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Author Topic: Raising Money  (Read 34437 times)

Rafael Krasnodebski

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Raising Money
« on: July 23, 2012, 12:37:30 PM »

Any sound ideas out there to help raise the money needed to continue this research?

Corporate sponsorship is of course the most obvious and it looks like Ric and his colleagues have done a great job over the years, but can we help them further? The problems associated with getting corporate sponsorship in my mind are as follows:

Corporations are inundated with requests. What can TIGHAR do to make their's stand out from the crowd?

There has to be something 'in it' for them. Either cash, postive media recogntion or brand related pay-back. What's our 'value proposition' to the potential sponsor?

Corporations are risk averse, particularly in today's uncertain commercial world. They are reluctant to invest unless the chances of success are high. Perceived (rather than real) failure can have a negative brand effect. How can we mitigate that fear?

The issue in question (in this case AE's disappearance) has to be foremost in the public mind. If no one cares, neither will they. This is fine for now, but it needs to be kept there. How do we go about maintaing a high level of interest?

Even if one or two corporate key decision makers are positive, there will always be dissenting voices, so one needs to lobby as many key individuals in the sponsoring organization as possible (it's called 'multi-point selling') to get a positive response. To do this you need people with the right access. Have we got the resources to do this? (Hilary Clinton's pretty good, but the more the merrier).

The corporate first response to any request for funding is almost always 'no', but corporations can be ground down ... if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Have we got the resources, paid or voluntary, to do this?
 
Managing negative publicity: TIGHAR gets some pretty venomous criticism from various unfriendly quarters which can make current or potential sponsors nervous. TIGHAR needs to keep it's head and shoulders above the squabbling crowd by being (and being seen to be) a high quality, objective and responsive organization. Ric has been particulalry good at this, but it's all too easy to be dragged down to the level of others when under fire. We need checks and balances to guard against this.

Keeping these in mind we need a 'target list' of potential sponsors with names and key decision makers names and relationships we can focus on. So far all of Ric's sponsors are US based. That's patently the most obvious place to start given that this an American project looking for American heroes, but what about major foreign corporations, particularly those looking to penetrate the US market?

Over to you guys ....     
Raf
 
« Last Edit: July 23, 2012, 12:43:00 PM by Rafael Krasnodebski »
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Tom Swearengen

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Re: Raising Money
« Reply #1 on: July 23, 2012, 01:07:15 PM »

Hollywood? I know, I know. but they have $$$. Bieber---if he can rent the Staples center for diner and jet set around the world, then whas a coupld mil for publicity. Besides---he a Selena could go to Nike with out the paparrazi! ok bad example. John T does have a 707---Some have G5's. Hum----no runway to Niku.
Ok---Popcorn or cookie sales. NAAA  a pain. Ok---I'm out of ideas---
Tom Swearengen TIGHAR # 3297
 
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Rafael Krasnodebski

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Re: Raising Money
« Reply #2 on: July 23, 2012, 01:38:37 PM »

Holywood may belong to the nuttier ideas .. but film rights to the hypothesis must be worth something. It's one of the most romantic stories I've ever heard of ... it's a tragedy, a detective story, it's many things. The trouble is that Holywood doesn't care if it's true or not ... AE's dramatic take off with a drunken FN (I know he wasn't, but he will be in the movie), losing the antenna, a gruelling flight over the Pacific with dreadful navigation by a hungover FN (I know he wasn't, but he will be in the movie), botched radio contact with the poker playing crew in the radio room of the Itasca (I know they weren't, but they will be in the movie), then a dramatic landing on a Pacific island, desperate post-landing messages, a pretty little Shirley Templesque Betty listening in horror back in Florida, cut back to a marooned AE with a mortally injured FN, she buries him, learns to cook crabs whilst fighting them off, gasping with her last breath for help to an English gentleman officer (Bevington) who doesn't notice, the compact slips from her hand and she expires, lonely and dejected ... bones being discovered by a dashing British/Irish colonial officer ... they couldn't make it up ... but they'd twist it beyond all comprehension anyway. Still I'm sure Ric has copyright to the hypohesis (story in their parlance) via his book, so the film rights could help .... if you can stand what they'd do with it.
Raf
 
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Ted G Campbell

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Re: Raising Money
« Reply #3 on: July 23, 2012, 02:15:01 PM »

All,

Regarding fund raising ideas;

Let’s carefully go through all the artifacts that have been returned and identified from Niku.  For example the Cat’s Paw heel, the zipper, the bottle mfgr’s, etc..

Set up a presentation with responsible representatives of these various companies, that are still in business today, with the main objective of convincing them that without their products being found the fate of AE/FN will remain a mystery.  However, with their cooperation through financial support and the robustness of their products could very well lead to a solution.

Ted Campbell
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richie conroy

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Re: Raising Money
« Reply #4 on: July 23, 2012, 02:43:58 PM »

My own personal view on this is.

Tighar needs to go global with it's image.

One thing i have noticed is most of the member's are either from USA UK or Ireland

We need to create a portfolio, That is going to jump out and grab a person's attention when they read it.

Look at all these billionaires around the world, who are buying football clubs to advertise there products to 40,000 odd people a week.

We need to make them see if they help fund Tighar's search, and help solve one of the last great mystery s.

