The Philanthropy Alternative

The following article gives you some background on philanthropic funding. Sections include:

• The Benefits of Asking
• Strategic Education
• The Potential of Philanthropy

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The Benefits of Asking

Finding alternative funding sources, apart from Government, can help add extra dimensions to services, give greater room for big picture thinking, and through diversity in funding reduces dependence on a few funding decisions.

Finding the time and space to search for funding can be a daunting task. We are often so busy focusing on providing services that it's hard to look up. Sometimes there are psychological barriers when we are looking for funding, especially when looking at formalised arrangements such as significant sponsorship or donations.

Asking for philanthropic funding itself can provide benefits, such as community education, and the impact of some strategic funding in an area that Government won't fund can be of great benefit to your organisation. If your organisation is already managing some government funding you already have skills in managing highly complex arrangements and have already done a lot of the work necessary to look for independent sources of resources.

Strategic Education

Some of us have more palatable community sector work than others and get more attention and interest; some causes are viewed more favourably by the public. Consistently and articulately approaching businesses for support can be seen as an awareness raising effort - similar to lobbying of government to recognise and fund issues. In order to ask businesses for support we need to educate them and this kind of strategic education can have a ripple down effect.

Often issues go unrecognised through ignorance or despair, so the community sector plays a role in educating people and helping them be part of solutions. We might not always be successful in changing people's perceptions, but there will be successes and through them the community sector starts educating, and well as building our resources and resilience.

The Potential of Philanthropy

According to the S-COMM Australia, in their Australasian Sponsorship Marketing Association Sponsorship Outlook 2006, 60% of sponsorship in Australia is directed towards sport. It also identified that one of the problems for sponsorship was the crowding of branding which took away from the impact of sponsorship.

"Cause-related" sponsorship was identified as one of the strongest growth opportunities for sponsors, as providing the best value for money and being supportive and cooperative partners. The survey looked at significant corporate sponsors, however it also indicates that the community sector can have strong appeal and provides excellent value for money because of our unique qualities.


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