Affording James

If you are working with a sizeable budget, affording James' speaker fees as well as the travel-related expenses will not be a problem. However, many of the organizations James performs for are non-profit groups that do not have big budgets; yet they have been able to afford this wonderful program. How?

Here are several suggestions for you to consider if you want The Youth Motivator for your next youth event, but don't have the budget:

1. Local hospitals. Make a phone call to the community relations or education department of your local hospitals. Many hospitals will be glad for the opportunity to support a presentation like James'. Some hospitals have funds for community education, or cancer education, or even specifically for tobacco education. They may be willing to bear the entire expense, or at least part of it.

Not only would this gets their name out into the community in a positive light, it may coincides with their mission! Make sure you remind the person you are talking with about these benefits. You might even offer to print a big Thank You to the hospital in the local paper, or in your conference materials, giving them lots of local exposure and advertising.

I really encourage you to try this: it's only a phone call away!

4. Local Foundations. Some groups have their own foundations: for example, 4-H has the 4-H Foundation, which is a good resource for funding a presentation like James'.

There are also plenty of community foundations, and here's one way to find them. The following may sound complicated in written description, but it's rather intuitively simple when you actually try it. And it's free.

How to Find Foundation Grant Money With
Just Six Clicks of Your Mouse

         1. Go to www.tgci.com (The Grantsmanship Center) and click on "Funding Sources."
          2. Click your state on the U.S. map. This will bring up a list of Local Funding Sources in your state.
          3. Click on the funding source that interests you (eg., Community Foundations, Corporate Giving Programs, etc.).
          4. Look over the list of foundations and find one that is in your geographical area. Click on that and you will get all the information relating to that foundation including their website URL.
          5. Click on the URL (or the line that says "Click Here To Visit The Foundation's Website").
          6. Once on the Foundation's website, look for the appropriate link for grants.

     As an example, for my own area I clicked New York state on the map, then clicked Community Foundations, and in the list that came up I saw "The Community Foundation of the Elmira-Corning Area," which is near my own town of Ithaca. Clicking on that link took me to an information page that said "Click Here to Visit the Foundation's Website." Once at the Foundation's site, I clicked on "Grants," and saw something called the "Royce Youth Fund." I clicked on that, and this is what it said:

"This fund supports youth activities and recreational programs for the youth of Schuyler County, New York."

It gave all the information necessary: application deadlines (accepted four times a year), address to send it to, and so on. This could be a potential source of income for any organization in my local area that wanted me to present, and it took me less than five minutes to find it!

If you can't find anything local, you can also use the this website to find a list of the top charitable foundations in your state.

5. Corporate Giving Programs. There are lots of corporations that have giving programs. The www.tgci.com website also lists these, but you have to pay a yearly fee to get the specific information. You can use their site to get a list of corporations with giving programs in your state, but if you are not a subscriber you will just get the corporation names and the city in which they are headquartered. You'll have to do further research yourself to find out where and whom to call within the company for further information.

Think about what companies within your own community might be interested in sponsoring, in whole or in part, James' presentation. The members of your own board might well belong to companies or associations that would be willing to contribute funds, especially in exchange for public acknowledgement.

     Don't say simply that you need money for a motivational speaker; say that you are looking for funds that will allow the teenagers of your group to experience a really unique presentation that is going to entertain them, educate them about [______], and amaze them in a way they will remember for a long time.

     Let them know what kind of work you are doing with youth, and how you believe reaching youth is an important way of insuring the future of the community. Let them know that your event, and James' appearance there, will help to build the goodwill of the community, and would they like to be a recognized part of that?

     You might want to have The Youth Motivator website open in front of you while talking with your prospect so you can search for answers to questions they might have. Also, you might wish to quote them some of the comments posted on the website by teachers, educators, and youth workers across America.

     Give them The Youth Motivator website URL and encourage them to take a look for themselves.

     Find out how they prefer to receive further information: would they like you to email it to them? If so, be sure to include a link to www.TheYouthMotivator.com within the body of your email.

     No matter whom you speak to, and regardless of their response, always ask if they know of any other organization, company, association, or foundation that might be interested in helping your group bring James to town.