Scammers target those that care about soldiers, world affairs

Leave a reply

Scams abound targeting people that want to support humanitarians in the field, support soldiers serving abroad, or that want to work for the United Nations. The scam always involves the transfer of money or the sending of a money order – which is the same as cash – but the money doesn’t actually go to those humanitarians or soldiers working abroad, and once sent, the money can never be recovered..

I’ve created this post hoping it will get picked up by search engines, so that people thinking of sending money but who think there might be something up might find it and hold on to their funds instead.

Please note:

  • Doctors working in the field for Doctors Without Borders, UNICEF or any humanitarian agencies do NOT request donations via email, online forums or dating sites to fund their work or money to help them travel. If an NGO is raising money for medical missions of its staff, it will do so via a web site and it will be easy to verify if the NGO is legitimate.
  • NO doctors, surgeons or nurses on UN peacekeeping missions raise money for their missions. None.
  • Soldiers on United Nations-related deployments – “UN Peacekeepers” – do not need money to take a vacation or access their bank accounts.
  • The United Nations does not approve military vacations or pensions, or release packages in exchange for a fee.
  • The United Nations does not charge a fee at any stage of its recruitment process (application, interview, processing, training) and does NOT request information on job applicants’ bank accounts. To apply for a job go to careers.un.org and click on Vacancies.
  • The United Nations does not charge a fee at any stage of its procurement process (supplier registration, bids submission).  Visit the Procurement Division to see the latest business opportunities with the United Nations.
  • The United Nations does not request any information related to bank accounts, Paypal or other payment systems.
  • The United Nations does not offer prizes, awards, funds, certificates, automated teller machine (ATM) cards, compensation for Internet fraud, or scholarships, or conduct lotteries.

Want proof that someone claiming that they work for the UN in Iraq and that they need money from you is a liar? It took me all of 37 seconds using Google to find the official web site for the UN Mission in Iraq, which has email addresses you can use to contact someone there to confirm someone is or isn’t working for them. Same for Syria. Same for Afghanistan. Same for any other country.

Another popular scam targeting developing countries is one where a small NGO or charity receives an email claiming that the NGO or charity has been chosen to receive a grant from a well-known foundation or philanthropist, but that the bank account information is needed from the NGO, or a processing fee is needed, in order for the money to be transferred. When I directed the UN Online Volunteering Service, one of the NGOs using the service contacted us to say that they thought they had won a grant from the “Bill and Melinda Foundation” but they hadn’t received the money yet, even though they gave out their bank account information as requested – and, in fact, they were now missing all of the money in their account. I had to tell this small African NGO that they had been scammed. I pointed out to them that the email they had received was full of grammar and spelling mistakes and had even gotten the name of the Foundation wrong. The “foundation” also would never use a Hotmail or Yahoo account – they would have their own domain name. And, finally, foundations, famous actors and musicians and other philanthropists never send money out of the blue to an NGO – there is some kind of personal connection that has been made, with real names from trusted, real references, that leads to such a gift (such as when Prince made donations to PARSA, an NGO in Afghanistan – that happened because of an in-person meeting between the musician and someone associated with the NGO). It was a heart-breaking conversation: this NGO had gone from excitement and happiness to confusion and, ultimately, sorrow and embarrassment.

A better idea than looking for proof: just assume it’s a scam and don’t respond.

April 23  update:

Now, the scammers are going after those scammed! I got a comment on this blog recently that says, in part,

A few years ago, I was the victim of a scam where I was deceived by someone claiming to be general j nicholas, who said he was working with the United Nations on a peacekeeping mission in syria. This person promised to marry me after completing his service in Syria, and as a widowed woman looking for companionship, I unfortunately believed him. In the process, I lost an amount of money to this imposter. However, I recently learned about a compensation program from the United Nations secretary general, Mr, Antonio Guterres. After reaching out through the official email, I have now been refunded, which was a great relief. I am sharing my story to warn everyone to be cautious of scammers posing as the army general online. If you have been scammed in a similar situation, I encourage you to contact the United Nations secretary general through the email below for assistance with a possible refund:
Official Email:….

