Fundraising Workshop

ISLAMABAD
OCT. 2001

A training workshop on Fundraising was organized by Eco-Conservation Initiatives (ECI) from 2-5 October 2001 at Best Western Hotel, Islamabad. It was designed and conducted in four modules by a team of professionals with in-depth experience in training on a diverse range of subjects. The training workshop comprised presentations, panel discussion, learning exercises, group activities and question answer sessions. On Day-3, a field visit to village Delhia, Tehsil Murree was also organized. The objective of this component was to collect basic information about village community; their socio-economic set-up, current development patterns and problems with a view to develop funding proposal for the welfare of that community. These components made the event highly interactive and participatory. The moderators were changed in each session to create interest among the participants and maintain the element of diversity to enhance their interaction.

• To share available information on different fundraising techniques and their applicability.
• Provide information on professional marketing strategies for fundraising.
• Determine the role of traditional philanthropy and modern fundraising techniques.
• Skill enhancement in project development and grant seeking proposals.
• Identify and prepare the list of major fundraisers at the global level.
• Establish networking among participants to share the information on fundraising for capacity building.

A wide variety of persons from the NGOs, government, academia and media participated in this event. The workshop was highly interactive because of the active participation of delegates from a diverse range of development organizations who represented WWF-Pakistan, South Asia Partnership, Institute of Overseas Pakistanis, Ockenden International, SACHET, CARITAS Pakistan, TELEBIZ Islamabad, Sarhad Rural Support Program, Save the Children USA, Tameer-E-Millat Schools and Institute of Development Studies, Peshawar.

On Day-1, the Chairman Board of Governors Eco-Conservation Initiatives (ECI), Dr. Zafar Altaf welcomed the participants and highlighted importance of fundraising for development. Soon after, each participant introduced him/her in a networking arrangement particularly designed for this workshop. It helped break ice among the participants and created an environment of interactive learning.

Soon after the introduction of participants, presentations were started. In first presentation, the resource person Dr. Azhar Khan gave an introduction & background, sources of fundraising and prevalent norms of fundraising techniques. He highlighted the importance and prevalent norms of fundraising at national level in the global perspective.

The resource person Mr. Azhar Qureshi gave an in-depth overview of the techniques, tools and elements of fundraising. He elaborated the techniques of fundraising e.g. use of effective promotional material including newsletters, fact sheets, quarterly journals, progress reports, conferences, seminars, organizing special events, outreach programs, managing personal acquaintances and donor-grantee relationship. He also highlighted the qualities of a good fundraiser.

Dr. Khan delivered next presentation on psychology of fundraising emphasizing resource mobilization in an Asian perspective. He talked about availability of enough resources that need to be mobilized at the regional level taking South Asia into account with focus on Asian charities, individual & corporate philanthropy and Pakistani fundraising models such as Edhi Foundation, Hamdard Foundation, Shaukat Khanam Memorial Hospital and Hawa etc. The other examples include employee givings, sponsorships, government grants, etc.

The third presentation encompassed fundraising strategy formulation. The resource person gave a detailed overview for step by step development of fundraising strategy in an order by chalking out plans how to raise money, getting our plans and strategy approved, clarifying the constraints, resources available to us and the responsibilities in this framework.

In the afternoon, the participants were divided into three groups. Each group was required to develop draft fundraising strategy for an organization taking into account guidelines and reading material. As a result each group prepared the fundraising strategy for an assigned organization and nominated a representative from his/her group to deliver the presentation. This exercise ended by a large number of questions / answers analyzing the pros and cons of different fundraising strategies.

The second module was held on day-2. The resource person delivered his presentation on how to prepare a grant seeking proposal. He emphasized on the need to identify a potential grant maker who would be interested to supporting one's project and then carefully write a well reasoned grant seeking proposal with clear objectives, justification and impact of the project. He also gave reasons that why some grant proposals are rejected. Later on, he talked about the types of proposals and contents of a good proposal that attracts the grant maker.

Next presentation comprised a brief talk cum discussion on role of philanthropic organizations in fundraising. The resource person highlighted the importance and role of philanthropic organizations and their contribution for development at the national and regional level. He discussed how different fundraising models based on philanthropy could be used for national development.

The resource person Professor Dr. Rizwan delivered his presentation on fundraising for education. He introduced the participants to different sources of funding for the sake of higher education. He enumerated a considerable number of institutions in the world who offer grants for the purpose of getting higher education and improving quality of knowledge and education. He also introduced the application procedure, list of supporting documents required and formalities that need to be fulfilled for quick approval of the proposals to seek grants for education. At the end of his presentation, specimens of reference letters, recommendation letters, experience letters and employment letters were distributed among the participants.

The next presentation was titled as the role of international donor organizations in fundraising. The resource person Mr. Azhar Qureshi highlighted the role of international donor organizations in fundraising. He presented a list of major international donors and talked about current trends in donor's approach towards funding a grant application. He mentioned about 29 bilateral, multilateral and private donor agencies who support microfinance programs in the world for capacity building of the relevant institutions in the context of delivering flexible high quality financial services to the very poor on a sustainable basis.

The next presentation comprised fundraising letters. The resource person Dr. Khan elaborated the importance of fundraising letters as one of the major tools for enhancing fundraising abilities of individuals and organizations. He categorized the fundraising letters into different types each for a different purpose. He presented how to write straight contribution letters, nomination letters, premium letters, sweepstakes letter and survey letters etc.

After the presentation, the participants were divided into three groups; each one for writing three different types of fundraising letters. Guidelines and reading material was distributed among them for preparation of the letters. Later on the representative from each group delivered the presentation on behalf of his/her group.

Module-3 was held on the third day. Field visit to village Delhia, Tehsil Murree was organized. The objective of this component was to collect basic information about village community; their socio-economic set-up, current development patterns and problems with a view to develop funding proposal for the welfare of that community.

On arrival at the village the community representative gave a briefing to the participants. Soon after the briefing, they had transit walk in the village and directly talked to the community members and collected required information. After completing the task, they returned to the training venue. The resource person gave detailed overview on development of grant-seeking proposals based on their visit to the rural community. Later on they were engaged in group work. Each group was required to prepare a grant seeking proposal to raise funds for development of the area. This exercise continued till the next day.

In Module-4, the groups exercise for development of grant-seeking proposals were continued from the previous day. After completing this task, one representative from each group delivered presentation on his/her proposal. Each grant-seeking/funding proposal was thoroughly analyzed during the discussion and modified to further improve the quality. This module was concluded by the presentation on role of media and information technology in fundraising. The resource person gave an overview of the media and communication technology in fundraising. He established communication links with the art of fundraising to strengthen the roles by adopting a proactive media strategy, improving public information systems and promoting partnerships. He also discussed the importance of press releases and conferences as fundraising tools if properly utilized.

At the end of Module-4, certificates were awarded to the participants. The workshop was concluded by exchanging vote of thanks among the participants and the organizers. On behalf of ECI, Mr. Azhar Qureshi thanked the participants for actively participating and making this event a great success as indicated by evaluation done by the participants. On behalf of participants, Mr. Ahmed Bilal Mahboob, Chief Executive Officer, Institute of Overseas Pakistanis thanked the organizers for making excellent arrangements for this training workshop.