Horicon Marsh Visitor Center: A Fundraising Success Story

Tuesday, January 26, 2016 4:23 PM by Taylor Studios in Inspiration and Client Success Stories


Oftentimes, when Taylor Studios, Inc. designs exhibits for an interpretive center, we pause before finishing the fabrication and installation stages of said project. There are many reasons for pausing, i.e., the building is not finished, the schedule was pushed back for an assortment of reasons, etc. However, the most prominent reason for a pause is a lack of funds. Fundraising, for one reason or another has not lived up to expectations or is slower than anticipated.

A recent design/build project of ours, the Horicon Marsh Education and Visitor Center, had very little trouble finding fundraising resources. And Taylor Studios wondered why. They are a very savvy management group, but is that a direct correlation to successful fundraising?

Recently, we reached out to Bret Owsley, Area Wildlife Supervisor at Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, who served as our main contact for the project. What could Bret share that may help people in the future when it comes to fundraising?

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Taylor Studios posed a series of questions to Bret; his responses follow.

How did you raise the funds for your new exhibit?

We provided people with the vision. We showed them in numerous ways what we were going to accomplish. This got people engaged; it made them feel excited to be a formative part of the project.

Our site is very fortunate to have people in our area that are passionate about what we do at our site. And when you get passionate people engaged in a project good things happen. This is our pattern: we do everything we can to keep people informed, involved, and engaged. We do this year round, not just when it is time to raise money.

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What does your foundation do that others may not?

I have not had a lot of experience with foundations, but I have been very pleased with our foundation. We have a mutually beneficial relationship based on respect and communication. They stay very connected to what we are doing and are a partner in more ways than a funder. They have a strong passion for what they are doing and do everything they can to accomplish their goals.

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How do you get your community involved?

We hold public meetings and use a variety of marketing approaches to make sure that the public knows what we are doing. I go back to our philosophy of constant and continual engagement. This continual engagement makes it a lot easier to call a “money person” once a year…for you spoke with them four times in the last six months.

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What is the best tip you could give others that are trying to raise funds for new exhibits?

Share your vision, communicate frequently, network, and continually discuss how all parties have the same goal: An engaging, educational, and unique exhibit.

There you have it. Words of wisdom from what Taylor Studios has experienced as one of the most successful fundraising experiences we have been involved in.


Do you have a successful or less than successful fundraising story you would like to share? We would love to hear more about this very important but sometimes difficult road to maneuver.

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