The Soup Grant

This is not a good time to ask for money. We all know it. Times are tough and if you need to raise funds for your project, you better be creative.

Charity dinners as we know them , are over. Forget about the ladies in their long, dark dresses and the men in smoking jackets. Why not giving your fundraising campaign an “extreme makeover”?

Yes, crowd funding is amazing… if it is done in the right way. Much has been written about it. But what if fundraising was not just about raising money?

A new grassroots model helps people and organizations raise money and other resources to develop small to medium sized creative and social projects. It’s called The Soup Grant and it is a Chicago based initiative, which is rapidly taking over the old world.

The idea behind it is very simple: a group of people get together to share a meal at an affordable price and all the income from that meal is donated to support a creative project. The innovative thing is that while the guests  are pleasantly eating in a friendly environment, they get to vote which project should receive the grant. As a matter of fact grant applications are accepted up until the meal and anyone can decide to present their project to the rest of the guests

But money isn’t all you can get. These initiatives are great to spark dialogue, speak about your project and build a network of support and community around your organization.