Organisations need on-going funding to make their programmes and activities sustainable, but how do you go about finding new sources of funding and what’s the best way to approach new donors? Also, can securing one bit of funding, like an AmplifyChange opportunity grant, be used to help leverage other larger funding? Our guests today share their experience, insights and tips to help make finding new sources easier and give your fundraising activities a boost. Host Halima Zaid talks to successful fundraisers, Jade Maina, Executive Director of the Trust for Indigenous Culture and Health (TICAH), Kenya, and Lucky Nwachukwu, advisor to the Youth Network for Community and Sustainable Development, Nigeria.
The three key things you will learn from this podcast are:
Halima Zaid: Good day, I am Halima Zaid, your host for this Amplify Change podcast. Welcome to our second part of finding new resources of funding. Today we are going to talk about money, with two interesting guests. We have Jade Maina from the Trust for Indigenous Culture and Health, also known as TICAH in Kenya, and Nwachukwu Kelechukwu (known as Lucky) from Nigeria.
Our first guest, Jade is the executive director of TICAH. She's highly skilled in resource mobilisation, organisational strategic planning and direction. She has over 10 years of experience as an activist and programme manager in sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Our second guest is, Nwachukwu Kelechukwu also known as Lucky. He's a lawyer and a feminist, with strong sexual reproductive health rights background. He previously worked for the Youth Network for Community and Sustainable Development in Nigeria, where he played a significant role in helping them to graduate from an Amplify Change opportunity grant to a strengthening grant. He currently works for Global Affairs Canada in Nigeria, supporting them on migration related matters. He also sits on the board of Youth Network for Community and Sustainable Development, as an advisor.
Welcome to both of you Jade and Lucky.
Halima: Jade, you've developed a fundraising strategy, which moved the organisation from being reliant on just one donor to having several. Why did you do that?
Jade Maina: The reason that we developed a fundraising strategy, is because we realised that the programmes that we were running were programmes that we had been running for a while now. And we had now known what worked well, and we had gotten to the place where we felt that it would be good for us to scale [up] and increase our impact and reach. Therefore, we felt that the best thing to do is to find more donors who were also interested in this kind of work and be able to fund us so that we could increase our reach. We do realise that being reliant on only one donor, places the organisation at a very precarious position. This is because sometimes donor funding, just like any other funding moves or shifts or sometimes it decreases or ends. And if an organisation is reliant on just one donor, this could have the organisation either, shut down part of its programming or shut down the organisation as a whole.
So, we feel that it's very important for an organisation, for its sustainability to be able to diversify funding. And this is why we looked into finding more donors who fund the same work.
Halima: Everyone always talks about self-reliance. What are the key elements of that new strategy and how successful was it?
Jade: So the key elements of a strategy, first of all, as we started looking at developing a fundraising strategy, we started by developing the TICAH strategy to begin with. We looked at our programmes and developed a three-year strategy that looked at where we are at now and where we want to be the next three years.
Therefore, TICAH has four programme areas and we looked at the four programme areas and looked at what we are doing now and, in each programme, said "How would we like to see that programme grow in? What else? If we had opportunities, would we want to walk in or expand in?" And we calculated how much that would be, and we looked at the funding that we have and the funding that we are either assured of, either getting renewals or having highly likelihood of renewals. And then we looked at the difference which informed us of what is sort of the funding gap. So, we looked at the funding gap in the strategy that we developed, to show us what gap there was in the second year, what gap there was in the third year and therefore sort of give us the fundraising targets amount for year two and year three in our three-year programme and whole organisation strategy.
So, the first part, I would say you need to know how much you need to be fundraising and what programme areas you want to go into in the next so and so a number of years. Some people do three-year strategy plans, some people do five-year strategy plans, so when you have a strategy plan, this is the one place that can advise where you want to go as an organisation and what funding gap you have.
Then after we had identified what the funding gap is, the other thing that the strategy has, is the current donors now. We have this on an Excel sheet that has say, donors currently now, those to whom we have secured grants, either one year grant or some grants at two years, some grants at three years. So we spread that across the three years and then those that are either likely to be renewed, we also show the percentage of likely over renewal and then we have a column that shows new donors that we are looking to reach out to and work with. So, then we have identified the donors that we would like to start having conversations with. Then we have sort of a tracking of different donors and what point of the conversation we are with them.
So the strategy has about three or different more strategies which includes the regular fundraising, which is proposal writing and sending to donors including institutional donors or individual donors. We have strategies that look at working with either, individual donors who give gifts to non-profits. We were looking also at other ways of fundraising that includes local fundraising. Currently, we are trying to look into the possibilities of fundraising within say corporate that are in Kenya and do give funds. So local fundraising is also a strategy that we have mapped out in our strategy. And then also a little bit of funding sometimes comes from revenue. For example, we have a calendar that we develop each year and give to our partners. So we're looking at maybe we could sell some of the calendars that would give us like a revenue income.
