Fundraising Report for June
===========================
(taken from updates made to the Development Committee)
By Gordon Pearson (au167)


1. Fundraising Events Community Calendar
----------------------------------------

I have written and installed the about file with FAQs explaining how to use
the Calendar. Ian Allen has vetted them and is in charge of making the
Calendar public.

A message is being written to be sent to all NCF IPs inviting them to start
using the calendar. I am drafting a news release that will be issued jointly
with the Community Foundation of Ottawa-Carleton announcing the launch of
this new service. The draft release will be given to the PRTF co-ordinator
for translation and distribution. I would suggest a target date of Tuesday
June 4th for distribution.

I requested release of the Foundation's grant of $3,000. The cheque has been
received in the NCF Office.

2. Corporate Sponsorship
------------------------

I met with the local manager of Microsoft. Microsoft is willing to donate
its NT operating system, web server software and a variety of web-related
tools to help NCF migrate to the Web. NCF's volunteers may find that an NT
environment is more user friendly than UNIX for some things. It would also
work well with the kinds of projects that Fulcrum wants to do with NCF.
However, NCF has not decided if it wants to go this route.

I also met with Digital Equipment (DEC) about becoming a key partner of
NCF's. They expressed interest in donating a DEC Alpha Server which could be
used in the Fulcrum "smart agenting" project. This involves beta-testing
Fulcrum's software as a front-end to DEC's Alta Vista search engine on a
separate server with more bandwidth. I have asked Lisa Donnelly to clarify
NCF's interest level in pursuing this project before going any further with
the equipment request or the request to an ISP for more bandwidth.

Ameridata has donated two modem racks containing 9 Microcom dual modem cards
(18 modems). The racks have a capacity of 16 cards (32 modems) each. I
intend to ask Microcom to donate the balance. The modems are supposed to be
14.4 kbps, but Roy says they appear to be 9600 baud. I'm awaiting
clarification from him.

3. Online Donor Drive
---------------------

The monthly draw was held and announced last week.

The donor drive has stalled at just under $30,000. I will post an
announcement formally closing the drive and NCF can prepare for another
one soon.

4. Miscellaneous
-----------------

a) Porthole Proposal:

I sent e-mail to Mike Zahab suggesting a simpler approach in order to get 
this arrangement off the ground on a trial basis.

b) Monthly Debits:

I informed the staff, Brett Delmage and Rebecca Last of the results of Donna
Shaw's survey. Donna's findings support the recommendation in the
Development Strategy (circa 1994-95) that members be allowed to opt for
automatic monthly withdrawals as a means of donating to NCF. While everyone
seems to agree that this is desirable, there is still concern about NCF's
ability to handle the extra administrative work involved -- the NCF database
does not allow for easy tracking or reporting of such donations.

c) Great FreeNet On-line Auction:

One of the strategies for promoting the auction is to secure the
participation of donors and others with Web sites where clickable NCF
hypertext links can be installed pointing to the auction FAQ, a short list
of featured items, and graphics of a few items. To test the waters, I
approached Ottawa Online Ventures with this proposal and they readily
agreed. It shouldn't be difficult to make similar arrangements with numerous
other sites.

--
	      **  Lisa K. Donnelly, Executive Director  **
     * National Capital FreeNet/Libertel de la Capitale nationale *
	       Telecommunities Canada, Board of Directors
	       (613) 241-9554 voice & fax (613) 241-2477