the funding business: build capacity to interest funders | lightning workshop summary
DESCRIPTION
The 90-minute lightning workshop consisted of: A review of the stakeholders engaged in the funding space, Three presenters sharing applied knowledge and a toolkit, A discussion of the participants’ experiences with funders. LPN Consulting LLC designed the content and activities to help participants understand where gaps currently exist in their operations; and what they could do to close those gaps, structure their operations and improve their resource mobilization efforts.TRANSCRIPT
Designed and Led by: LPN Consulting LLC Hosted by: U.S. Department of State Bureau of African Affairs
LPN is leading implementation and capacity building for game changers in support of policy and program initiatives. -‐ -‐ Lena Prince Nchako
The Funding Business: Build Capacity to Interest Funders
October 14, 2015
Lightning Workshop Summary
Special thanks to:
Nicole Peacock
William Strassberger
Michele Reamey
of the U.S. Department of State Bureau of African Affairs for their planning and implementation support!
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“The workshop goals align with the mission of the Bureau of African Affairs under the leadership of Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Linda Thomas-‐Greenfield” -‐-‐Lena Prince Nchako, Principal LPN Consulting LLC
Welcome Message from the Lightning Workshop Organizers
The workshop goals align with the mission of the Bureau of African Affairs, under the leadership of Assistant Secretary of State, Linda Thomas-‐Greenfield. The approach is to look at traditional and innovative techniques and collaborations that will allow us to integrate sources and build cooperative team–based solutions for businesses and entrepreneurs, as well as community based solutions for nonprofits to meet the economic and social goals and aspirations of public-‐private partnerships and society. This workshop sits at the interface of policy, advocacy and Diaspora engagement to focus on their combined interrelationship.
At the end of the lightning workshop we hope that we would have heard from each of you on how we can build leadership capacity and an engagement machine that incorporate business, academia and government in the business of funding as well as integrate traditional and innovative funding strategies to interest funders.
We thank those who have actively engaged in making this workshop a reality, and for its success. We encourage each of you to actively contribute to this promising capacity building area, and believe that you will experience enhanced results as you apply the knowledge gained and information collected to your respective missions and visions.
(Washington D.C.) – The lightning workshop entitled, The Funding Business: Build Capacity of Interest Funders, addresses the question of how to interest funders. Lack of focus on funding for your businesses and programs is one of the major challenges for all enterprises. The question is how do we take the information being provided in capacity building programs, open forum at all levels, and from all sources to solve the problems inherent in Diaspora Engagement and Economic Development – “Lack of Funding!”
In the past, planning for funding has not been prominent in the development of strategies and high-‐level solutions. One recurring issue is the plethora of recommendations and solutions being offered. How do you implement them to stem the very real day-‐to-‐day problems of funding limitations?
In order to address the knowledge and implementation gap between aspirations and achievable goals, we have designed this lightning workshop as an interactive session that focuses on how to think about and implement sustainable solutions to the issue of funding.
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“Crowdfunding is gaining momentum as a conceptual funding model where funders donate via a collaborative goal based process or an investment model where businesses seeking capital sell ownership stakes online .” -‐-‐Hannibal Hopson, International Affairs, GWU ’17 , Volunteer Technology Coordinator, LPN Consulting, LLC
The Funding Model – Excerpts from Handout
Funding is not exclusive of each other. They occupy a symbiotic relationship. Successful funding models
ideally operate in a sweet spot. That is, the overlap of all the funding possibilities appropriate and
applicable to your business model.
Outcomes of Workshop
• Understanding how the funding business works
• Understanding how funders think about funding and its place in a business model
• Devising a framework for overcoming the challenges faced by SMSEs and Diaspora nonprofit
organizations in securing integrated funding
What Funders Like to See
• Transparency
• Good planning and strong leadership
• Projects that are scalable, replicable and sustainable
• Effective data that inform of the needs of the entities and support claims
• Compelling mission and vision statements
• Captured customer and beneficiary statistics, competitive factors and industry transformation
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“These tips offer a broad view of the process of fundraising and general strategies for securing and keeping the interest of funders.” -‐-‐M. Frances Stubbs, Ph.D., Director of Development, Howard University, College of Engineering, Architecture and Computer Science
• Develop a vibrant environment to attract philanthropy • Establish a communication strategy
• Develop an effective marketing/promotional packet in concert with building your website so they are synchronized
• Research and network
• Ask often and steward quickly and continuously
• Engage your donors
• Collect persuasive data to help make your case for support
Engage your funders and partners
Operating successfully in a blended space requires an integrated business and funding model that is a good fit. Funders look for:
• Indications that you have capacity and capabilities or can develop in-‐house to attempt broad outreach even in one geographic area
• Indications that you have natural partners and collaborative teams • Fully engaging your stakeholders by investing time and resources in
building awareness, accessing donors, adopting a process, involving others and promoting your vision and mission
• Appropriate strategies that leverage and increase your business or organization’s resources within the space
