AAVSO Fundraising Report Mike Simonsen Fall 2008.

AAVSO Fundraising Report

Mike SimonsenFall 2008

The Plan• Reach out and touch our friends first• Council, past council members• Current donors• Past donors• General membership• New members• Data users• Friends and family - First pass 2008 done• Foundations - Baby steps• Corporate sponsors - In development

Set up recognition programs

• Annual benefactors list

• Establish club levels

• Recognize lifelong benefactors

• Set up appropriate mechanisms for sending timely thank you letters to donors

Argelander Society

• Wall of fame in the HQ lobby now has this portrait and plaque

• This will go a long way to keeping one of our most important donors, Tom Williams, happy.

• Update website• Simplify online giving form• Phone survey• Written donor survey• Publicize the case for support- through

newsletter articles, website • Create benefactor newsletter• ‘Inner Sanctum’ 3 issues published in 2008• Create a culture of fundraising awareness• Make the case for support

Donor Cultivation• Impressed on new members the need for

support• Impressed on current members the need for

support• Convinced several members to increase or

continue support in spite of plans not to• Modest increase in the number of sustaining

memberships to 132 from 127 • Secured a bequest to AAVSO for a minimum

of $20,000.00 through the mentor program

A Key to Future Fundraising Success

Education and Outreach

Mentor Program- 40 students, 30 mentors, dramatically increased activity, very successful

Writers Bureau- Now reaching potentially 9-10K readers each month, including the BAAVSS!

Speakers Bureau- 18 speakers, few talks given, new PPT for epsilon Aurigae to tie into IYA2009

VSA (formerly known as HOA)- online content ready, grants pending for porting software to Java

IYA 2009

• NSF grant submitted by Aaron for eps Aur $400,000.00

• A plan, B plan, C plan based on funding• I’ve identified several other foundations

who may fund parts of the plan• Ten star training program charts done• Observing manual in progress

Grants Submitted

• Ford Motor Foundation

• $35,000.00 for administration of the Writers Bureau

• American Honda

• $35,000.00 for Vstar software conversion

• Rockwell Automation

• $35,000.00 for Vstar software conversion

Potential programs that need to be developed to apply for grants

• Olin Eggen card archive • Finding archival visual observations at major observatories • Digitizing the old journal PEP observations of variable stars • Daytime telescope pilot system. Small telescope, neutral

density filter, CCD camera to look at bright stars• Chandra, XMM, Swift, etc. star tracker data • Palomar-Quest survey • Clearing house for amateur exoplanet observations • Clearing house for amateur spectroscopy observations • Research on availability of array detectors for NIR

observations; extension of our SSP-4 activity.

Corporate Sponsorship ProgramContributing

Affiliate$2,500-4,999

Annually

Supporting Affiliate

$5,000- 9,999Annually

Sustaining Affiliate$10,000-24,999

Annually

Partner Affiliate$25,000 and up

Annually

Service naming sponsor (The XYZ Co. Light Curve Generator)

X

Up to 3 additional busy traffic page listings

X X

Text listing in the footer of AAVSO email (discussion, photometry, MNF, etc.)

X X

Free registration to meetings

1 person 2 people 3 people

Listing in the Annual Report

X X X

Listing in the newsletter X X X

Subscription to the Journal

X X X X

Static home page listing, logo and link

X X X X

Progress Evaluation• Initial plan realized (see report from April 2008)• To Do List done except…• 2 Direct Mail Campaigns• Not cost effective without expanding the

mailing list considerably• Writers Bureau was not in the plan• IYA was not defined in the plan

The Numbers

• Predicted $88,000.00 with Margaret Doleman’s next 24K gift

• Unofficial goal was $100,000.00 first year• Total contributions- includes gifts, grants,

Amazon dollars and ‘sustaining’ memberships• $90,945.34• Without Margaret Doleman’s second 24K gift.