- Hello, I'm Barbara shuffler
and I'm a director of constituent strategies
at Baylor College of Medicine.
I should let you know that I'm also,
a graduate of The Shepherd School of Music
and I work professionally here in Houston as a violinist
in the Houston Ballet Organization,
for one I'm a member of that orchestra.
And I freelance pretty extensively
in other organizations as well.
So that being said, you may say,
"Well, how do you have the time to do all of that?
And I can say I don't sleep very much (chuckles)
but having worked in music
and when I started out after graduation,
I worked exclusively in music for a number of years.
I learned then the value of knowing about fundraising.
And I think each one of you looking at this video
probably already knows a good bit about it yourself.
So let's get started.
One of the first things that we were going to address is
where are good places to start looking
for grant opportunities?
And at this point, I might say
before you even start looking for grants,
you wanna make sure you are ready to pursue those grants.
And one of the things that I've counseled
many, many people have asked me about this before is
to look at your non-profit status opportunities.
Most of the grants in the United States,
and I would say most all of them require
that you have what is called 501c3 status.
And that's an IRS determination
that qualifies you as a non-profit.
Organizations that are going to be giving out money,
like to know that they're giving to a non-profit
so that that can satisfy requirements
that they have on their organization.
It really helps to have the status.
If you don't have it, you can also coordinate
with other organizations that do have it working with them.
I understand that this project navigating music careers
has been done in this way and done very well.
So that's one of your other options.
Places you can go to get non-profit status.
Well, it's good to consult with an attorney
and you'll be happy to know as I was
when I got non-profit status for my string quartet years
and years and years ago, I am an older person.
I went to the Texas attorneys for the arts
actually quite correctly it's called TALA or TALA Arts.
And another thing I'd like to point out is that
there'll be a bio for myself, posted on this website.
I'll have a URL for a fundraising raising site
that I developed that will have all of the links
to the organizations I mentioned in these video clips
so don't worry too much about that.
This volunteer organization includes CPAs and attorneys
who volunteer their time free of charge
to help artists of all types, visual artists,
musical artists, you name it, get whatever it is they need
to get their projects off the ground.
I availed myself of this 20 years ago
and recently advised several people of the organization,
which still thrives.
And they have enabled to obtain their non-profit status
through the organizations as well.
And it's wonderful.
It's free.
They guide you step-by-step.
Some of the attorneys are even willing to do a little
of the grant work themselves.
It just depends on who you speak to, but it's effective,
nevertheless, no matter who you talk to.
Once you have non-profit status or have devised a way
to have access to it, let's say,
then you need to look at your project.
You need to know what it is you're hoping to raise money for
and you need to know exactly what you're raising money for.
So it helps to have a history of your,
say for instance you're a string quartet.
You'd want a biography of your spring quartet, every member
about history of how you got your start
and have this written in a concise document.
It shouldn't be overly long.
I'd say one or two pages at most.
So you have your history,
you're ready to get off the ground.
Now you want to raise money for say a string quartet series.
And my group actually did this at one point.
So now you have a project in mind.
You need to develop something of a business plan.
And this is beginning to sound detailed
and maybe a little boring, but it is a necessary part
of getting your act together for getting a grant
and it's worth it in the end,
because once you've done this once,
you'll be ready to apply for any kind of grant.
You can also go to local businesses.
You'll just be in better shape for moving forward.
So having a business plan, a history of your organization
and a budget for your project will be absolutely necessary.