Tuesday, October 17, 1995
Director of Development's Report
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Development Committee - Information item
---------------------
The Development Committee meets regularly and plays a vital role in NCF's
fundraising efforts. Minutes of the last meeting are posted online. The next
meeting is on Tuesday, October 24.

Toss a Loonie in the Bin - Information item
------------------------
NCF's Hallowe'en/Loonie Bin party, co-ordinated by Andre Ouellette (bf766),
will be held on October 29th at Riley's Food & Fun Emporium. The event is
intended as a thank-you to volunteers and a modest fund-raiser. There is an
announcement online - Directors are urged to attend.

Monitor Magazine - Information item
----------------
Earlier this year, the Development Office initiated an arrangement with
Monitor magazine for free co-promotional coverage including ads and a
monthly NCF news column called "FreeBytes". I have taken over writing the
column now that Mike Anderson has left and have made some changes to the
format, including a permanent feature about "how to connect" to FreeNet.
It's a good read.

Outreach - Information item
--------
I have been invited to address the membership of the "Ottawa Fundraising
Executives" on October 24th about FreeNet's fundraising techniques. The
title of my talk is "Electronic Community Fundraising - the more things
change..." 

"Coming-of-Age" Reception - Information item
-------------------------
The Development Office proposed that a reception be held in early December
to celebrate several milestones and meet the following objectives:
* announce that NCF has reached the 50,000-member mark (projected to occur
in late November)
* announce recent equipment donations by Hardware Canada and Plaintree and
major software donations by Oracle and Fulcrum)
* honour our Key Partners, including Carleton University
* unveil NCF's new Donor Recognition Program

The Executive Director has approved the outline. NCF's newest Board Member,
Rebecca Last (as006), has agreed to take charge of this initiative,
tentatively scheduled for December 7th.

Donor Recognition Program - Information item
-------------------------
Please read the attached "Donor Recognition Program and creation of Gold Key
Circle". 

When asking Individuals to donate, NCF provides suggested donor levels but
offers no incentives to encourage people to give more generously. A basic,
easy-to-manage recognition scheme is an important step in fixing that and
attracting more money to NCF's coffers.

NCF's new Donor Recognition Program will also enhance the existing corporate
donor program.

Personalized IDs - Request for Approval
----------------
The Development Committee recommends that an option of "Personalized IDs"
(PIDs) be made available as part of NCF's Donor Recognition Program in
connection with contributions of volunteer work as well as financial donations. 

An updated summary is attached - last month's Executive Summary and the
original Report are posted online.

Web Pages - Request for comments
---------
This falls under the batting-around-ideas-with-Dave category in which Dave
Sutherland (aa001) pointed out that NCF's web page capabilities could be a
source of funding. 

NCF now offers WWW accessible "home pages" to members and IPs and will,
presumably, need to set a limit on the amount of space it will provide,
especially as awareness of this service and the demand for graphics content
increases.

Should NCF offer a basic amount of space for free but charge for additional
space? If NCF did offer additional space, the main beneficiaries would be
non-profit organizations who desire a web presence but cannot afford
commercial prices. By serving the low end of the market, NCF could fill a
niche without competing with commercial providers and could, in fact, act as
a springboard for groups who will eventually buy service from commercial
providers.

I recently received a price list from CultureNet, a non-profit organization
associated with the University of Calgary that received substantial seed
funding from CANARIE to serve Canada's performing arts community. CultureNet
offers "Publishing Information on CultureNet's WWW Server" at both
"commercial" and "non-profit" rates. The non-profit rate is $125 per year
for the "first page 50K" and $25 per page per year for additional pages. The
commercial rate is twice that. Individual artists are charged $10 for a
"single page".

If NCF is interested in this, it can be turned over to our Fundraising Ideas
Group for development.


             Our Community. Our FreeNet. Working together.
                     "go funding"  / "go helpers"
Gordon Pearson (au167), Director of Development, National Capital FreeNet