Youth organizations typically don’t have the budget to financially support their members to attend conferences, trainings, or embark on special projects. But individuals can often leverage their membership in an organization to acquire funding through outside sources.

Funding Sources

Event Sponsors

Organizations that put togetherr conferences and other events often have stipends available for young or low-income attendees. Discounted registration fees for students or mileage reimbursement may also be available. Don’t feel bad asking if assistance is available!

[[Campus Fundraising|Universities]]

• Look into existing grants or scholarships given by your school. These can take the form of travel stipends or research grants. Don’t let the term research fool you. Often a paper or summary report about your experience will meet the qualifications for these grants.
• Write letters to the head of your department, the heads of departments related to your trip, other high-level administrators, and even the president of the school! You never know who might take an interest in what you’re doing. Often, departments, colleges, or institutes within a university have a certain amount of discretionary funding that could be used for projects like yours.
• Talk to student organizations at your school. They might be willing to help you fundraise or know of a potential funding source.

Places of Employment

Young professionals may also find funding through their employer. If you work in a field related to the event you would like to attend, ask your employer whether it could count as a work-related trip. Even if the event is not directly related, see whether the skills you would gain could benefit your employer or improve your performance in any way. Many larger businesses and organizations budget for “professional development” expenses. Ramit Sethi, of IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com, has an excellent article about asking your employer for money called [[http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/archives/2006/10/perks-for-personal-development-at-work.html|Companies don’t care about money]].

Businesses

Some larger businesses have sponsorship or scholarship programs to assist people who want to do good works. Smaller businesses might also want to help out if they think it would mean good visibility for them.

Personal Networks

No one likes asking their friends and family for money, but if you’re doing something that is benefiting others, you could frame your request as fundraising for the people you are helping. The WorldTeach fundraising guide has a lot of creative ways to solicit funds from individuals.

How to Do It

Putting together a funding proposal:

• letter of acceptance or outline of event
• a description of what the event is, why you want to go, how you will benefit, and how the potential donor will benefit
• list of estimated expenses

Links:

[[http://www.worldteach.org/program_information/fundraising.html|WorldTeach.org]]: advice for their participants that could be used by anyone