I must say that the conference over the three days was a very enriching and good experience, and several things will stick with me when I return to my own tasks within Help a Child
Tiny Biewenga
In early June, Nairobi we launched our brand-new ‘Developing your Business Case’ workshop.’
Held in Nairobi, the event brought together around 40 participants from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Malawi, and Ethiopia. These individuals, representing various In-Country Forums, gathered with a shared goal: to enhance their collaborative efforts and strengthen their capacity to develop compelling business cases and value propositions.
The workshop’s agenda was designed to foster deep engagement among the participants, primarily through group work within their respective In-Country Forums. These forums, which serve as critical platforms for collaboration among EU-CORD members and their local partners, were the focal point of the workshop. Through intensive discussions and interactive exercises, participants worked on refining their value propositions and crafting robust, multi-stakeholder business cases essential for securing funding and driving impactful projects.
Ruth Faber from the EU-CORD Secretariat and Tiny Biewenga, the Coordinator for Institutional Relations at Help a Child, facilitated the workshop. Ruth and Tiny brought a wealth of experience and a practical approach to the sessions, ensuring that the participants left with actionable insights and tools that could be immediately applied in their work. Their guidance was instrumental in helping participants transition from conceptualizing project outline pitches to donors to developing comprehensive proposals.
One significant outcome of the workshop was the strengthening of the In-Country Forums. Participants left with improved business cases and a renewed sense of partnership and collaboration. The forum groups became incubators for new ideas and initiatives, fostering a spirit of innovation that will undoubtedly benefit the broader EU-CORD network.
Building on the workshop’s success, a business model toolkit based on the sessions will be released in the autumn. The toolkit will provide EU-CORD members with a comprehensive guide to developing compelling business cases. The business model will serve as a valuable resource for members across the network, enabling them to apply the principles and practices discussed during the workshop in their contexts.
Co-facilitator Tiny Biewengahad has this to say about the workshop:
This was a truly international gathering. It was my first time facilitating this kind of meeting, and I felt excited but also a bit afraid. Being an institutional fundraiser for the past five years has brought me much insight into how I think NGOs can prepare for the future, but I would by no means dare to put myself forward as a true expert on anything.
So, Ruth and I decided we would go on a journey as much as the participants with us.
This meant that listening, triggering discussion, and having the participants share would be just as important as sharing what we had prepared.
Three big takeaways
1. Proactive institutional fundraising based on value propositions is a game changer for many NGOs.
Reflecting on what was so, it seems the main message of the three days was to stay true to yourself.
Think deeply about what defines your organisation and translate that into a statement of how you add value to a donor or ‘customer’. A value proposition helps you identify which projects fit your organisation’s goals and how you are uniquely interesting to a donor and also helps in forming consortia, as other organizations know it is what you bring. There is not necessarily one value proposition per organisation, but limiting yourself to 1 or 2 helps focus and growth. Many participants mentioned that this was their main takeaway from the conference.
2. It is very helpful to start investing in gaining a strong donor perspective ourselves.
One of the participants mentioned: “The thing that stuck with me was that I suddenly was a donor who had to select the best value proposition. You start looking at things very differently”. Investing in proposal writing is only one side of the coin of good fundraising. Knowing who your donor is and putting yourself in her shoes is even more important. Drafting out the ‘pains’ and ‘gains ‘jobs’ that your NGO, your intervention or your project will do for your donor is another way of getting clarity on whether you are a match to a donor and what to propose.
3. Fora and consortia only work when you are very clear about what you need and what you have to offer.
Something that really came out of the discussion was that members of the in-country fora can be sharper in what they want out of the fora. As one participant recalled, There is no shame in stopping something that is not fruitful because it was based on a nice idea only. The in-country fora are brought together from the notion that the sum is more than its parts. But synergy often does not just ‘happen’.
For synergy to be achieved, clarity is crucial. This includes clarity on fundraising goals, the types of propositions and business cases that each member brings, and where they see gaps and challenges. The three-day workshop really allowed the fora to sort out who we are and what we bring to and get from the fora. This alone will already make them stronger in fundraising.
All in all, the conference was a success, not due to Ruth or me, but because of all the wind of change and excitement brought by the participants. It was their vision, focus, value proposition, participation and mutual exchange of ideas and experiences that really made it worthwhile. This underscores the value of meeting across NGOs, nationalities and continents. If we share our ambitions and dreams and can serve each other in achieving those, then we can build a network for fundraising in the future.
