Two Unusual Fund-Raising Efforts Win Grantsmanship Center Prizes

The Grantsmanship Center in Los Angeles has made awards to a poor people’s group and an elite diplomatic aid group in its first creative fund-raising projects competition.

The $1,000 first prize was won byu a neighborhood group tht “scratched and clawed its way toward a fund-raising goal” of $240,000 to save a cherished building in Cincinnati so it could be turned into a community center.

The Peaslee-for the People Project, organized by residents of an area where the average family income is just $6,000 per year, came up on their own with the $15,000 down payment in just a few days, according to Norton Kiritz, president of the Grantsmanship Center. Residents then put together a range of projects and foundation funding requests to raise the $225,000 balance.

The $500 second prize wit to Meridian House Interantional, which provides services to diplomats and foreign visitors, for holding a fundraising, birthday party for Babar, the children’s storybook elephant. The event was orgaized by a volunteer “tusk force.”

Kiritz, whose organization has trained more that 25,000 people in fund raising and nonprofit management skills since 1972, said the competition was begun “to bring to light various fund-raising experiences that could spark fresh ideas for those organizations whose funding efforts need help.” The projects are described in detail in the latest issue of the Grantsmanship Center News.