Training Session Focuses on Education Fundraising

Teachers, guidance counselors and administrators from nine Scioto County School districts, as well as representatives from the South Central Ohio Educational Services Center (SCOESC), participated in a daylong training session on fundraising Wednesday, sponsored by the Scioto Foundation at the Welcome Center, as part of the their commitment to University/College Access Network(UCAN). The session was one of several designed to assist school districts in creating "Road Maps" or plans to raise funds for the initial five-year period of the UCuAN program when schools can obtain up to $10,000 in matching funds per year from the Foundation where their scholarship endowments are established.

The UCAN Advisory Committee, composed of representatives from each UCAN school, was the first to witness a demonstration of a new centralized scholarship database by Andrew Dudas, PhD, of Miami University's Center for Public Management and Regional Affairs. Now ready to go on-line, the consolidated Web site provides a one-stop location for graduating seniors and their parents to search for scholarship opportunities locally, statewide and nationally. The county wide scholarship locator was created as one of four major objectives of the Scioto Foundation's UCAN plan.

"I've been a guidance counselor since 1985 and this is the most exciting thing I've seen since then," Myra Shields, from Portsmouth High School, said expressing the enthusiastic response of those who participated in the session.

Scioto Foundation Executive Director, Kim Cutlip gave the Advisory Committee a report on the matching grants given to the schools that established a scholarship endowment fund at the Foundation during the 2008-09 school year as part of the UCAN program. She also announced a UCAN communication plan that wil proclaim November "UCAN Awareness Month" with a kickoff reception planned for 11 a.m. Nov. 5 at the Scioto County courthouse. The events will include an official proclamation by the Scioto County Commissioners, along with a report back to the community on the progress of the UCAN project and comments by Scioto Foundation and SCOESC officials.

The rest of the day was devoted to an endowment training program conducted by consultant Diana Newman of the Columbus-based Benefactor Group. Title "Annual Fundraising and Special Event," the session agenda included segments on identifying annual fundraising trend, principles and techniques; working to develop an annual fundraising plan with strategies, tactics and timelines; understanding the role of special events and determining realistic goals; discussing steps in the special event planning process and analyzing and improving current special events.

The presenter also covered the topic of the legalities of fundraising and requirements for the IRS. During lunchtime the participants shared ideas about fundraising ideas and projects that worked for them during the past school year.

The Scioto Foundation's UCAN project was launched in the fall of 2008 with the vision that one day every student from SCioto County will have the financial resources to attend the college of university of his or her choice. Further information about the UCAN program may be obtained by phoning Mrs. Cutlip 354-4612