Fundraising for Accelerated Study for the PhD in Nursing: A Community Partnership

• An accelerated post-master’s PhD degree program in a 3-year timeline
• A community-based fundraising model of multiple donors
• A marketing strategy that shows return on investment
• Agreements/contracts for student obligations to teach 3-years upon graduation
• Impact of accelerated program over a 10 year period

This article describes fundraising strategies by a School of Nursing to support a post-master’s accelerated (3-year) PhD degree program. A sample proposal to solicit funds is included, as well as a contract that students sign before accepting the scholarship and agreeing to teach for 3 years or repay the money. The first campaign raised $2.3 million for ten students, and the second campaign raised $1.3 million for six students. One useful marketing strategy is to show the impact of an investment in educating ten doctoral students who will become faculty and teach 100 additional students per year, who will then become professionals caring for thousands of patients during their careers. Over a 10 year period, the impact of an accelerated program is enormous, with 660 students taught who in their lifetime will care for 2.4 million patients. The article also discusses motivation and mind sets for giving to promote success in fundraising.