Their company would be brought to the attention of the world and the money that would bring in would be phenomenal

That's my opinion anyway  :)
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Rafael Krasnodebski

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Re: Raising Money
« Reply #5 on: July 23, 2012, 03:01:56 PM »

Another corporate issue that just crossed my mind: Even if you find a generous corporate sponsor, the price of sponsorship may be too high. Often, a sponsoring corporation will insist on taking control of "their investment". This, I'm sure is too high a price for Ric to pay and I wouldn't be at all surprised if he hasn't turned down offers like this in the past. Indeed, I suspect some of the venomous personal comments we hear from 'rivals' are precisely because TIGHAR was not up for sale. Again, this is a matter of integrity and should be "marketed" from the outset as part of TIGHAR's fundraising policy.
Raf
 
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Rafael Krasnodebski

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Re: Raising Money
« Reply #6 on: July 23, 2012, 03:43:39 PM »

... and going back to the idea of targeting foreign companies who would like to enter or boost their presence in the US market. I would target the middle to larger end of the foreign middle market. Companies seeking a US presence with a turnover of around $100 to $500 million who can't justify the huge costs of a nationwide market splash campaign in the US, but are looking for alternative ways of demonstrating their presence in the North American market. You wouldn't get millions from each of them, but if each contributed in the tens of thousands, I'm sure it would be welcome. Of course you'd have to vet each company carefully before you took their money, but that's not hard to do if they are listed corporations. The critics will, I'm sure be onto you like a shot for using foreign money for such a patriotic pursuit, but that just needs to be handled with a genuine display of respect and integrity. The good thing about targeting this sort of company is that they are unlikely to ask for unreasonable control over your work in return. Why not start with the Canadians, Brits, Australians, New Zealanders and Irish. Easy to talk to and easy to vet?
Raf
 
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Chris Johnson

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Re: Raising Money
« Reply #7 on: July 23, 2012, 03:58:29 PM »


One thing i have noticed is most of the member's are either from USA UK or Ireland


How many Brits (scouse and holders of a british passport but not want to be known as british) ?

Lets put it another way, how many non US residents have gone on Niku expeditions?
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richie conroy

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Re: Raising Money
« Reply #8 on: July 23, 2012, 04:54:52 PM »


One thing i have noticed is most of the member's are either from USA UK or Ireland


How many Brits (scouse and holders of a british passport but not want to be known as british) ?

Lets put it another way, how many non US residents have gone on Niku expeditions?

I tried looking at members list to get an idea but i couldn't find it, So at a guess about 15 different nationalities have been involved in the Niku expeditions.

Like i said if i could of viewed member list i would have provided a more correct amount   :)
We are an echo of the past


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Ted G Campbell

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Re: Raising Money
« Reply #9 on: July 23, 2012, 07:14:52 PM »

All,

To add to my earlier post re getting more coporate spnoncers:

Cat's Paw heels - Biltrite Corp.
Lighter - Ronson Co
Aircraft Skin - Alcoa Aluminum
Window Glass - Rohm and Haas
Zipper - Talon Co
Lotion - Campana (now) Dow Chem
Glass Jar - Owens Corning ( now Dow Chem)

Get these companies in the same room and give a D.C. type presentation and I'll bet they will all sign on to some form of sponcership to get thier name out there.

Ted Campbell
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Rafael Krasnodebski

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Re: Raising Money
« Reply #10 on: July 24, 2012, 10:19:18 AM »

Got to be worth a try ...  :)
Raf
 
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Dave McDaniel

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Re: Raising Money
« Reply #11 on: July 24, 2012, 10:21:14 AM »

This just in,"Lost at sea: Hunt for Earhart's plane abandoned"

Dave, I fixed the link and put it in the text above.  Doc

I hate sesational and misleading headlines like this. It would appear, according to the headline, not the URL, that TIGHAR has given up on the 23 year project. I will give FOX credit for being generally accurate in the main body of the story, thanks to Pat. But the headline sucks and is detrimental to the cause of any fund raising or sponsor gathering efforts as most won't read past the headline. We need to keep our mission in the public forum to attract attention and funding to it if we ever intend to return to Niku.

Maybe I'm being over-sensitive to the ill effects of such a headline and I know it happens every day in any news item. And I'm sure I'll get over it. However, I don't think that a response by TIGHAR to FOX news regaurding the conflicting headline would be out of order or considered nit-picking. Little details like this add up. People remember and believe a headline. Not so much when it comes to the facts.

My appologies for not being able to post the link above. I guess I need remedial training!

LTM, ( Who hates B.S.)   
Dave
« Last Edit: July 24, 2012, 11:09:28 AM by Bob Lanz »
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Rafael Krasnodebski

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Re: Raising Money
« Reply #12 on: July 24, 2012, 10:37:20 AM »

Typical huh? But who was it that said "Any publicity is good publicity"?
Raf
 
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Tom Swearengen

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Re: Raising Money
« Reply #13 on: July 24, 2012, 02:38:31 PM »

Dave. its the kind of reporting that the general public reads. Headlines only, no body. The quotes from Pat appeared basically the same in all the reports I saw. But the headlines are what gives the impression that all is lost. FAR FROM IT! As I posted earlier, KOK i still at sea. The footage has yet to be extensively studied.
How many trips to the North Atlantic did Dr. Ballard make before he found the Titanic? See----people dont know.
Tom Swearengen TIGHAR # 3297
 
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