Today’s guest is Brad Doherty, athletic director at Branson High School in Colo. In a small rural community with a dilapidated football field, Doherty launched a fundraising campaign for a new turf field in December. In just over three months, he has led an effort that has brought in $440,000. They plan to have a $540,000 project completed by the fall football season.

Doherty goes through all of the steps you need to take to get approval for a project like that as well as how his marketing efforts, grant applications and community outreach led to a viral fundraising campaign.

To check out the specifics of Branson’s fundraising effort, visit: https://bransonschooldistrict.com/football/

Doherty talks about:

Why his program needed a new field (3:00 )
What he had to do to get approval from the School Board (5:00 )
How a viral YouTube video caught the attention of the entire nation (7:00 )
A media and social media strategy that brought national attention to his program (9:00 )
How he met his goal of raising $450,000 in three months (13:00 )
The secret to applying for grants (17:00 )
How he pitted vendors against each other to bring the price down (22:00 )
How to create a sense of urgency for donors (27:30 )
Why the proposal should include benefits beyond football (33:00 )
How he put the kids to work to appeal to donors (35:00 )

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