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Chris Taylor
Nashville, TN
I am the US Director of a student driven, volunteer sending non-profit called Manna Project International. I live in Nashville, TN. I plan to own a dog one day.
Recent Activity
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Chris commented on the article |
Loved this post Catlin.
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Chris commented on the article |3, 12, and 14 are my favorites. Great advice Catlin.
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Chris commented on the article |Great post Mark. I admit I'm often guilty myself of focusing too much on the theory and less on the personal aspect of development work. Probably a result of too much office work and not enough field work.
I read a recent post on Harrison Barnes' job search blog about how strong the demand for hope is.
http://www.aharrisonbarnes.com/2009/06/you-need-to-offer-hope/
Everyone single group of people has the desire for hope and we often make great sacrifices for it. That includes donors. While it's not the most rational human desire, it is extremely powerful and it greatly affects how people behave (including donors).
To answer you question about how to convince the UNICEF donors of the importance of your nutrition program, I would say that you need to couple your treatment of malnourished individuals with programs that provide hope for a better future.
For example, Manna Project's child sponsorship program provides vitamin enriched milk, oatmeal, and medical check-ups to malnourished children in Nicaragua. But they also engage the mother's in monthly health talks and run supplemental education programs for the communities there. That not only makes the nutrition treatment more effective, it also provides hope for a better future, something that sustains volunteers and donors.
In your case, you as a fundraiser would be putting yourself at a serious disadvantage by framing the sitution as hopeless so stay away from any language that would suggest that. No donor wants to be part of treading water. They want to improve the situation and move things forward. It's not because of some proven, tested development theory. It's human nature.
This should not only guide how you speak to donors but also how you design your strategy and approach. Sorry if this just sounds like more development talk but you can control the way you approach and present your work much more than you can control the way donors think.
Hope this is helpful. Keep up the great work. -
Chris commented on the article |Lauren,
Thanks for the post! Now that microlending is so widespread and exists in regions (and among segments of the population) where regulation is so difficult, there are many more opportunities for exploitative practices. I would argue though that the exploitation has always been there but hopefully with the emergence of more MFIs into the market, competition will drive these exorbinant interest rates down. The flip side is that competition may also create difficulties for the most socially conscious institutions.
Also, I was shocked by the figure on PRISMA's interest rate so I looked them up on the mix market http://mixmarket.org/en/demand/demand.show.profile.asp?ett=1653&#. They are registered there as an NGO, not as a for-profit agency. And Planet Rating gave them a 3+ out of five. (I assume Planet Rating is a trustworthy rating agency but I have no idea.) I couldn't find their interest rates though. Where did you get your figure on interest rates?
Also, have you met up with my Manna friends in Quito yet? You should soon if you haven't! Best of luck in Ecuador.
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Chris commented on the article |
Nice post Alice. It took me a couple times with the basketball video but I think I picked up on what you're getting at. Interesting analogy for how we tend to approach development work.
