Tuesday, July 18, 1995
Director of Development's Report
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Challenge Campaign
------------------
The campaign got underway on June 16 and will culminate on August 26. When 
members login they receive an e-mail message (once only) from the Director 
of Development. A special area has been created in the Funding Area ("go 
challenge") with information about the Challenge Fund, lists of Challenge 
Fund donors, a graph to display donations to date and, very important, an 
online VISA donation option. The graph can also be seen on the login screen.

>From June 16 to July 18, the campaign received $32,234 in donations from 
members. We are well on our way to reaching the $50,000 target...NCF will 
then be able to claim a matching grant of $50,000 from the RMOC.

NCF regularly receives two types of cash donations from individuals. The 
first and largest type is the "registration donations" that people send in 
when they register to join FreeNet. These donations are tracked online each 
week. The second type is "subsequent donations" -- amounts received from 
people who are already members of NCF -- these are still not tracked 
separately, but it should be possible to compute them from available 
financial information.

Regular donations are lower in June than in May. Perhaps the most important 
reason is that FreeNet registrations decreased by 31% from 3,368 in May to 
2,320 in June (a difference of 1,048 online registrations). Furthermore, 
"subsequent donations" are being coded to the Challenge Fund..and in fact, 
all members are being encouraged to earmark such contributions to the Fund 
when they send them in.

The Great FreeNet On-Line Auction
---------------------------------
The Auction, although delayed by several months, is now scheduled to open 
for browsing on July 22nd. The committee is doing a great job soliciting new 
items for the block..we anticipate this one will be as successful as last 
year's.

Merchandising
-------------
Apparently, Survival Guide sales are going rather slowly. Here are 3 things 
that have been done recently to encourage more sales:

* More frequent login screen "connection sponsorship" messages for the 
Boutique touting the Survival Guide
* a donation has been secured from Monitor magazine for a 1/3 page ad
* a "contra" arrangement reached with CKCU will give NCF free radio ads for 
the Guide starting in July

Mike Anderson plans to set up media interviews to promote the Guide. A 
monthly draw among donors with the prize(s) being a copy of the Guide us 
currently under consideration.

Fundraising Ideas Committee
---------------------------
At the last Development Committee meeting, an "ideas sub-committee" was 
struck to assist in prioritizing fundraising project ideas...the committee 
will also help to plan the top priority projects. Steve Morrison (bd577), 
Donna Shaw (aq652) and Michelle Dean (ac676) have taken on the committee's 
first task of preparing a report with recommendations on the subject of 
"Personalized IDs".

Volunteers Recognized as Donors
-------------------------------
The first step has been taken to realize this element of the 1995 
Development Plan starting with a listing of NCF's "Air Show" volunteers in 
the "Individual Supporters" section of the Funding Area. Other volunteer 
recognition lists will be put up when they are ready.

Government and Foundation Grants Update
---------------------------------------
The Community Foundation of Ottawa-Carleton has awarded NCF a grant of 
$3,000 conditional upon  creation of a "community calendar" on NCF where 
non-profit groups can list their upcoming fundraising events. The Calendar 
service will assist local charities and non-profits in co-ordinating their 
campaigns, galas, etc. to avoid needless scheduling conflicts.

FreeNet Connection Program 
--------------------------
Renewal cheques are arriving slowly. 
Three new Sponsors signed on recently - 
 - National Transportation Agency
 - Scouts Canada
 - CASLIS - a division of the Canadian Library Association

Nominations
-----------
The Development Office has encouraged the nominating committee to look to 
the corporate sector for Board recruitment and has put forward several names 
for consideration by the committee.


                       Have you met the Challenge?
  Our community needs our support. Type "go challenge"...we can do it!
Gordon Pearson (au167), Director of Development, National Capital FreeNet