CAPSTONE Workshop on Resource Mobilisation and Strategic Communication

Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) organised a two-day virtual workshop on Resource Mobilisation and Strategic Communication as part of the CAPSTONE programme. 30 organisations participated in the workshop facilitated by Mr Kunal Verma and Mr Tito Chandy from the Centre for Fundraising and School for Fundraising respectively. The workshop entailed the basics of fundraising, drafting a fundraising canvas, writing winning proposals and drafting an organisational fundraising action plan. 

The workshop started with setting up expectations from the participants and the workshop. Facilitator Tito Chandy opened the discussion by stating, “You get what you want.” he referred to the willingness and commitment to achieve on the part of the organisation. He added that an organisation should be “in the state of receiving” before they start a fundraising campaign. 

Facilitator Kunal Verma pointed out that fundraising is a long process and may not provide results instantly. He referred to it as a process of learning, evaluating and unlearning. Fundraising is not one person’s job in an organisation. It takes the entire organisation to successfully run a fundraising campaign. 

The session began with understanding the difference between fundraising and resource mobilisation wherein resource mobilisation surpasses the former as it is not limited to just financial resources but rather includes labour, time, etc. A non-profit organisation can be provided with M3T, i.e., Man (manpower, volunteers and skills), Materials (gifts in kind – books, food, etc.), Money (any financial support), and Time. It discussed the importance of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in strengthening democracy and the unique space in society it serves. 

Given the growing CSR financial contribution to the sector, it is important for CSOs to comprehend the difference between both kinds of organisations. Thus, if seeking CSR funds, it’s only sensible to either approach the ones that are aligned with your CSO or to align yourself to the needs of corporates. For example, a corporate may want to spend more on promotions of their brand contrary to the belief of the CSO. 

The workshop, in detail, unlayered the pertinent questions around what motivates or enables individuals and organisations to give and what preparations a CSO needs to undergo to attract these resources. It also examined the sources of funds available and their contribution to social causes. The discussions established that individual donations are very critical for the sustainability and resilience of the CSOs. There are multiple other spillover benefits of raising funds through individuals like awareness and credibility established among a larger audience. It is of utmost importance for a CSO to diversify the funding sources. It should be preferred to seek small amounts from many donors and thus the impact of losing a donor would be minimal on the organisation. The other important learnings from the entire discourse were to involve all the stakeholders in the process of resource mobilisation and to understand that donors ‘no’ only means ‘no for now’. 

The roadmap to a winning proposal is: 

• Problem – Identification of the problem 
• Solution – Coming up with a solution to be proposed 
• Cost – Clarity on the estimated cost required for implementing the solution 
• Urgency – Mention why the need for a solution is immediate and urgent for the community/ individuals. 
• Context – Clear context narrative of the community, geography, etc. 
• Donor benefits – It is important to mention the benefits for the donor to contribute. If it only talks about the organisation’s benefit, chances are that pitch wouldn’t work. 
• Emotions – Keeping in mind that the project would be appraised by another human being i.e., they are also driven by emotions. And hence should be able to emotionally touch the person. This applies to individual, corporate, or institutional donors. 

The next session put stress on understanding fundraising as an inside-out process i.e., it calls for bringing changes inside the organisation before seeking donors. It discussed the challenges of a fundraiser. The first one is ‘asking’ i.e., fundraisers find it more difficult to put the ask in front of donors. The reasons are fear of rejection, feeling guilty of bothering the individual multiple times, etc. Fundraisers need conviction, confidence, and personal power to do so. 

The success of fundraising would almost entirely depend on the quality of your involvement with a prospective donor. The current way of looking at a donor is as someone outside or to put it simply, outside our circle of influence. It is important to bring donors to the centre as well and make them as important as the mission and beneficiaries are. They need to trust that they have a vital central role to play in the mission’s success. The fundraisers’ job is to bring the donors from a stage of awareness to a position where they take personal responsibility for the cause. 

The second challenge of a fundraiser is to prepare for an “Ask”. There are multiple prerequisites like drafting your story before reaching out. The fundraising canvas helps a fundraiser to prepare and shape the campaign. 

The third biggest challenge civil society organisations face is to get their “ask” out i.e., how to reach out to the public. Planning a SMART campaign, getting the story right, relying on the community, peer-to-peer fundraising, breaking fundraising goals into circles of reach, showing gratitude, and analysing the results would lead to a successful fundraising campaign.