The other thing that the fundraising strategy has is also it shows of this different strategies that we have identified. Who in the organisation is responsible to move that forward? And that means that for example, if it's a writing proposals, who's in charge of making sure that we are looking in at least styles or at places where we can see calls for proposals, who's in charge of making sure that proposals are written and they go out and who's also following up with the different donors that we need to follow up with. So I would say that those are the different components that our strategy for fundraising has.
Halima: My question goes to Lucky, that Youth Network initially had an opportunity grant from AmplifyChange. How did the organisation choose that grant to position itself to get additional funding in the future and why you successful?
Lucky: That's a very important question, and to be incredibly honest, it's an area that many Kelechukwu youth-led organisations, I'm sure not only in Nigeria, but indeed across Africa and in the world are struggling with. In terms of having donors trust them enough to give them funding even when they do not have the required or pre-requisite capacity or infrastructure. So AmplifyChange, looked beyond our inadequacies at the moment and they decided to invest. Indeed, the funding at that time was very little funding, but it was an opportunity for us to show ourselves to the world and to show impact of the work that we're doing. We used that funding to of course establish contacts with the relevant stakeholders in Nigeria. We used it also to put ourselves out there by developing a very solid communication strategy, which spoke to how we interact with the potential partners, potential donors, people who we should be looking out for and people we should be engaging in our projects and interventions.
We also used the funding to identify our inadequacies as an organisation or let me not say inadequacies, but areas that we need to build up or areas we need to improve upon. So, we had a very solid organisational review assessment where we asked ourselves very honest questions and we looked at and identified areas we needed to improve upon, especially in terms of programme management strategies and systems. Looking out for infrastructure. Do we need an office space? How much space do we need? We looked at our financial management capacity, because before then we hadn't handled donor funding before. We used that resources to identify different needs and of course to ask ourselves questions and identify areas we need to build upon.
It was also an interesting opportunity because, in as much as it was an opportunity grant as it was, we also showed the impact of the little resources we had. We used it to show impact of the project we had implemented with our resources. I remember we implemented a small project on ending female genital mutilation using communications and community engagement. And we were supposed to work in four communities, and we showed impact with the little resources we had and of course that built the confidence of other donors and of course build the confidence of AmplifyChange to continue to invest in in some of our interventions. So I think that opportunity grant that came in 2016 was a stepping stone. It was like a pedestal that took us to the next level in terms of securing further investments and further financing to continue the work that we're doing.
Halima: Thank you. Lucky. Both of you have managed to successfully raise resources within your organisations. Let's imagine, I am a listener and I currently work with one donor. How would you recommend that I go about finding new donors to approach?
Lucky: It's a very important question and we were once in that position to ask ourselves how can we diversify donors? But just like Jade mentioned when she was speaking, she talked about developing her organisational strategy. I feel it's like the handbook that should guide where organisations look out for, in terms of diversifying resources or income or diversifying grants. Indeed, the organisational strategy will speak to the core theme that core goals and vision of the organisation. That will inform them who to approach; which donors are more interested in the areas they're working in; what are some of the previous projects the donors have supported. So that will give the organization an idea as to where to channel the energy to, in terms of resource leveraging or identifying new donors.
I think another point is to check the theory of change of the donor you're looking at. I've always suggested even as sitting on the Board of the Youth Network for Community and Sustainable Development, I told them. "Look, let's come together and identify, who are these donors that we're looking out for?" It's good to say, "Yes, we need more money. We need more donors to come on board. But who are these donors?" So we need to sit down and identify who these donors are and also identify what are their core interests. So we need to look at that and identify areas we meet their interests. So that would give us an opportunity to engage them, to start conversing and start a conversation with them around areas to support the work that we're doing. So, it's good to itemise and list out who these donors are and their areas of interest. What is your theory of change? What do they want to see through the investments, so that will also speak to the organisation seeking more funding or more donors?
I think another point is to show interest and to persist. I always tell people, because I have experienced this. Many times, you get rejections and as a youth-led organisation we get very demoralised or maybe we are not doing the right thing or maybe we're not showing our impact well. But at the end of the day we should persist. We should learn how to show our impact in a clear and concise manner and of course develop an organisational strategy that speaks to how much money we want to see in the near future.
Jade: Just to follow up on what Lucky talking about, when he said, "When you're implementing." I'd say implement well, show how your work is having impact. Because sometimes even your work, the way you're implementing is your fundraising strategy. When you are implementing well your work goes ahead of you and sometimes you'd find donors know about you before you have ever asked them for funds. So when they have heard about you and by the time you're asking them for funds, you already have one foot in the door. So I'd say do work that has got credibility and has integrity and this definitely makes it much easier for you to get other funds.
