A Strategic Fundraising Guide for Youth-Serving Coalitions

A new publication gives community coalitions a road map to navigate the complexities of finding money for youth-serving programs. Taking the Guesswork Out of Funding Youth Programs: The Evidence2Success Approach is the second in the Evidence2Success Action Guides series.
The Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center at Penn State University developed the report with funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The latest guide includes a short preview document that can be downloaded with the full guide.
“The goal is to have local groups work in concert with system leaders to improve how public and private funds are used and distributed across a community, to best serve the young people in their neighborhoods,” said Amir François, a senior research associate at Casey who worked with Penn State researchers to produce the guide.
Taking the Guesswork Out of Funding Youth Programs details five key steps for better funding of youth programming and the infrastructure needed to implement and sustain youth programs:
- Set financing goals.
- Identify the financial resources needed to implement.
- Analyze existing public resources.
- Select financing strategies.
- Develop a work plan.
The guide also distills lessons from Evidence2Success® coalitions into four crucial pieces of advice for other coalitions undertaking this work:
- Cultivate trust among partners and focus on building relationships. Being transparent about motives, goals, the process and the hard work needed was an important step in building trusting relationships.
- Identify the right leaders and participants to take part in planning. Vision and attention to detail were key attributes.
- An outside financing expert can play an important role. All six of the Evidence2Success communities worked closely with a finance coach.
- Adapt the strategic steps to meet local conditions. Be flexible and responsive to such things as personnel changes or new funding opportunities.
“Organizations working together — in the same direction — will create the synergy and momentum needed to implement and improve programs that provide what young people need,” said François.
The Evidence2Success Action Series
Taking the Guesswork Out of Funding Youth Programs is the second in a series of publications on collective change. Each part will examine a prevention practice used by communities to shift the way decisions are made about programs, resources and strategies that affect the well-being of youth and their families.
The full series also is available on the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center at Penn State website.