Anybody out there know anything about how to put together a prospectus? We’re looking to create something that’s snazzy and eye-catching, but also friendly and informative, to send out to people who might want to give us money.

I’ve poked around a bit on the internet and found some vague descriptions of the structure of a prospectus, but my feeling is that no one is really doing quite the same thing that we’re trying to do. Most people who write prospectuses (prospecti?) are looking for venture capital, so they really do have a deal to make. We’re looking for investors, but they’re not going to get a monetary return on their investment - just involvement in a pretty cool project, and the ability to make a difference in the education of future theatre professionals.

Here’s what I’ve come up with so far, as it applies to what we’re doing:

3 Parts of a (typical) Prospectus:

• Description of the program - the way you ideally see it working; its mission.
• Bio - who the founders are; their experience and skills.
• The Deal - what you want from the investor; what they’ll get out of the deal.

How does this apply to us?

We’re thinking we’ll want a snazzy folder of some type, with various informational inserts that cover those three broad categories in a variety of ways. Here’s what we’ve got so far:

• Letter - thanking them for their interest in the Farm, and telling them what they’ll find in the folder
• Program Info - description of the concept behind the program and how we plan to implement it
• Facilities Info - description of the facilities we want to create, probably with some photos and sketches or plans
• Staff/Board Info - primarily bios on the people who are working with us now, but also a description of who we’ll be looking for to staff the program once we’ve raised the money to start
• Funding Info - how we plan to fund the program and facilities, along with different ways that they can give us their support (including non-monetary support, like involvement in what we’re doing and spreading the word about the project). We might want to split this one into two - one about our funding plans, and another about how to support the cause?

What should it look like?

The next step is to figure out the design of the thing - the closest thing I can come up with is something similar to the big folder of stuff that schools send to prospective students who they’re trying to attract. I know there are lots of prospective donor materials out there, though, so I’m going to ask around and see if I can get my hands on a few.

In the meantime, anyone have any thoughts? Other content we should be including? Interesting/fun ways to package it, to make us stand out? Any and all ideas are welcome!