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cles (program directors, doctors, researchers, etc.), asking for
support for the bike trip. The main objective of the trip was
to raise money to help improve the lives of children infected
with HIV and AIDS, and thus, It’s for the Kids was born.
From there, It’s for the Kids grew rapidly into not only a
volunteer program that sends college students to local hos
pitals to cheer up sick children, but a dedicated fund-raising
organization that also sponsors outings, holiday activities,
and a pen pal program. Initial donations of approximately
$6,000 supported the volunteer efforts, and when Sobhani
and friends completed the cross-country bike trip, the group
had raised nearly $70,000, above and beyond the trip costs.
think creatively
Andree Cazabon knows it takes ingenuity to find funding
for a creative endeavor. Her dream was to create a docudra
ma that centered on the unsent letters her father wrote to
her during the two years she was a drug addict living on the
streets of Ottawa, Toronto, and Montreal. Unlike other
movies that focus on an addict’s road to recovery,
Cazabon’s 25-minute film looks at the struggles a family
faces when one member is an addict. But the 26-year-old
aspiring filmmaker faced many fund-raising obstacles sim
ply because her experimental film was hard to sell on paper.
Without a film credit or money to get started (she was in
film school at the time), Cazabon and a photographer
friend used photographs to present the vision for the film
to potential sponsors. They set up scenes, then arranged the
photos in a book as if they were actual movie stills. “It was
like a film on paper,” Cazabon says. “We put pictures of me
as a kid next to a street scene, along with a little bit of the
letters in my father’s handwriting.” She says the book was
more effective (and far cheaper) than an amateur video that
could never represent the quality she sought for her film.
When she approached potential sponsors, Cazabon showed
them the book, her proposal for sponsorship, and a folder
containing a mock movie poster. She attributes this inge
nuity to two courses she took, one in marketing and one in
small-business management.
Nevertheless, the fact that Cazabon eventually secured
funding from the Rotary Club of Toronto had more to do
with pluck than with grades or talent. “I believed that this
film would benefit others, and that gave me the cockiness to
sell others on it,” she says. Indeed, the Rotary Club was
struck by Cazabon’s passion, enthusiasm, and eloquence,
and when she least expected it, they provided her with
$65,000, enough to make her film, entitled Letters to a Street
Child. The films budget was tight, but the Rotarians helped
whenever possible, securing donations of props and shoot
locations that would have cost thousands of dollars.
express enthusiasm
Despite the good intentions of people and organizations,
securing donations is no easy task, and the job is even more
difficult if you’re young. Like it or not, projectpreneurs
must be resourceful about developing credibility. “We
needed clout,” says Sobhani, “and we needed it early
because the first thing people said was, ‘How old are you?’”
Sobhani learned that expressing his enthusiasm for the
project could help him overcome the ageism. After submit
ting more than 700 grant applications to no avail, Sobhani
sent an impassioned letter to a contact he had been given at
the Stargazer Foundation (an organization that provides
entrepreneurial grants) detailing his frustrations over the
ageism he’d experienced, his desire to help children, and his
explicit plan and budget for the bike trip. “We were fighting
two battles at once,” he says, “one against AIDS and one
against the misperception of our generation.” Less than a
week after Sobhani faxed the letter to the CEO of the
Stargazer Foundation, It’s for the Kids received a $20,000
grant. The difference? “For six months we had been looking
for money based on a medical cause,” says Sobhani. “But
the one thing we didn’t realize was that we should have
approached people who support entrepreneurs, who sup
port ideas.”
To further establish his credibility, Sobhani started a
board of advisors that included professors and prominent
members of the medical community. As his contacts grew,
the list of advisors read like a who’s who of D.C. and pro
vided Sobhani an important entry to other funding sources.
Equally important, says Sobhani, advisors can give you
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