Dear Colleagues, As I've been struggling over the last couple of years to build up an NGO in rural Guatemala, I have been learning a lot about trying to match our organization's needs and wants with those of donors. It has been much tougher than I expected. Those of us in the field have specific ideas about what we want to do to achieve the impact we believe will be most beneficial for our communities. Donors also have their own ideas about what they would like to fund and how and where. Development is subdivided into so many competing areas and places that finding a match is difficult.
But matching interests is only one part of the challenge in reaching donors. I believe it is important to build up relationships with donors and potential donors that are more than one-time funding of a project. For example, many developing country organizations spend time in the wealthy countries giving talks and presentations about their causes. Even if that isn't feasible, a grassroots project can use Internet effectively to share success stories and draw people in. Once a person grows attached to an organization by seeing its work over a few months or years, a funding appeal will be more likely to gain the interest of a potential supporter. For grassroots initiatives that do not have resources to do all this on their own, there are organizations that are trying to help. Gena Fleming mentions the idea of websites to help connect potential donors and projects. There are organizations doing this. Take a look at: <www.globalgiving.com> and <www.donorschoose.com> Best of luck to all, Andy Andrew E. Lieberman Presidente (Nab'e eqanel) Asociacion Ajb'atz' Enlace Quiche 5a. Calle 3-42, Zona 5, Santa Cruz del Quiche Guatemala tel. y fax: 502-7755-4801, 7755-0810 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.enlacequiche.org.gt ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
