Fundraising Strategy
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How we get to one million dollars
The land is ours, free and clear. The design is approved. What stands between this chapter and a finished building at 609 East Magnolia is a funding plan that does not rely on asking the same men for the same amount one more time. Here is that plan, in full.
Given by 206 brothers across the life of this effort, with 58 percent participation among the men currently in our database. That is a strong base. It is not, on its own, a building.
Owned outright by the Housing Corporation. No mortgage, no lien, no ground lease.
Concept package complete. Natural Features Inventory approval TNF260011 cleared by the City.
Every gift goes directly to a 501(c)(3). EIN 82-4713817.
What the million dollars buys
A working community facility, not a clubhouse. A large event and assembly hall with a full commercial kitchen. A heritage room telling the story of Black Tallahassee and of the students who have moved through this neighborhood for most of a century. Upstairs, furnished rooms housing FAMU students on scholarship terms, so that staying enrolled does not come down to a rent payment. Outside, a covered veranda, preserved green space along the creek, and parking for roughly thirty cars, which anyone who has tried to host anything on this side of town knows is the detail that decides whether an event happens at all.
One million dollars is the campaign goal. It is not a construction estimate, because no construction estimate exists yet. Producing one is the first item on the work plan below, and every dollar figure on this page gets re‑based against it when it lands. We would rather publish that openly than publish a number we cannot defend.
The gift pyramid
Capital campaigns are not won by volume. They are won at the top. Roughly two thirds of this goal comes from seventeen gifts. The remaining third comes from the widest possible participation. Both halves are necessary and neither one substitutes for the other.
Read the pyramid from the top down. Until the first three rows are committed, the rows below them cannot close the gap no matter how hard they are worked.
Where the top of the pyramid comes from
The largest single gift in fifteen years of records is $12,483. The second is $6,712. Only five men in the entire file have given more than $4,500. A schedule that opens at $250,000 is asking twenty times what anyone in this base has ever done.
That tells us two things. The first is that nobody has been asked properly at that level, and a base that has never been asked above $12,000 has never shown its ceiling. The second is that the lead gifts will not come from the alumni list alone.
Public and institutional funding we intend to pursue
Each of the programs below runs on an application, a review cycle and a competitive or discretionary award. None of them is committed, none is promised, and the campaign is not built on the assumption that any single one lands. What we owe this chapter is to be fully positioned for every one of them: eligible, documented, and in the room when decisions get made. That is a body of work in itself, and it is underway.
Florida Community Contribution Tax Credit
State Local Funding Initiative Request
Tallahassee CRA New Construction Assistance Program
Blueprint economic development request
Florida Community Loan Fund
Regional and national foundations
Private lead gifts
Alongside the applications, and independent of them, there is real capacity we have never approached properly.
Individual major donors
Families
Corporate and program sponsors
Tap any item to expand.
Line recognition
Asking one brother for $40,000 is a hard conversation. Asking a line of fifteen to name a room together is roughly $890 a year each over three years. Same room, same money, entirely different conversation.
Fall 2000 has already given $17,954 as a line without being organized. Spring 2005 has given $9,511 with 84 percent of the line participating. Every line in every era is eligible, from the Purple Excursion of 1974 forward. Line gifts also count toward each man’s individual recognition.
Line Wall
The line name permanently installed on the Line Wall in the Heritage Room.
Full Line Roll
Every man on the line listed by name, whether or not he personally gave.
Line Naming Rights
The line may name any available space at or above its recommended minimum, up to what the line raised.
Swipe or use the arrows.
Captain your line
One captain per line, recruited by name, because nobody works a line like a man on it. A short monthly check in, a contact list, and a public standings board so every line can see where it sits. No fundraising experience required.
Sign up to captain my line
Or write to us directly at1932@uppsiforever.com
When the Mailchimp Line Captains signup form is live, this block can be swapped for its embed code.
Naming opportunities
Twenty three named spaces. Each figure below is a recommended minimum gift, not a fixed price. Naming is explicit: a space is claimed by a single gift or pledge committed to that space in writing, and lifetime aggregate giving does not accumulate toward it. The amounts are set against the campaign goal rather than against construction cost, since no cost estimate exists yet, and they will be re‑based when the estimate lands. Any agreement signed before a revaluation is honored at its original amount, in writing, with no exceptions.
