Would you fund Organization X?
How Matters
grants to organizations working with children and families affected by
AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, I received the following report, exactly
as it appears below, from a Zimbabwean grantee. (I have however
removed any identifiers.) In determining whether to give them a second
small grant, aside from the original proposal and financial report,
this was all I had to go on. They had not received a site visit from
our organization and one was not soon anticipated.
A synopsis of the foundation’s funding guidelines for renewal grants
is included first below. I ask you to ponder only one question as you
peruse the brief report for yourself—would you fund them again? Let me
know why or why not.
(Spoiler alert! You won’t find out whether I decided to fund them or
not until later this week.)
***
WHAT THE FOUNDATION LOOKS FOR IN ITS GRANTEES
• Strong articulation of mission, i.e. organization has a sense of
“who they are” and an identified constituency.
• Demonstrated understanding of the problems facing children,
families, and the community
• Experience in conducting activities at community-level
• Ability to articulate what the organization intends to do and how it
will be carried out (including narrative and budget consistency)
• Sound, holistic, innovative or unique programming
• Demonstrably engages the community in program decision-making.
Evidence of community ownership
• Able to demonstrate outcomes of programs/activities or M&E results
• Evidence of learning and adaptation of programming and/or building
upon previous activities
• Leveraged collaboration/resources from other stakeholders/donors
• Scale – increased beneficiaries, programs and/or outreach to other
organizations
• Development of sound leadership/management practices within the
organization
• Limited annual budget and/or access to other donors
• Adequate reporting and financial accountability
• Demonstrated stewardship of resources and reasonable cost
projections in budget
***
INTRODUCTION
Organization X is a registered Community based Organization that seeks
to address the problem of HIV and AIDS in the X Community of X
District. Through community participation, Organization X has managed
to carry out the following programs by December.
PLANNED PROGRAMS FOR OPHAN AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN
Purchasing of Nutrition aid
Maintenance of OVCs [orphans and vulnerable children] homes
Home visits
Basic counseling
Payment of school fees
Medication assistance
Material support
Skills training
ACHIEVEMENT OF PLANNED ACTIVITIES
Nutrition Aid
Nutrition aid that included mealie meal [corn/maize meal] and Kapenta
[dried fish] was purchased and distributed to 130 OVCs. Caregivers for
the OVC worked tirelessly to facilitate the distribution. The
challenges to this program included transport since the activity was
done during rain season and some areas were note easy to access
because of poor roads. The food was useful to the children since the
area is drought prone.
Maintenance of OVC Homes
Two child headed families were provided with shelter as two roomed
flat houses were constructed. The building material such as bricks
were provided by the community We had a challenge of shortage of
thatching house [roofing material] so we decided to build two roomed
for two child headed families.
Payment of school fees
Organization X paid school fees for 117 Orphan and Vulnerable
Children. The number of children who need school fees keeps on
increasing as most families were not open in fear of stigma and
discrimination.
Material support
Blankets were purchased and distributed to 89 Orphan and Vulnerable
Children and it was well timed as Zimbabwe had an extended winter
season.
Skills Training
Five Orphan and vulnerable children were trained in basic hairdressing
and were supplied with chemicals for starting income generating
projects business in home hair dressing. They are doing fine as we
continue monitor the activities.
Activities carried out by Organization X have much impact to the life
of children because we managed to train children in basic skills in
hairdressing and are doing their income generating activities and more
children are indeed requesting for more programs of the same nature.
PROJECT STAFF
One Project officer by the name of X was recruited in order to meet
the demand of the programs. The organization still has its Programs
coordinator, Consultant, Finance and administration officer, three
field officers and a community mobilizer.
CHALLENGES TO THE PROJECT
Transport
The roads in the area are so bad especially when it is during the rain
season. Fuel shortage and inadequate transport has hindered
implementation of activities.
Gender imbalance
The number of male OVCs is low when it comes to skills training, as
most males prefer going to work in South Africa as illegal migrant.