Do your research about donors who fund the kind of work that you do. Have a list of donors that you want to do research on. Find out who your partner organisations and who funds them. For example, maybe you're a CBO or you're an NGO and you have a grantee partner who you implement with. Have conversations with them, ask them who else is funding them? Find out if they are a match for you as well. And sometimes ask to be introduced, ask for your grantee or implementing partner to introduce you to their donors if their donors are looking to do more grants or if that having a call out that you should know about. Ask for your donor to introduce you to other donors who would be funding your kind of work. So that you are knowing as much as possible of who else is out there, who's interested just in the work that you're doing.
And the other thing I'd say, build systems. Most young or growing organisations... It's understandable when you start, sometimes an organisation does not have systems but that's where you start because that's how organisations grow. But when you find one donor and start to get a little bit of funding, ask for that donor to help you build the systems in your organisation; build your financial systems; start having proper books of account. Try and have your organisation audited. Because for you to be able to move to the next step and get maybe a bigger grant, it means that you need to show that there are systems in place or there are systems that you are starting to put in place. And I know most big grants we require that your organisation has been audited before. So that should be one of the things that you are looking at. Ask your donors to also advise what other kind of systems you should be looking at. And if it is possible, you can ask the donor to not to give you some amount of core funding or unrestricted funding that allows you to grow the systems of the organisation alongside you implementing a programme.
And then tell your story, I find that sometimes we as implementers are doing such amazing work, but we are not telling our story. When you are implementing, you're the experts in your field, you're the expert in your community, you know your community's best, you know what they need and you are the one who can tell this story. So be an expert in telling your own story.
Halima: Thank you Jade. Just to pick up from what you've talked about, have you had any instances when donors have helped you put up systems? And can you share at least one experience on that?
Jade: Yes, actually, AmplifyChange is one of the donors that has helped us put in place systems. When we first got us our first grant, it was a strengthening grant. And AmplifyChange in the due diligence did identify some areas of weakness in our systems and the put it to us in the first document on things that we needed to strengthen in our systems. So, we did also go back to AmplifyChange and asked that they allowed us to put some of our budget towards building those systems and AmplifyChange allowed us to do this.
Consequently, we were able to change our auditor, we got a new auditor who is currently the one who's auditing our books of accounts. We were able to get a full time finance person. Before that we had a part-time finance manager who wasn't a full time staff of TICAH. But now due to the AmplifyChange grant, we were able to hire a full-time finance person for TICAH. Which has really helped us in growing our budgets. Another donor also supported us in doing our strategy and our theory of change and also putting in place our M&E [monitoring and evaluation] strategy and systems which have enabled us to more concretely measure the impacts that we are having. Therefore enabling us to tell our story in more stronger ways.
Halima: Both of you talked about various approaches to finding new donors, which is a great thing. When you're working with several donors rather than just one, how can an organisation ensure that it meets all these needs?
Jade: I'd like to just share that, sometimes when organisations have one donor. They could very easily just find themselves fundraising for projects and not looking at the organisation as a whole. So, I'd say as your starting to get more donors who are funding the organisation, start to think of the organisation as a whole and such to develop organisational budgets. Where the different project budget lines build up to the whole organisational budget. And this way you can also look to include things in your budget, that are cover overheads or costs that the organisation definitely still has to pay for including rent, water, internet, salaries, equipment. And this helps you to see the big picture, the whole picture and see how the different donors contribute towards it. So for example, what TICAH does is splits the overhead costs like cost of rent, cost of equipment into the different donors that we have, to ensure that TICAH is continuing to be alive and continues to be sustained over the long period of time.
Halima: Do you have anything to add Lucky, on that?
Lucky: Just to add to what Jade has mentioned, it's very important points there. I think another thing to look out for is to make sure that whilst you're aiming to fulfill the mandates of which the donor has handed into your hands, of course for the grants. You're also looking out for ways where there are no conflicts of interest or where you're not mixing resources or even equipment or whatever it is. Human resources meant for one donor to yet another donor. So, there has to be that subliminal, but not very clear subliminal difference between donors. Especially when they are working on different subject matters. For instance, one time we had a donor that was funding us to work on FGMC [Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting] and we also work on safe access to abortion. But at that moment the donor realised that we were working on abortion and they were not very happy with that.
And so there was this conversation we had with them to make sure that, there is this separation or there is this understanding about which staff is working for which project, how much time is the staff contributing and from which and budgets will you get the staff salary from and looking at, things about conflict of interest, making sure that the reports are not mixed up together.
