professional fund-raiser on staff, it’s a task you’ll need to take on.Approach it with the same energy and passion that you bring to every other aspect of the project.You need to be able to explain what you want to do and why it’s important to a funder who has many other requests.Why is your project more deserving than a summer soccer camp for children, a university lecture series , or a traditional music festival? And how will support for your project enhance the funder’s public image? Asking for money not only helps you figure out what a project is really going to cost but also makes you answer the key planning question:Who cares?Your goal is to convince people that your project will make the world (or, at least, your little corner of it) a better place—and then to pay for it.         If you can skip the paperwork and go straight to a funding source, do so. If you have a small project and need only a few  ChapterTen Funding By Donna M. DeBlasio and David H. Mould F hundred dollars, writing a grant may not be worth the effort. Do what every school or community organization does:Ask for contributions from local businesses, such as banks, realtors, lawyers, and insurance agencies, and community and professional clubs and organizations. Maybe other people involved in the project can each pledge to sign up two or three local sponsors . Maybe the mayor’s office has a discretionary fund for small projects.Appeal to community spirit—with some subtle prodding : “I just received $ from the law firm of Dolittle and Dally.They mentioned that your company was a client and suggested I contact you.” This approach may work when a funder sees direct benefits. It’s not too difficult to persuade a university alumni association that it’s a good idea to interview the class of  or to sell the idea of a documentary on the life-and-death experiences of firefighters to the city council. The potential problem comes with taking money from an organization that may want to dictate how the history is collected, edited, and presented.When oral historians Michael and Carrie Nobel Kline accepted a contract to do an oral history of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Huntingdon District, they were assured they would have freedom to talk to current and former Corps staffers and to explore all sides of the story, including congressional lobbying and community opposition to projects.Two years and more than sixty interviews later, just as their oral history was about to go to press, the Corps killed the project and told them to return the tapes. Did the Corps lose interest or have fears about the agency’s public image? Michael and Carrie may never know because the Corps claims their interviews are works made for hire and cannot be published without permission.They had worked hard to present a balanced history and cited the achievements of the Corps while giving voice to those who were angry that dams displace people. Doing oral history on a contract basis for a corporation, agency, or organization assures funding but has ethical pitfalls.  F  .    .     In most cases, you will need to write a grant proposal.An excellent free source of advice is the Grantsmanship Center, which provides a state-by-state listing of foundations and corporate giving programs and links to state governmentWeb sites where grants and bids are announced; links to federal government grants on the Federal Register (which is much easier than trying to navigate the Federal Register itself); and some international sources.There’s a useful listing of Web resources for funding organizations from theW.K.Kellogg Foundation.(Go to Grantseeking and GrantseekingTips.)These include the Foundation Center, which claims to maintain a comprehensive database on U.S. grantmakers and their grants. Some larger organizations seeking major grants subscribe to the Foundation Directory online . Several universities offer publicly available grant-finding aids—one of the best is from Michigan State University library . It lists grants for nonprofits by subject categories; grants for individuals; and links to federal funding sources, national, and international funders. Proposals come in all shapes, sizes, and lengths—from the short online proposal for corporate and community foundations to the...

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