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2025 Capital Campaign Beginnings

Colet Allen
Latest posts by Colet Allen (see all)

Andrew Norwood, Development Director for the OSU Foundation, was the guest speaker at our JCMGA January Board Meeting.  After a 30-minute presentation on fundraising, he then followed by inviting us to lunch. Those of us who accepted his invitation were very pleased to get an hour and a half of his time to discuss fundraising for JCMGA- perfect timing, given the incoming of our next large project.

JCMGA has a huge capital project ahead of us. We opted to demolish the affectionately dubbed, “Creepy Old House” and replace it with a classroom, a tool shed and a Lathe house in that space. The capital campaign will also include funds for replacing the original greenhouse (Greenhouse 1).

After lunch, we went back to SOREC to begin reviewing the preliminary plans that will help us identify our scope of work, along with the project cost.

What Andrew provided us were several ideas (dos and don’ts) on how to secure funding, donations, and sponsors, along with ways to cut our building costs; thus lowering the total cost of the project. He also provided answers to questions of where to find these various resources. Some of his ideas were:

  1. Possibly utilizing an OSU engineering student to create drawings as a class project, thus reducing the cost of getting the drawings done. Grace indicated that she would help find someone at OSU we might talk to about this possibility.

  2. Finding a sponsor who would provide 25% of the cost with matching funds.

  3. Going to the sources of material suppliers for things like lumber, hardware, cement etc. We would start by sending a letter but then follow up with a phone call or, better yet, a personal visit.

  4. He also offered to review letters of request to make sure we were sending the correct message.

There is a lot of work to be done but the result of that work is something that we can pass on to future generations; something that Andrew is very interested in.  Andrew Norwood is a man who does not just talk about projects; he likes to dig in and get his hands dirty. He proposed an activity dear to his heart: he would donate a tree to us (we mentioned that it must be a native) and help us plant it. We welcome him back anytime. After he left, the energy and excitement of the people in the room was palpable. There is a lot of work ahead for us, but we now have some guidelines and an ally in Andrew.