If we were to conduct activities like skills training what we are
going to do differently is to try and come out with packages that will
attract more males counterpart to some of these activities. Exchange
visits to other partners are to be done and support the income-
generating activities by issuing starter grants and monitor them.
Uniforms are to be issued in order for children to attend lessons
being smart.
In future Organization X will try to make sure that more Orphans and
Vulnerable Children receive skills training so that they start income
generating activities projects that are sustainable, that is
carpentry, wielding and building.
FUTURE PLANS
Maintenance of eight OVC homes
Provision of nutrition aid
Payment of school fees up to University level
Camping
Medical support
FEEDBACK FOR DONOR
The awards process is generally very fare and communication between
the two organizations is quite good. Besides financial support for
OVCs program, Donor X can help strengthen Organization X’s capacity by
providing things like learning materials for children, office
equipment and information on other researches from other organization.
The information will add greater value to Organization X OVC
activities.
BENEFICIARY PROFILE
Person X were provided with a flat roomed house.
CONCLUSION
Some of our activities are to carry to the next financial support
since it is a continuos program. The economic situation has a negative
impact to our projects, which forced us to carry forward activities
since the inflation rate is ever increasingly.
***
So…tell me, would you fund them again?
Share what you would do if you were the grantmaker. I look forward to
hearing your thoughts! Stay tuned to see what happened…
***
This post originally appeared at: http://www.how-matters.org/2011/02/24/would-you-fund-this-organization/
Vincent-Mark, Arlene (CDC/ONDIEH/NCIPC)
Arlene
-----Original Message-----
From: local-solu...@googlegroups.com [mailto:local-solu...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of How Matters
Sent: Sunday, August 21, 2011 10:56 AM
To: Local Solutions Forum
Subject: [LSF] Would you fund Organization X?
A few years ago, when I was working with a foundation that gives
grants to organizations working with children and families affected by
AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, I received the following report, exactly
as it appears below, from a Zimbabwean grantee. (I have however
removed any identifiers.) In determining whether to give them a second
small grant, aside from the original proposal and financial report,
this was all I had to go on. They had not received a site visit from
our organization and one was not soon anticipated.
A synopsis of the foundation's funding guidelines for renewal grants
is included first below. I ask you to ponder only one question as you
peruse the brief report for yourself-would you fund them again? Let me
know why or why not.
(Spoiler alert! You won't find out whether I decided to fund them or
not until later this week.)
***
WHAT THE FOUNDATION LOOKS FOR IN ITS GRANTEES
* Strong articulation of mission, i.e. organization has a sense of
"who they are" and an identified constituency.
* Demonstrated understanding of the problems facing children,
families, and the community
* Experience in conducting activities at community-level
* Ability to articulate what the organization intends to do and how it
will be carried out (including narrative and budget consistency)
* Sound, holistic, innovative or unique programming
* Demonstrably engages the community in program decision-making.
Evidence of community ownership
* Able to demonstrate outcomes of programs/activities or M&E results
* Evidence of learning and adaptation of programming and/or building
upon previous activities
* Leveraged collaboration/resources from other stakeholders/donors
* Scale - increased beneficiaries, programs and/or outreach to other
organizations
* Development of sound leadership/management practices within the
organization
* Limited annual budget and/or access to other donors
* Adequate reporting and financial accountability
* Demonstrated stewardship of resources and reasonable cost
projections in budget
***
INTRODUCTION
ACHIEVEMENT OF PLANNED ACTIVITIES
Nutrition Aid
Maintenance of OVC Homes
Payment of school fees
Skills Training
PROJECT STAFF
CHALLENGES TO THE PROJECT
Transport
FEEDBACK FOR DONOR
***
So...tell me, would you fund them again?
Share what you would do if you were the grantmaker. I look forward to
hearing your thoughts! Stay tuned to see what happened...
How Matters
is it a "yes, but..." that I'm hearing?
On Aug 22, 10:54 am, "Vincent-Mark, Arlene (CDC/ONDIEH/NCIPC)"