fundraising through the ERA

[Ananda Fitzsimmons]

Hello ERA members,

ERA has been working to move from a start up to a credible, established non profit organization. One of the challenges we face is that not having gotten major grant funding, it doesn't inspire confidence in funding organizations. And yet many of us donate a considerable amount of money personally to support worthy projects. At the steering committee, we recently asked ourselves, what if we run more of this money through the ERA bank account? As a non profit, our credibility is in how much money runs through to support worthy projects, not in the profit we make.

I have been supporting the UMOJA Foundation to help refugees in the Nakivale Refugee Settlement for a number of years now with regenerative, climate resilient agriculture and livelihood development. UMOJA is a registered community based organization founded by Marius Iragi and Owen Allen, both long time ERA members. I met them through ERA and this connection has helped me to develop a personal relationship, not only with them but a considerable number of Congolese refugees living in Nakivale. Because I live in Quebec, where French is the majority language, I am able to speak with the Congolese refugees in a common language and this has enhanced my sense of personal connection. 

I believe that this is a unique feature of ERA, that we facilitate connections across cultures. It is a much more personal way of supporting good causes when you actually communicate directly with the people you are helping. It certainly has motivated me to give a lot more than I would to an anonymous good cause that I understand rationally but have no heart connection to. Because people in my local network know and trust me, they have also opened their hearts and made donations to the group of Congolese refugee farmers that I am supporting. And they have received videos of thanks and documentation of the good that their donations facilitated. Of course I can't solicit the same people too often.

So recently we signed a memorandum of understanding between ERA and UMOJA Foundation. ERA set up a dedicated fundraising page through Zeffy, our donation management partner. Owen has embedded the link to it into the UMOJA Foundation's website and I sent emails to my personal network. Donations have begun to come in and we plan to give plenty of personal updates to donors to help them establish connection to the beneficiaries of their support. If any of you would like to add your support it is more than welcome.

Here is the link to the campaign:

 https://daseintropic.au/ucf-regen-ag&life.html 

This is our first effort like this. It is something that we could do more of. Here are the conditions:

1. The cause has to fit under ERA's mission, 2. the central person involved in the project is an ERA member and 3. their organization is registered and a bank account which can receive the money transfers. We can't as a non profit send mobile money to an individual.

		ANANDA FITZSIMMONS Présidente du conseil d'administration President of the Board of Directors regenerationcanada.org 438 820 1760