And the supposed official email is a gmail account!  Which, of course, the United Nations would never use for official communications. CLEARLY, this is a scam. Other ways you know this is an attempt at fraud:

  • There is no web site associated with this supposed official UN program.
  • The United Nations would NEVER set up such a program.

Sad that there are scammers now coming after those who have ALREADY been scammed!

Also see:

Aid workers need to help local staff avoid scams

Folklore, Rumors (or Rumours), Urban Myths & Organized Misinformation Campaigns Interfering with Development & Aid/Relief Efforts, & Government Initiatives (& how these are overcome)

My voluntourism-related & ethics-related blogs (and how I define scam)

14 simple things to do to your web site to attract more donors

Leave a reply

Quit looking for the magic app or crowdfunding platform that will attract online donations for your organization. Attracting online donations is NOT a software challenge: it’s an information challenge.

Here are 15 EASY things your nonprofit, non-governmental organization, charity or other mission-based organization can do right now via your web site that will make your organization more attractive to online donors, who may be current volunteers, new volunteers, family of board members, someone across town or across the country:

  1. Make sure your organization’s full name appears as text on your home page and your “about us” page (not just in the graphic of your logo). This will make your organization’s information easy to find online. Many times potential donors will look for you online based on your organization’s name – you want to make it easy for them to find.
  2. Make sure the location of your organization is on you home page and your “about us” page. You don’t have to give the street address if, for some reason, you don’t want to make your physical address easy to find (such as in the case of a domestic violence shelter or home for foster children) but you do need to say the city, the state or province and the country where your organization is based. Many times I have looked for a particular nonprofit in a particular place and I cannot tell on the web site if the nonprofit is the one I am looking for because it never says what region it’s in – and there are so many nonprofits and NGOs with similar names.
  3. You need to have as much information on your web site about what your organization has accomplished as you do about it needing funds. And don’t just talk about activities: talk about RESULTS from those activities. People want to fund organizations that make a difference, not organizations begging for money, especially organizations that have dire messages about soon closing their doors.
  4. Note what your organization’s costs are. If I make a donation, what is that donation paying for? If most of your funds go to staff salaries, that’s okay: talk about the expertise of your staff, the hours they devote to working directly with those you serve, what they do in their work, etc.
  5. Make sure your web site is free of misspellings and grammar mistakes. If your web site isn’t a good representation of your organization’s work, why would I donate?
  6. Make sure your web site has no outdated information. If I click on “upcoming events” on your home page, and the first item is about an “upcoming” event that actually happened nine months ago, I’m not going to be inclined to donate, because if you cannot maintain an up-to-date web site, perhaps you struggle delivering your programs or managing money as well?
  7. Make sure your web site is mobile ready – it should work on a smart phone, not just a lap top.
  8. Do not say on your web site that you involve volunteers to “save money” or list a monetary value for volunteer hours, because as a donor, my reaction could be, “Why should I make a donation? They should just get volunteers to do the work for free.”
  9. Make sure your web site has everything it needs to attract new volunteers. Volunteers often become donors.
  10. Have a page that describes the history of your organization, who founded it, where it is located, why it was founded, etc. This establishes credibility for your organization.
  11. List the board of directors. This further establishes credibility for your organization – it shows the people willing to be fiscally-responsible for this organization.
  12. Get a group of family members or friends of staff to bring their laptops or smart phones to your organization. Ask them to find your web site online, without using the URL – using only the name of the organization, or something about your mission and your location, like “Help animals in Henderson, Kentucky.” See how long it takes them to find your organization’s web site using various methods and find out how they search for it. Note any problems they have in finding the site and address this accordingly.
  13. With this same focus group, ask what the site says that would make them want to donate. Listen to what they say and make improvements based on that.
  14. Offer a way to donate online. Even if just 10% of all of your donors choose to donate online, that’s money you would not have gotten otherwise, and the number of people that switch from donations by postal mail to online donations rises every year. There should be a way for people to donate using a credit card and Paypal.