The Facility
The building itself, exterior signage and all campaign materials.
1 availableEvent and Assembly Hall
The main rentable room and the most used space in the building.
1 availableHeritage Room
The museum space. Reserved for individual or family naming only, no corporate naming.
1 availableScholarship Residence
The student housing floor, four rooms at deeply subsidized rent.
1 availableThe Green
The outdoor gathering lawn.
1 availableKitchen
Full commercial kitchen serving the hall.
1 availableGrand Stair
1 availableConservation Grove
The only space that can honestly be named in perpetuity. The preserved floodplain sits under a recorded conservation easement and can never be built on.
1 availableFraternity Room
1 availableLobby
4 spaces at this levelMuseum Mezzanine
4 spaces at this levelCovered Veranda
4 spaces at this levelTerrace
4 spaces at this levelBoardroom
1 availableResident Suite
Four separate suites available.
4 availableChapter Office
1 availableParking Court
1 availableSite Entry and Monument
1 availableResident Commons
1 availableCatering Pantry
1 availableElevator
1 availableFlagpole and Marker
1 availableRestroom
2 availableSwipe or use the arrows. Twenty three named spaces in total.
Naming terms, stated plainly
The floodplain fill question has been tentatively resolved, so the site plan and the spaces below are stable enough to commit against. Because that resolution is tentative and the design is still at concept, every agreement retains a substitution clause in case a space changes or moves. Pledges may run up to five years. Every naming gift is documented in a written agreement signed by the donor and two officers, and names a specific space and amount rather than drawing on a donor’s aggregate record. The name is announced at signing, and physical signage is installed at the later of 50 percent received or certificate of occupancy. Naming runs for the life of the space as built rather than in perpetuity. Corporate naming is available on most spaces at twenty year terms, name only and no logos, and is not available on the Heritage Room, the Line Wall or the Conservation Grove.
Recognition
Recognition levels are calculated on lifetime aggregate giving, not on a single gift, and not only on gifts made after today. Eleven men on our rolls already qualify for one of the top levels based on giving they have already done. Naming rights work differently and are not aggregate. A named space requires an explicit gift or pledge at or above its recommended minimum, committed to that space in writing.
Brothers and individual donors
Donor Scroll
Name included on the permanent donor scroll.
Perpetual Plaque
Donor scroll, plus name on the perpetual plaque.
Individual Plaque
An individual plaque bearing the donor’s name.
Upgraded Plaque
An upgraded individual plaque bearing the donor’s name.
Swipe or use the arrows.
Commemorative bricks are purchased separately and are not part of this schedule. Recognition levels are fixed, but placement and installation are subject to the wall space available and to Board approval.
Tribute and memorial giving
Tentative. The levels below are under consideration and are not yet open for commitment.
Named Seat
A named seat in the event and assembly hall.
Engraved Paver
An engraved paver set into the walk.
Family or Line Paver
A larger paver carrying a family name or a line.
Grove Tree
A tree planted in the Conservation Grove.
Bench
A named bench on the grounds.
Heritage Room Display Case
A named display case in the Heritage Room.
Swipe or use the arrows.
The work plan
Raising money is one workstream. These are the others, and they run in parallel rather than waiting in line behind the campaign.
1Produce a construction cost estimate
2Confirm the floodplain resolution and finish the site engineering
3Build the five year operating projection
4Re‑open the CRA conversation and open the lender conversation
5File the state Local Funding Initiative Request
6Apply as a Community Contribution Tax Credit sponsor, then run corporate asks
7Recruit line captains and stand up the membership program
8Quiet phase, then public launch at homecoming
Tap any step to expand.
Where you come in
If you can give, give. If you can organize your line, that is worth more than any single check you could write. If you know a company, a commissioner or a foundation that belongs on the list above, that introduction is the most valuable thing you have.
Talk about naming or a line gift
Or write to us directly at1932@uppsiforever.com
Upsilon Psi Housing Corporation, Incorporated is a 501(c)(3) organization, EIN 82-4713817. All gifts are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law and you will receive a written acknowledgment for every gift. Recommended minimum gifts for named spaces are provisional pending a construction cost estimate, and all naming is subject to approval by the Board of Directors. Public and institutional funding programs referenced on this page are application based and no award is committed. See the donor scroll for everyone who has already given.