Searching for funding for digital media projects is like a romantic quest. In a quest, a hero has a vision for a better world and sets off to achieve it knowing that there are many pitfalls along the way, and knowing that many back in the village assume the quest will fail. Along the journey, the quest defi nes itself and the vision changes, improving itself into something better and more needed. In the end, the hero is transformed by the quest in ways unforeseen. So it is with the quest for funding: the journey will change the idea, and it will change the person who had the idea.

Unlike a romantic quest, however, the quest for funding for digital media projects offers no magic rings or arrows. Those reading this expecting it will provide the names and phone numbers of wealthy donors and foundations that are dying to give them money may be surprised by the actual content of this article. But if that is what they think, then this is the right article for them, so they should keep reading. The article will help them with their romantic life, too.

On this quest, there is no magic arrow. The arrow is an insight into the process. Then we can all talk about our successes and frustrations. We often come to the problem of fi nding resources in the following way: “Here is what I want to do … now who will give me the money to do it?” This approach will only work by accident.

Think about yourself. How would you react if some stranger called you or rang your doorbell, told you about some crazy idea, and then asked you for a check? You might give $5. But this is what we usually do when seeking grants, or gifts, or earmarks, or capital bonds. We suffer from “anonymous grant” syndrome. We did too! We fi nd an RFP, write a grant or case statement in isolation, send it out, then hope and pray

This leads to an “apply and retreat” strategy. Not being funded leads to discouragement and resignation, and we do not learn from failure, which is, after all, the best way to learn.

The heart of success is relationships. This is true not just of grants, or gifts, or earmarks, but it is also true of life. So, what defi nes a good relationship?

Generally speaking, it is:

• Listening;
• Mutual concern;
• Shared values; and
• Genuine affection.

In a good relationship, the focus should not be:
“What do I want, and what can you do to help me get it?”
… but rather …
“What do YOU want, and what can I do to help you get it?”

When Ball State went after $20 million from the Lilly Endowment, it studied their pattern of giving, met with their leadership and listened, used Ball State students to tell the story, went through a period of “courtship,” and moved progressively toward an ask, which was refi ned and further refi ned.

What Lilly wanted was apparently not what Ball State wanted, or was it? What they cared most about was brain drain and building Indianaʼs national reputation in high technology industries. Those concerns could just as easily result in funding for Biotech, Genomics, or Info Tech, and indeed it did just that. So, Ball State needed to frame its desires in terms of Lillyʼs desires, to show how the match would uniquely help each fulfi ll its goals. Ball State offered to help Lilly do what it wanted to do, by promising to create more jobs in Indiana, retain more graduates, focus on content, and get Indiana a reputation in digital content. What made it successful was that Ball State found the point where its interests and Lillyʼs interests overlapped.…which is just like we would do in any relationship.

In order to build the relationship, though, digital media programs need to be attractive. In our discussion at the iDMAa 2004 conference, we tried to defi ne what the major selling points are for digital media. In discussion, a group of roughly 80 university professors and professionals felt the following attributes were all salient to digital mediaʼs attractiveness to potential funding sources:

1. Accessibility and commonness;
2. The tool-oriented focus of digital media provides a “hook” for brand-name partnerships;
3. Digital media fit well into the context of liberal arts education and contemporary learning and pedagogy;
4. Students are profoundly interested in it, so attracting them is easy, and it makes other aspects of their learning more engaging;
5. The interdisciplinary nature of digital media makes it appealing to many fields;
6. The possibility for innovative digital research, which creates the possibility for developing new digital research centers;
7. Its ubiquity;
8. It points to the future and has “cutting edge” appeal;
9. Digital media content appeals to a broad audience;
10. The implications of convergence for the media industry;
11. The relationships between content and effects.

There was a sense in the discussion that narrative storytelling forms the heart of digital media, and therefore the heart of the funding relationship. But, it is diffi cult to focus on aesthetics, narrative, and ethics in an environment so focused on the technology and the tools. There was a sense that technology should not be the focus, so there is a need for developing new manifestations of the media.

Community development needs emerged in the discussion as an excellent opportunity for partnerships. Equipment, expertise, and funding are community needs as well as academic needs, and the ability to locate synergies is signifi cant. This might, for example, lead to Title 3 funding that targets the under-funded or underprivileged, and also meshes with the global need for individual talent. This means that there is a need for a revolution focused more on creativity than on employment, coupled with a quicker response from academy to create faster change. There was broad agreement that humanists need to be in charge of the revolution.

These ideas do not constitute a magic arrow for this quest. It requires patience, practice, and sincerity, but the arrow will eventually hit the target. With all the anxiety, with all the fear of rejection, the awkwardness of getting to know each other, dating can still be fun – the romance of expectations. When on a quest, patience, practice, and sincerity are the dispositions necessary to reach the Holy Grail.

Article Authors

Mat Rappaport

Mat Rappaport University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

Scott Robert Olson

Dr. Scott Robert Olson is President of Winona State University in Winona, Minnesota. He has published two books, 30 book chapters, and 22 journal articles in publications in the United States, Canada, China, Korea, Poland, Russia, and India. He has delivered over 100 papers at conferences in Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Korea, Poland, Taiwan, and the United States. Through a $20 million gift from the Lilly Endowment, Dr. Olson helped create the Center for Media Design and the Global Media Network at Ball State University, which won a national award from the American Council on Education. He won an Emmy Award and a Cine Golden Eagle Award in 2004 as executive producer of a documentary film about digital learning. His Ph.D. is from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He grew up in suburban Minneapolis.