Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Balaba Peter on February 21, 2011 at 8:42pm

Good forum,   in my own view I think resource mobilization can be done after mapping  out institutions, individuals who can  come in  to address your  challenge (s ) however, the approach matters a lot,  the way you present your proposal is very important.

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Permalink Reply by Alain Berranger on February 22, 2011 at 6:25am

Thank you for this ,Vivien. I have had the privilege to work for many years with Vivien in resource mobilization. I know her advice to be top-notch! I like her preparation framework very much and am using it right now with colleagues in the re-invigorating of the Global Knowledge Partnership... Following her methodology, we intend to drive the new GKP network as a resource mobilization-focused network. Vivien, this is very timely and very useful! Stay tuned if you wish and we will share experience, outcomes and results as we go along, good and bad!!!

Best, Alain Berranger, Vice-Chair, GKP

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Permalink Reply by Vivien Chiam on February 22, 2011 at 11:55am

Hello Alain, thank you for your support and encouragement.  I must say you were the one who first sparked off interest in the subject of resource mobilization within IDRC and led a pilot project to train IDRC-supported institutions.  Much of my knowledge and experiences with resource mobilization came from this bold initiative.  I hope to share what I've learned as much as possible so that we can and we can all learn new things together.  I look forward to hearing about GKP's experiences in resource mobilization.

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Permalink Reply by Alain Berranger on February 23, 2011 at 5:10am

Hello Vivien, you are too kind!...as always it is teamwork that succeeds in fundraising, not individuals alone!  Thanks for your interest in the new GKP Foundation. What GKP is trying to do is to put members at the centre of the network by simply focusing on resource mobilization (RM) for and by the members.  You can imagine that our members will be following closely the discussion that you are facilitating at Telecentre.org. In our case, all earned revenues accrue to members and all RM efforts are led by the member - the secretariat is only in support of members. We have an early success already with the launching of a large 5 year Multi-Stakeholders' Partnership (MSP) sponsored by the GKP Foundation in the Amazon and Galapagos (Ecuador) in partnership with COMAGA (notably a computers-in-schools component, but also much more than that!). Fundacion Chasquinet and COMAGA have raised funds in Ecuador but the RM challenge resides in raising funds from outside Ecuador. Indeed, our members will be following your discussion with much interest!

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Permalink Reply by Alan Foo on March 1, 2011 at 12:11am

 This is interesting.

 Need to learn more about it.

  Alan

 

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Permalink Reply by Vivien Chiam on March 2, 2011 at 11:07pm

The following reply was first posted by Richard O'Farrell on 17th February in the first Forum and I've moved it and my subsequent response here to keep the discussions on "How to Prepare for Resource Mobilization" together.

 

Vivien,

Although my primary interest is in 'Social Purchasing by engagement with the Diaspora and others, as an alternative method of fund-raising' - I read your Mobilisation preparation inputs with great interest and found your attached article to be excellent too, especially your Key Elements & the S.W.O.T. description. The language is simple and very clear, yet empowering and the end result when applied will be deceptively productive.

I have now also considered carefully your closing question then: "Are there any other useful elements or pointers which you would like to add to this process?" and would suggest the following addition - a Collaboration between TeleCentres & Local Enterprise, led by Co-ops, as an end goal, a purpose - for their people to be enabled to deliver Traded-Services (rather than products alone) and in this way to give effect to Social Purchasing as a means of future TeleCentre fund-raising within overall Resource Mobilisation.

To give a picture of how this might happen: Every Country is a Nation of Communities, residing in Villages (even within Cities or Towns) - so what happens when the Co-op Movement joins in a joint Project with the TeleCentre Movement in the Villages? They create an eCo-op, where Jobs are created and Trade is enabled. What kind of Jobs & Trade? Smart (eSkilled) Jobs and Traded-services for export. With what Content? Culture Content as hospitality and export services respectively - led by Homecoming Tourism services, Sustainable Tourism & Culture Tourism and followed by Digital Culture services. This in the end is all about People, living in Villages within Global Communities - no longer is the issue about Economies, its about people's own Innovative Ideas. In the words of Charles Leadbetter: "In the Economy of Things you are on your Own; in the Economy of Ideas, you are what you Share". I have published fuller details of how this can be achieved on www.voxworld-coop.ning.com.

Richard

 

 

 

Permalink Reply by Vivien Chiam on February 19, 2011 at 10:23am

 

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Thank you, Richard, for suggesting such a creative new way of resource expansion for telecentres.

I have heard of efforts in a somewhat similar direction.  The International Development Research Centre of Canada (where I worked previously) supported the establishment of a multi-purpose telecentre in Luang Prabang, Laos.  One of the many ideas for income-generation for the telecentre was to help the tourism sector in Luang Prabang market its services through online promotion as many of the small hotels and related services did not have the capability to maintain their own online presence.  Thus, in a way, they planned to do what I think you are suggesting - the telecentre becomes the exchange through which tourism traders and tourism consumers could transact business.

 

It would be interesting to hear the views of our telecentre managers on what they think of Richard's idea. I hope some of you will respond.

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Permalink Reply by Vivien Chiam on March 2, 2011 at 11:23pm

Dear Telecentre friends,

 

I notice that you are taking a little longer to react to my article on "How to Prepare for Resource Mobilization".  I hope some of you are at least attempting to go through the readiness assessment process with your teams and colleagues.  If so, good!

