Resurgam was formed in December 2024 as an Illinois not-for-profit (NFP) corporation. Soon after that, the directors addressed our next pressing needs: applying to the Internal Revenue Service for 501(c)(3) status as a tax-exempt charitable organization, and developing our website. 

Those activities were baseline foundational. Resurgam had to become a tax-exempt corporation to qualify for private and public funding opportunities. We also needed a website to nail down our mission amongst ourselves, explain it to the public, and share it with prospective donors. 

Our deep and solid foundations were set by spring. Development is following apace.

In April 2025, Resurgam joined Forefront — the Illinois membership association representing grant-seekers and grant-makers in the not-for-profit sector, as well as their advisors and partners. Operating since 1974, Forefront helps to organize, educate, connect and enable charitable innovators.

Early in our membership, we participated in online education presented by Forefront and a peer organization with a complementary agenda: Candid Learning. Informative, action-oriented webinars helped prime us for the approaching and formidable tasks of fundraising.

While that was going on, we earned a Platinum Seal of Transparency from Candid, a mark of trust and integrity in not-for-profit enterprise.

During the summer of 2025, Resurgam selected George Moore Interactive LLC as its first enterprise partner. Full disclosure: I am Executive Director of Resurgam and chief cook and bottle-washer of GMi.

We reviewed several GMi proposals for advancing the missions of both organizations and selected one that’s a good fit with our program of Digital Curation:

Digital Curation (DC) locates, organizes, scans, transcribes, edits, annotates, illustrates, and preserves the meaningful and influential contents of aesthetic legacies. Legacies prioritized by Resurgam are literary, artistic and musical from antiquity to the twentieth century. DC is foundational to more advanced programs supported by Resurgam.

(You can find descriptions of all four Resurgam programs by clicking the Seal of Transparency in the footer of our website.)

With one selected proposal in mind, Resurgam was now ready to seek the help of Forefront librarians. They are knowledgeable, highly-skilled and experienced masters of the information universe, in particular the not-for-profit galaxy where Resurgam’s star is twinkling.

I met for an hour with Christina Caputo, the Knowledge Services Manager at Forefront. We discussed the origins and aims of Resurgam in general, and deliberately drilled down to the specifics of Digital Curation as our initial fundraising objective. We discussed what Resurgam wants to accomplish, how to go about it, what difference it could make, and what it will cost.

I cannot overpraise Christina’s razor-sharp insight and understanding, her quick wit and empathy. Talking with her about Resurgam’s fundraising agenda was like meeting with a white-glove consultant at the top of her game: informative, pragmatic, encouraging, inspired.

Christina and her colleagues, equipped with the vast data resources of the Foundation Library, took just a few days to produce Forefront’s guidance for Resurgam’s fundraising campaign, mostly in spreadsheet format.

It was a detailed survey of grant-makers and historical grants relevant to arts, culture, digital collections, archives, and literature. 

Propective funders included larger national foundations, smaller regional foundations, and donor-advised funds (DAFs). Many of the highlighted historical grants were focused on digitization, preservation, access, and cultural heritage: the full monty of Resurgam’s specific aim. 

Forefront identified 272 unique grant-makers who are qualified to support Resurgam, based on their declared mission, financial resources, and track record in philanthropy. These 272 prospects were cited in 525 different cases reflecting different facets of their profiles.

Resurgam’s next job is to study Forefront’s copious data and shortlist donor prospects that seem to offer a good fit with our aims in Digital Curation. We want to partner not just with anybody, but with organizations who understand what we’re doing, and are institutional stakeholders in our desired outcomes. 

We’re going to “shake the box” for direct funders who are set up to receive tailored proposals focused on digitization, preservation, and cultural exchange (especially between the United States and Ireland). 

We’ll develop outreach strategies for donor-advised funds by engaging with individuals, boards, and donor networks. 

We’ll highlight Resurgam’s unique position as a cultural bridge between Chicago and Dublin, and as a flagship project for digital literary legacies. 

We’ll try out a phased funding strategy: seed support from regional funders, major initiatives with national and global organizations.

At every step of the way, we’ll revert to our white-glove Forefront librarians with followup questions, including who and how to contact at each organization of interest. 

Will we apply to 200+ grant-makers for donations? We will not! However, it is likely that the top 20 — according to objective criteria — will hear from us.

If you are a grant-maker or even an advocate of digitization, preservation, access, and cultural heritage, I urge you to follow Resurgam; moreover get in touch for some not-for-profit networking. 

If you’re a grant-seeker whose mission aligns with Resurgam, we’d like to know who you are, what you’re working on, and what kinds of help you’re going to need to fulfill your aspirations. 

Kickstarting a literary legacy is a monumental task. Why not do it together?

— Bob Becker (25 September 2025)

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