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Basic Mistakes
• No reciprocal benefit for partners and funders
• No connection to the funder
• Not asking repeatedly and enough people
• Failing to plan or non-‐specific plan
• Inconsistent implementation and sporadic action
• Ignoring supporters – no continuous stewardship plan
• Cultivating celebrities and known name that do not know you
• Starting with a whimper instead of a high-‐impact strategy
Tips for Building Strong Funder Relationships
• Ask early and in progressively
larger numbers
• Analyze the response
• Build data for monitoring &
evaluation
• Develop and define your
process-‐ the 4 Rs: refine,
replicate, review and report
Recommendations for the next 12 months from Participants
• Devise a framework to overcome challenges in interesting and attracting funders
• Develop a group stakeholder engagement and affinity model to build an infrastructure and processes around Diaspora funding strategies
• Demonstrate capacity and capabilities as a cohesive unit
• Team up to engage stakeholders and funders
• Support this workshop as a model for implementation leadership capacity building
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Acknowledgments
Workshop Leaders:
Lena Prince Nchako, Principal and Strategic Advisor, LPN Consulting LLC About LPN
Mary Frances Stubbs, Ph.D, Director of Development, Howard University, College of Engineering, Architecture and Computer Sciences, (CEACS) Hannibal Hopson, George Washington University, International Affairs, ’17, 2015 The West Corporation Volunteer Leader. Sponsors: About BEMA Patricia McDougall Photography Sourei-‐ Colin Nchako Martin Djoukeng -‐ Space 2000 Sylvia Nomeny Kaade Wallace The West Corporation Volunteer Network, Diaspora Resource Center-‐DC Cooperative – Marie Noel Meka Appreciation:
U.S. Department of State Bureau of African Affairs About IdEA IdEA Diaspora Map USAID Link: http://www.diasporaalliance.org/capacity-‐building/ U.S. Global Development Lab Center of Transformational Partnership for content support: https://www.usaid.gov/GlobalDevLab/global-‐partnerships
References:
USAID Global Lab: https://www.usaid.gov/GlobalDevLab
U.S. Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency: http://www.mbda.gov/
Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). www.case.org
Funding and partnerships key challenges for African diasporas – study | Global Development Professionals Network | The Guardian 8/28/15 2:31 PM http://www.theguardian.com/global-‐development-‐professionals-‐network/2013/may/01/african-‐diaspora-‐global-‐development
IGS Capabilities
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Appendix
Number of invitees: 25
Number of participants: 20
12 business owners & entrepreneurs
6 nonprofit operators
1 IdEA representative (partner)
1 U.S. Department of State representatives (partner)
Number of participants for follow-‐up: 12
For Immediate Release – October 13, 2015 Media Contact: Hannibal Hopson, [email protected], 202-‐823-‐6691
Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Linda Thomas-‐Greenfield (left) and Lena Prince Nchako (right) at the ECOWAS Ambassador’s Reception in Washington D.C.
(Washington, DC) – LPN Consulting LLC and the U.S. Department of State Bureau of African Affairs have partnered to present The Funding Business: Build Capacity to Interest Funders workshop on Wednesday, October 14, 2015.
This featured event in Global Diaspora Week has attracted a diverse audience from across public and private sectors within the Diaspora. It is a key session of the Bureau’s Global Diaspora Week program, October 9 -‐16, 2015.
“The workshop goals align with the mission of the Bureau of African Affairs under the leadership of Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Linda Thomas-‐Greenfield. It emphasizes support for African economic growth and development, and promotes opportunity and sustainable solutions in the development of capacity for creating integrated funding mechanisms spearheaded by the African Diaspora,” said Lena Prince Nchako, Principal of LPN Consulting LLC.
The workshop content emphasizes that a credible implementable funding plan and framework must be prominent in the development and delivery of high-‐level solutions, and it will also demonstrate how to plan for funding as a priority for resiliency building. ##
LPN Consulting, LLC supports implementation goals for businesses, nonprofits and universities. Our team focuses on building and implementing operating infrastructures and systems, and advancing resource mobilization and its place in international development through capacity building. We help to build resource mobilization into the formulation and articulation phases of policy, country strategies and strategic planning as well as communicate it systemically through team-‐building, training, implementation modeling and stakeholder engagement across policy, advocacy, education and Diaspora platforms, and public-‐private partnerships. LPN Consulting LLC has over 25 years experience providing systemic support and partnering with African and other Diaspora groups around the world.
Effective implementation bridges the gap between your vision and successful results. —Lena Prince Nchako
The U.S. Department of State Bureau of African Affairs, under the leadership of the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Linda Thomas-‐Greenfield focuses on the development and management of U.S. policy concerning Africa. The Bureau convenes the African and African-‐American Diaspora Working Group (AAMDWG) in support of small and medium-‐size enterprises and Diaspora organizations under its foundation pillars — supporting African economic growth and development; and promoting opportunity and development.
Doing Business in Africa is not limited to the GEs, ExxonMobils, or Boeings. The Diaspora can help keep Africa on the road to growth and prosperity through their networks, and by investing their resources. Goal of the DBIA Campaign: 20x20 Initiative to support a total of 20 trade and reverse trade missions by 2020. —Linda Thomas-Greenfield, 2014 Global Diaspora Week.
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but collectively we can make a change --Matshela Molepo
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L-‐R, Arnold King, Elam Awalom, Amadu Massaly
Photo Credits:
Patricia McDougall
Aldrinana Leung, U.S. Department of State