 

What I fear is that many institutions simply do not bother to allocate the time to do this preparatory work and rush straight into their fundraising initiatives due to time constraints.  What they may find is that their team may not be that well-coordinated to deal with the riguours of donor relation-building and management.  Has that happened to you?  What did you learn from it?

 

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Permalink Reply by Alain Berranger on March 3, 2011 at 6:04am

Yes, this is very innovative and right on in my book BUT as a type of fundraising technique based on an e-commerce platform which is culturally sensitive and adapted. In other words, show cultural sensitivity and create a social platform trusted in a  given local community linking diaspora and the villages back home. Then the e-commerce platform will be trusted first as a culturally-comfortable social network and thereafter used as an e-commerce platform. A GKP Foundation members, iMalls Global, is the owner of NuestraPlaza - see http://www.globalknowledgepartnership.org/gkp/index.cfm/pageid/232/.... It is promoted and enabled in Ecuador for instance by another GKP member - Fundacion Chasquinet, see - http://www.flickr.com/photos/fundacionchasquinet/5280476448/.

Experience Nuestra Plaza at: http://nuestraplaza.com/

best , Alain Berranger, vice-chair, GKP Foundation

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Permalink Reply by Vivien Chiam on March 3, 2011 at 11:09am

Alain,  thank you for your sharing.  I am so glad to learn of the existence of iMalls Global as the e-commerce platform for the rural areas of the Americas.  You will recall that IDRC established the Pan Asia E-commerce Mall in the 1990's for exactly the same purpose - to help Asian NGOs venture into e-commerce with step-by-step guidance and support and without having to pay high setup costs.  

 

I'm especially delighted to learn of the added dimension - the role of the telecentre as the logistical distribution centre for online purchases.  This is a great idea!  In Japan, when e-commerce first sprouted, it was helped by the part that 7-Eleven stores played as a trusted ordering and collection centre, where the e-commerce kiosks were placed and where consumers could go to to collect their purchases.  I think this concept can be further explored with private sector partners - for example, telecentres partnering with online malls to be their distribution centres.  The merchants could help set up the computer and software and provide the training to place orders.  Telecentres should be able to charge a small percentage for their services and treat this as a revenue stream.

 

Can we hear from the telecentre managers - what do you think of servicing online purchasing as an income-generation means?

 

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Permalink Reply by Vivien Chiam on March 3, 2011 at 10:51am

The following message was posted by Richard O'Farrell on the vision of the telecentre having the potential of being the Hub of every community.  I cannot agree with Richard more.  Telecentres can go one step further - to help the community progress to an e-society through ICT exposure and training opportunities.

 

Vivien,

In my earlier contribution of 17th Feb I wrote of the idea for engaging their Diaspora (to which you added and I agree: "....or people who have left the villages to work in the cities") in Social Purchasing as an additional or alternative in what is a self-sustaining means of Fundraising for Telecentres. We know that Telecentres need ongoing and hard to find funding to enable them to reachout to what is a vast and as yet unreached audience with a Digital Agenda, helping people of all ages to cross the Digital Divide and thus to avoid being left behind, as virtual 'second class citizens' (to requote one Telecentre presentation), in the Knowledge Economy-driven Digital Society that surrounds us today. What does all that mean in practice? It means everything.

The future most certainly belongs to people, to anyone and everywhere, with eSkills - as most Jobs & Trades tomorrow will be provided by ICT literate workers, of which there is a great global shortage to meet the new demands of a world that is becoming increasingly connected through access via mobiles, telecentres, SAT kiosks and other online means. Indeed the advantage lies with those Communities who know the Language and understand the Culture of these vast numbers of new customers.

For those who are prepared, have access or are able to learn those eSkills - Job Opportunities will open up on a scale never before seen or envisaged. And of great importance, the entrance to this Knowledge Economy starts at home, wherever there is access to the Internet for Information in the first instance; where 'Information with understanding' becomes Knowledge. Now the Telecentre Movement is already ideally placed at the entrance to those Knowledge Economies everywhere. What is most clearly needed today by those with such access however is further access to eSkills Education - access and affordability of the ICT Courseware and Tutors, to learn the essential Computer Skills so as to be able to avail of all that the worldwide web has to offer; and above all to be able to Learn through access to eLearning at Telecentres and to thus to be able to proceed to Earn within their global Community. As I said before, Courses that are recognised worldwide include ECDL & ICDL www.icdl.org, the Computer Skills certification programme. With those eSkills, the tools then openly available to everyone include being able to open a Local Community or Small Business website for E-Commerce services-trading; with local created Content; with access to e-Banking services including Microfinance for small businesses; with access to eHealth knowledge; as well as to eSkills Training for in-demand Jobs; and access to general Employment Opportunities at home and cross-border.

The TeleCentre is ideally situated to become the Hub of every Local Community. once it mobilies its resources in the way you have so well described here Vivien. Richard

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Permalink Reply by Vivien Chiam on March 14, 2011 at 11:22am

Dear friends,

I hope some of you had a chance to try using the tool I posted to help you assess your readiness to do resouce mobilization. What did you find? Did you gain any new insights by applying the SWOT analysis for resource mobilization?

We will soon move to the next Action Step in resource mobilization planning, which is to scan the external environment and construct a donors/investors' map. But I would urge you to take the time to complete Action Step No. 1 first (Preparing for Resource Mobilization).

See you soon at the next Forum.
Vivien Chiam

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