The blog:
Get ready for the interview with sponsors through a city game

When thinking about how to introduce this web platform and let youth leaders practice the interview with possible sponsors during the conference, we came up with an idea of a city game. Mixing the city walk full of fun tasks related to the city’s hidden gems (in the USE-IT style, of course) with tasks related to their fundraising preparations proved to be a very efficient and entertaining experience. We are bringing an overview of the funding related exercises together with a photo report from the actual game. You can find here the links for the full game that you can play once you are in Prague or an inspiration for your own city game.

Article outline:

The story

Welcome to the game! Congratulations! Are you excited?

Imagine that now you are… Shawn from Edinburgh!

Last autumn you traveled to Paris and discovered USE-IT maps which you found super useful and pretty. For Christmas you traveled to Wroclaw, found their map and discovered the USE-IT network. You love your home city and you want to be committed to make one for your city.

We’ll help you with the next steps!

These words introduced the whole game. All conference participants were divided in 9 groups with about 5 people in a team and were sent to 3 Prague neighborhoods: Karlín, Holešovice and Žižkov, each time with a different main character. For this article, we chose Shawn.

So, Shawn, you are still alone and you desperately need team members to make your own USE-IT map. Where to look for them? You can select multiple options.

  • you ask your friends and friends of friends
  • you put an advertisement on a local volunteering platform
  • you create a social media profile, put an ad there and invite your friends to follow
  • look for schools that deal with tourism in your city and ask teacher to spread the word
  • you put your ad on the wall of the art school

Correct answer? “All of them!” Sometimes it takes time to find the right people, so it is really worth looking everywhere.

Teamwork and motivation

Congratulations! You now have Scott and Mary on your team! There is a good practice of what to do in your new team to ensure stability and getting to know each other.

Complete the sentence based on Arnhem’s experience.

  • “Our research” section
  • Report of the group 5 – cities that were interviewed after their first successful edition
  • Story 1: Motivation and teamwork

Complete the sentence :

“At the beginning when they met on a sunny terrace, they all wrote down on post-its why they wanted to start a project and what were their …”

Correct answer? “Expectations!” Looking back at the team members’ motivations can help in difficult moments of the project timespan. Losing drive? Remind yourself why you started!

The power of networking

Ask the local what is his favorite spot in the neighborhood.

Now that you broke the ice, ask if they know someone from the City Hall, maybe? A local tip might help you!

This task brought an encounter with a local (played by one of Prague team volunteers) who accidentally happened to know the guy from the tourism office. The local revealed that this man really likes the color red and is very jealous of the city Blackpool. And Blackpool happened to have its own USE-IT map years ago which is a fact presented in a booklet showing all USE-IT cities from the past. It would be very handy to bring it all: the prototype of the map cover, the map of Blackpool and the booklet, for a meeting with this possible sponsor. 

The teams got very creative at this point with drawing their cover.

Building a budget

Now it is time to think about your budget! How many maps will you need to print?

Look together at the FUND-IT platform. Look at the research map. Choose a city that has similar parameters as yours (reminder : Edinburgh, around 500 000 inhabitants). Get inspired by the amount they printed.

Which city did you choose? How many maps did they print?

So you have an estimated number of maps! Woohoo! Well done, Shawn!

Time to work with the paper budget from your envelope (or this link).

  • Look together at the FUND-IT platform
  • “Our toolkit” section
  • Find an example of budget in “The perfect funder guidebook”

Find out what is your ideal final sum.

Fill in the items and approximate price, then take a picture of your paper.

Project planning

Put the activities for map making in order.

Sort them out according to when they start during the process.

  • Graphic design
  • Editor-in-chief’s layout check-up + your corrections + USE-IT Europe approval
  • Research places + text writing + editing + language check-up
  • Editor-in-chief’s text check-up + your corrections
  • Fundraising
  • Print + launch party + distribution

Correct answer? “Fundraising is a start!” Here is the right order.

  • Fundraising
  • Research places + text writing + editing + language check-up
  • Editor-in-chief’s text check-up + your corrections
  • Graphic design
  • Editor-in-chief’s layout check-up + your corrections + USE-IT Europe approval
  • Print + launch party + distribution

Now, Shawn, your sponsors want to know when the map is going to be finished.

You have to create a plan and again use a paper template from the envelope (or this link).

Hint : in Tbilisi, they prepared a very clear Gantt-Chart to get inspired to know which phases you shouldn’t forget. On the FUND-IT platform, check the research map or the database

Working with a predefined simple table made it easy for teams to figure out a semi-professionally looking plan. For the real presentation it is advised to do some Canva magic to make it look exquisite.

Prepare to answer difficult questions

Get ready for the meeting with your sponsor that is getting closer. We have heard that your sponsor is pretty skeptical. It might be helpful to watch some videos on the platform to get ready.

  • Look together at the FUND-IT platform
  • “Our toolkit” section
  • Find the videos related to skepticism 

Secret tip : look at the very end of the Timeline on the FUND-IT platform . It might become handy towards the end of your appointment with the City Hall representatives 🙂

Videos “from the other side” would help too. At the end of the game the teams really met with sponsors (played again by Prague volunteers) and had to show their grit and well prepared materials. All of them succeeded and got their projects covered during this meeting. The money was represented by shiny golden balloons. When they did not forget to invit the sponsor for a release party, they even got a promise to fund another edition!

The game taught the participants how to use the FUND-IT platform and also offered a local experience with many local culture and cuisine gems. Look at this tasty local treat!

If you happen to be in Prague and have no plans for your afternoon, feel free to enjoy the full version of the game!

Straight to the tools

You know what you need?
No time to waste…
Access directly our toolkit right here!

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