So, I think it's all boils down to organisational strengthening and programme management skills of the organisation really, to separate the tasks, to separate the resources. To make sure at the end they are not mixed up together or the staff members are not confused as to who are we reporting this to or who are we sending this report to? When is this report due to this donor? When is the other report due to the other? Just to make sure that staff members are carried along from day one and they understand their job descriptions and they know for which donor, for which project are you working on or for how much time and what specifically are you doing for each of the projects. So it makes a whole lot of sense then.
Halima: What are the three key things both of you within your organisations learned along the way as you move to diversifying funding resources?
Lucky: The first thing is, show impact. Always, always show impact. What's the impact of the work you've done in the past? So, it's always good to tell donors that, "Because of this funding we've gotten, we have achieved this and that." So, what I always tell them my colleagues in the office is "at the end of implementing a particular activity, you should answer the 'and so what?' part of it. So, you have had this training, and so what? What comes after it? So, it helps you to identify and to package your impact that you showcase to donors and future partners.
The second thing is like Jade mentioned earlier, tell your stories. Really, because you are the experts in your own field. Working in the field that your community members are beneficiaries, you should market yourself. Learn how to package your stories and tell them. So many organisations are doing amazing work for the fight. It so difficult to showcase the impact and showcase the work that they're doing. Because they're finding it hard to tell their own stories. So, I think the second thing is market yourself through your stories that you're telling based on the results you're getting from the projects that you're implementing.
Then the third thing I will mention is do not be discouraged. You will find many obstacles, especially from the context I found myself here in Nigeria. There are 1,001 other organisations who probably will be doing the same thing you're doing. So the competition is high. But again, we are looking out for making it the change we all want to see happen. So, many times you find that donors interest will change or donors will stop funding or will change the outlook or the approach. Do not stop making the impact. Do not stop meeting these donors and making new partnerships. So, do not feel discouraged when you get rejections here and there. Or when you get disappointed along the way. I feel it's just part of the whole process.
Jade: So, my first point goes back to research. Research, research. Know your facts, have your information ready. Know who is in the field, who funds the kind of work that you do and start making good connections.
My second point would say do a fundraising pipeline. I find that most people will write one proposal to a donor and not get feedback and get discouraged. When you have a pipeline, you have the number of organisations that from your research you've seen already fund in your field and you now know when they put calls out if they received solicited or unsolicited proposals. You know how much kind of funding the gift and to which size the organisations.
So, when you have this information, you do a pipeline of these organisations that you are following up with and you can use an Excel sheet, you can use some free apps that are online like use of Trello or use of the one-page CRM [Customer Relationship Management]. That then allows you to know donor A, funds in June. You want to remind that in June to follow up with that donor. Donor B not receive unsolicited proposals. How do they find new partners? How do you get into the space where they find new partners? That may be happens in August. How do you pay attention in the next coming August. So when you have a pipeline, it allows you to just concentrate on a few right now but know when to follow up with which donors, when?
The third thing I'd say is, fundraising is a lot like any relationship building. For that reason, do keep in touch, do follow up and by follow up doesn't mean that every time you approach a donor you are asking for money. You need to follow up by letting the donor know the new situation in your country. You follow up by letting the donor know the new activities that you are implementing right now. If you have a new strategy out, if you have a newsletter, ask them if they would want to be on your list serve so they either receive your newsletters or your annual reports. And you can ask them to let you know if any time is right for you to be putting in a proposal so that you're not constantly doing proposals and sending them out when it's not even time to send out the proposals.
Halima: Thank you both. What would your key piece of advice be to our listeners who have an opportunity grant and want to get more funding?
Lucky: So I would say that, of course like we've all been saying, you make to identify where you want to see your organisation in the next couple of years, or even months’ time really, if it's a small organisation and then you should also identify who do you want to approach, in terms of diversifying your sources of income and what are their core interest or areas of interest. You should also be able to show impact on telling your stories properly and to not forget to make networks and keep in touch with your donors or partners you meet in conferences and workshop, just in many different forums where you may come across them. It will keep you fresh in their minds.
Halima: Jade and Lucky, thank you for joining us today. It's always nice having you guys. It's always nice talking about issues of money, money, money and issues of being self-reliance. Thank you.
Jade: My name is Jade Maina. I'm the executive director of Trust for Indigenous Culture and Health. It's based in Nairobi, Kenya. Find out more about getting new funding by checking out my how to guide on How to strengthen and diversify your sources of funding. It's on www.amplifychangelearn.org
Lucky: My name is Lucky, and I work with the Youth Network for Community and Sustainable Development as an advisor. Please check out my how to guide on How to graduate your AmplifyChange grant. It's on amplifychangelearn.org