And here is a non-web site specific way to increase donations to your organization: Put a notice on every fundraising event or fundraising activity that says that a person doesn’t have to participate in the event or fundraising activity in order to donate to the organization. “You don’t have to attend our black and white ball to donate to our organization! You can make a donation anytime via our website…”

By the way: much of this is the criteria I use when reviewing a site for an organization I think I might donate to – and many times, I have NOT given to an organization because it lacked the aforementioned info.

Also see:

Mission-Based Groups Need Use the Web to Show Accountability

Crowdfunding for Nonprofits, NGOs, Schools, Etc.: How To Do It Successfully

Web Site Construction & Content Suggestions for Nonprofits, NGOs and small government offices

Design Standards and Tips for Nonprofits, NGOs and small government offices

Required Volunteer Information on Your Web Site

Marketing Your Nonprofit, NGO or small government office Web Site

Don’t Just Ask for Money!

Nonprofits & NGOs: you MUST give people a way to donate online

Basic Fund-Raising for Small NGOs in the Developing World

Kenya’s own in-country volunteering program for young people

Leave a reply

Kenya has a national volunteer program for its own citizens to help in-country. It’s called G-United. Its aims: strengthen education outcomes, promote national cohesion & provide development opportunities for youth.

This is a program for Kenya’s own citizens – young people – to be able to take several months devoting themselves full-time to a cause in their own country. It’s similar to the national service programs – AmeriCorps NCCC, AmeriCorps State and National, and AmeriCorps VISTA – in the USA.

Do you have a University degree? Are you Kenyan, aged 21-30? Are you passionate about social change? Join the Kenya Ministry of Education in helping to develop the #literacy skills of the next generation of Kenyans. Apply to volunteer with 1,600 other champions of progress, as part of the G-United 2019 cohort.

On Twitter: @G_UnitedKE.

Reporting impact should be EASY – why do so many struggle with it?

Leave a reply

I think the work of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is one of the most important that my country, the USA, does.

I think foreign aid by the USA, or any other country, is vital to world economic stability and security. I believe foreign aid prevents wars and reduces human migration fueled by violence and poverty. I also believe foreign aid is just the right thing to do, to help people and our world.

Because I think USAID is so important, it’s difficult to see it stumble so badly, especially in a country I dearly love, Afghanistan. And that seems to be the case with Promote, an Afghanistan-based initiative that is USAID’s largest women’s empowerment program in the agency’s entire history. The Promote web site says:

The aim is to advance opportunities for Afghan women to become political, private sector, and civil society leaders and to build upon existing and previous programs for women and girls.

Three years after it launched, a USA government watchdog agency has reviewed the program and cannot find any concrete data that it has helped any women become political private sector or civil society leaders.

The Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR) was established by Congress to monitor spending by the USA in Afghanistan. In its report released last week, SIGAR cites a letter from USAID saying that the Promote program had “directly benefited 50,000 Afghan women with the training and support they need to engage in advocacy for women’s issues, enter the work force and start their own businesses.” The letter added that Promote had helped women “raise their voices and contribute to the peace and prosperity of their country.”

But the SIGAR report notes that these USAID claims for the program are not backed up by any measurable data, such as actual jobs, internships or additional trainings made possible because of Promote’s work.

The SIGAR report notes that:

  • The Promote program changed its performance indicators substantially in its first two years, greatly reducing the number of people it committed to serve.
  • Because it did not complete a baseline study early in its implementation, Promote lacks a starting point from which to monitor and evaluate the program’s progress over its first 2 years and to measure its overall impact in Afghanistan. In other words, evaluation was not baked in right from the beginning.
  • The Promote program delivers much of its programming through contractors, and SIGAR found that USAID/Afghanistan’s records on the contractors’ required deliverables were incomplete and inaccurate because management did not give contractors enough guidance on record keeping and tracking important information about deliverables in a consistent manner. In addition to such records being absolutely fundamental to being able to evaluate impact, the report notes that complete and accurate records are critical to documenting and maintaining institutional knowledge in a mission that experiences high staff turnover.
  • The report also notes that the program didn’t have feedback from contractors on the potential negative impacts of the proposed programming.

