Fundraising at the Local Level

It is important for affiliates to know that fundraising at the local level can be accomplished. There are three sources of external funding:

• Federal grants
• Corporate funding
• Private and public foundations

The primary mission of foundations and corporations is to serve their local community.

All local affiliates are encouraged to contact their local pharmaceutical company representatives. Once the local representative is contacted, a follow-up letter should be sent formally requesting the grant. These companies normally expect permission to be allowed to set-up a display booth outside the educational activity being sponsored, or attend the dinner meeting being held. They should not interfere with topic or speaker selection. If they do make recommendations, you are not required to follow them.

Most funding requests should be made early in the year, as much of the monies designated for educational programs are exhausted by the last quarter of the year. Educational grants can also be used to support other affiliate activities such as a publishing a newsletter, sending mailings, and printing of brochures.

Another excellent resource is The Foundation Center. The Foundation Center is an independent nonprofit information clearinghouse. The Center's mission is to foster public understanding of the foundation field by collecting, organizing, analyzing, and disseminating information on foundations, corporate giving, and related subjects. The audiences that access the Center's resources include grant seekers, grant makers, researchers, policymakers, the media, and the general public. For more information, log on to: www.fdncenter.org. The site is very easy to use and contains tremendous amounts of information.