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When seeking support from a funder or other potential partner, your agency's credibility has as much (or more) influence on your chances of gaining that support than the idea you are proposing. This is the observation of Roberta Bergman in her Exchange book, Not Just Small Change: Fund Development for Early Childhood Programs. Bergman advises...
"Your program must be credible in terms of what it does, whom it serves, and how it works; and it should have some solid accomplishments. All of this can be summarized in your credibility file — a collection of items that attest to how worthwhile your program is and how deserving it is of funding.
"Your credibility file should include articles about the agency or articles about trends and events in which you are quoted; letters from parents or other agencies or public figures, or experts in your field; printed programs from conferences at which you've presented; statistics on the people you serve; private comments from funding sources or licensing representatives or other community authorities; and requests from other organizations for your program's services, and the like.
"Another source of credibility consists of newspaper, magazine, and journal articles on any of the relevant issues you deal with.... When you use these articles, you are 'borrowing' the credibility of the source mentioned in the article...
"In addition, get together with your staff to brainstorm what you already have that attests to your credibility. Maybe it's the number of calls you get from the community inquiring about your services, the number of families on your waiting list, the number of volunteer hours dedicated to the program, thank-you notes from clients you've served or colleagues you've work with and so on. Think creatively and use whatever you've got."
For more information about Exchange's magazine, books, and other products pertaining to ECE, go to www.ccie.com.
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