In some cases, attendance at a single gender empowerment class organized by Promote was counted as a woman benefiting from the program. One target was to help 20 women find leadership positions in the Civil Service, but none have so far, according to the SIGAR report. One of the few concrete results cited in a study of the Promote project was the promotion of 55 women to better jobs, but the SIGAR report says it is unclear whether the Promote program could be credited for those promotions.

Two people associated with the program that I have seen on social media have been very upset about the SIGAR report and the article in The New York Times about it. They are saying the data IS there – but neither could give me any links to it, say where the data is or how it was collected, etc. One said that the kind of data SIGAR is asking for is impossible because of two things out of the program’s control: the security situation in Afghanistan and because of the conservative nature of the country. To which I say: NONSENSE. Neither of those factors are reasons not to have the data necessary to evaluate this program – if those issues didn’t prevent activities by the program, then they would not prevent data-gathering about such.

Program results are not meetings, not trainings, not events, and not the number of people that participated in any of them. Those are activities and mere activities can rarely be reported as program results. What happened because of the meeting or training or event? What changed? What awareness or skill was gained? What happened to the participant at the meeting, or because of the meeting, that met the programs goals?

Here is just how easy it can be to evaluate a program: Create a survey to be delivered before or at the start of a meeting, a training or event for attendees. You can get answers to that survey as one big group exercise, as a series of small group exercises or in one-on-one interviews if its a low-literacy group or if you don’t believe the target audience will fill out a paper survey. Ask about their perceptions of various issues and challenges they are facing in relation to the issues you want to address. Ask their expectations of your meeting, training or event. Then conduct a similar survey weeks or months, with the same group, and compare the results. TA DA: YOU HAVE DATA FOR EVALUATION OF YOUR RESULTS. This is a very simplistic approach and just scratches the surface on all that the Promote program should have been gathering, but even just this would have been something. It would have given some indication as to whether or not the program was working.

Now, let’s be clear: this SIGAR report does NOT say the Promote program isn’t doing anything and should be ended. Rather, as the report itself says:

after 3 years and $89.7 million spent, USAID/Afghanistan has not fully assessed the extent to which Promote is meeting its overarching goal of improving the status of more than 75,000 young women in Afghanistan’s public, private, and civil society sectors. 

And then it makes recommendations to the USAID Administrator “to ensure that Promote will meet its goal in light of the program’s extensive changes and its mixed performance to
date.” Those recommendations are:

1. Conduct an overall assessment of Promote and use the results to adjust the program and measure future program performance.

2. Provide written guidance and training to contracting officer’s representatives on maintaining records in a consistent, accurate manner.

3. Conduct a new sustainability analysis for the program.

Here’s some tips regarding number 2:

  • give the representatives examples of what data should look like
  • explain the importance of reporting data that shows an activity has NOT worked in the way that was hoped for, and how reporting this data will not reflect poorly on the representative but, rather, show that the representative is being detailed, realistic and transparent, all key qualities for a program to actually work
  • engage the representatives in role-playing regarding gathering data. Have staff members do simple skits showing various data-gathering scenarios and overcoming various challenges when interviewing someone and how to address such. Then have representatives engage in exercises where they try these techniques, with staff playing the roles of government officials, NGO representatives, community leaders hostile to the program, women participating in the program, etc.
  • emphasize over and over that evaluation isn’t a separate activity from program delivery, done at the end of a project, and provide plenty of examples and demonstrations on what evaluation activities “baked in” to program delivery really looks like.

