Developing long term funding solutions for grassroots organizations.
Since the AIDS pandemic hit Kenya, over 20,000 children have been orphaned in the neighbourhood
of Kibera on the outskirts of Nairobi.
The government struggles to cope, and the burden of responsibility falls on grassroots organizations
to solve community problems.
This ratchets up the pressure on not-for-profit organizations, such as Kijiji Cha Upendo.
Aware that international funders are increasingly results oriented, founders Leonora and Andrew
Obara took steps to develop an effective fundraising plan.
Step one was to identify the core values and mission.
We saw the need of reaching out and helping the orphans.
So an idea was born because there was a community need for such help, and then Kijiji Cha Upendo
was born in 2010.
Once the organization was launched, the priority was to define the project outcomes.
What did they want to achieve?
And importantly, how to fund it?
The role of fundraising is quite key in running a project like Kijiji because you need money
to put the ideas into reality.
Fundraising also determines, the amount of resources you have determines the scope of
the project or the number of beneficiaries you can bring on board to the project.
Armed with a powerful story and a well developed fundraising plan, Kijiji's founders Leonora
and Andrew Obara began exploring their personal network.
They reached out to contacts in Canada.
I realized it was up to me to tell the story.
I got a group of people together to discuss how we could fundraise, what we could do,
and we tried to form ourselves into an organization.
It's not that any of us are doing anything extraordinary.
Each of us is doing something little.
And together, yes, it becomes something quite big.
Linda Levin, a retired minister from Runnymede Community Church in Toronto,
met the Obaras, and was inspired by the Kijiji Cha Upendo mission.
In 2011, she created Village of Love Canada to support and fundraise for the Kenyan charity.
Linda heard the Kijiji story and responded.
Most of our money comes from gifts, but we also do events.
We've done concerts.
Our big thing now is a square dance for square meals.
And then we have what I might call shopping events.
We sell crafts, lovely African crafts.
It's really important to do the events, not only for the money that it brings in, but
because it brings people together, we get to tell the story to those people, introduce
new people to the project, encourage the donors by letting them know what is being done with
their money.
It is the responsibility of the fundraisers to determine what stories resonate with Canadians.
The Village of Love messages must be clear, and tailored specifically
to the Canadian audience.
I try to understand, as best I can, what they are doing.
But then I interpret and I find a message that I think is right for Canadians.
I try to think what is the heart connection with people?
What is going to move them?
They want to know that we're helping orphan children.
They want to know the heartwarming stuff about women taking in children, not being paid to
do so.
They want to know about women being empowered.
They also want to know that there's a bang for their buck, so to speak.
They like to hear about microloans.
That money goes so far.
It enables women to feed their families with dignity through their own enterprise.
It's brilliant.
It is critical that the fundraising team in Canada and the Kenyan programming team work
together.
Knowing and communicating the funding objectives gives a clear understanding to the fundraisers
of the group's intentions.
What will they do with the funds and why is the funding important?
For the people who have supported you in the past, you give them reports about the resources,
how we worked, and the impact.
That again will help you mobilize more resources.
You know, sometimes if you start a project and you don't tell people what you're doing,
they will never understand it.
They'll never be involved.
Andrew and Leonora are the people who know what needs to be done, they are the experts
on the ground.
They say, "We need so much for the next four months, or so much for the next year," and
we try to raise that.
As the Village of Love Canada grew, it too reached out and joined forces with the CAP
Network, a registered charitable organization that supports AIDS-focused grassroots organizations
in Africa.
The CAP Network offered them capacity building and reach.
CAP stands for Canadian African Partnership.
So they embrace small groups like ours that fundraise, support grassroots organizations
in Africa.
Their specialty is capacity building, so they help the organizations on the ground to build
their capacity.
The CAP Network has charitable status and Village of Love Canada does not.
Where a charity has to apply for funding, CAP Network is the charity that will apply
on behalf of Kijiji, not us.
Through personal connections, the founders are building a network of engaged supporters
that are able to identify and connect with other donors.
The only way that an organization can grow is by connecting with people.
It's people that grow the organization, so you need to keep your eyes open.
It's only through bringing more people into the organization that you can expand what
you do.
It is so important for people from here to visit the people there, because they make
friendships.
Also because of the information that they bring back.
The stories they bring back, their perspective, which is always different to the Kenyan perspective.
Documenting the success stories and recording the impact of the donations can be as simple
as taking a photograph.
Sharing these stories is important in strengthening the relationships with donors.
We couldn't raise funds if we didn't have pictures of children, happy children who are
well fed because this is the result of the project.
And we want pictures of the women, the women at work, so that people here can visualize
a woman with just a few tomatoes, a couple of onions, and that's what she's got to sell
that day for food for her family.
And then you come a few years later and you see a picture of the same woman's kiosk and
it's full of stuff.
I mean, there's nothing that speaks louder than pictures.
Kijiji Cha Upendo is a powerful example of an organization's successful
long term funding strategy.
Raising funds for this project requires a solid fundraising plan and a commitment to
cultivate personal connections.