I developed this comprehensive list of questions to answer in preparation for reporting to donors, the media & general public with a colleague in Afghanistan, to help the local staff at the government ministry where we worked know what information donors and UN agencies regularly asked for, and what we anticipated they might start asking for; what subjects the media regularly asked about or reported on, and what we anticipated they might start asking about or reporting on; and what information could be used for evaluation purposes later. It was part of our many efforts to build public sector staff communications capacities in countries where I’ve served. We needed a way to rapidly bring staff up-to-speed on reporting – on EVALUATION – needs, and I think we did with these kinds of efforts. I hope Promote will develop something similar for those delivering their services, and make sure the lists are understood.

Also see:

“But I wanted to help POOR people…”

Leave a reply

A friend works as a manager of volunteers at Meals on Wheels somewhere in the USA – I’m not going to say exactly where, to protect her anonymity. She recently got a response from a volunteer that left her head spinning. “He said his experience has been 5/10 so far because he didn’t expect to deliver Meals on Wheels to people in such nice houses!”

This volunteer is serving in a county where there are not many people living anywhere near the poverty line. Home ownership is quite high. She calls the county “affluent.” However, as she points out:

Meals on Wheels has no age requirement and no income requirement to receive our services. People who have greater incomes do pay a higher fee for their meals, and it’s not like they’re stealing food or volunteer time someone who “needs it more.” I can’t get over this volunteer. You expect for volunteering to magically lead you to a pocket of poverty, and you’re the only person from the outside going in to help?

As one official Meals on Wheels web site says:

Whether you want the convenience of healthy and ready-to-eat meals delivered to your home, or are unable to prepare nutritious meals for yourself, you can receive meals from Meals on Wheels! Meals are available both on a long-term basis and temporarily if you are recovering from surgery or illness… While we ask for a modest contribution toward your meals, the price is based on need.

She asked me, “Do you encounter a lot of people that are unsatisfied with the demographic they’re helping?”

And I said, “Girl…” (I’m from Kentucky, it’s how we start a rant).

I have heard people who have volunteered for Habitat for Humanity say they were disappointed that the people they are building a house for aren’t REALLY poor – because they saw them and they didn’t LOOK poor. I’ve heard volunteers who think if someone isn’t in rags and doesn’t have sunken cheeks then what in the HECK are they doing at that food pantry?! I’ve heard people in the county where I live, one of the most affluent counties in Oregon, talk about how they long to go for a few weeks abroad and help people in another country learn to read, and when I say, “you know, you could get some experience right here at home first doing that” and they look at me like, huh? Why would I do that when the selfies wouldn’t be NEARLY so interesting as in Africa…

I volunteered to be an overnight host at a family shelter hosted at a church near me. The families that night were all single moms with two to four kids each. And how did they look? Like any other family. How exactly are homeless families supposed to look?

My grandmother wasn’t living in poverty – but she most CERTAINLY needed Meals on Wheels. Did the volunteer that came to her well-kept apartment in the senior living complex think, “Oh, geesh, she’s not poor, this is such a let down!”?

Need isn’t limited to the most economically-poor amongst us, and you cannot always see why someone is in need just by looking at their house or clothes or car.

In addition, volunteers shouldn’t start with the mentally of “I am Super Man / Wonder Woman, parachuting in to save the day and I can’t wait to blog about it.” Because they are not Super Man nor Wonder Woman and probably not even Dead Pool (yes, I know, I am mixing the DC and Marvel universes). Make sure volunteers understand what their role is – and what it isn’t. Make sure they understand that they very likely won’t be saving someone’s life or inspiring a child to become a doctor on that afternoon shift next Friday. They most certainly will be making a difference, but talk about what making a difference really looks like, and why doing something that doesn’t seem all that flashy or interesting enough to post to Instagram is actually very important – even vital.

Also, nonprofits, governments and politicians have to stop outreach and messaging that equates poverty or even general need regarding food, shelter and healthcare with someone’s appearance, and stop messages that equate needs around food, nutrition and healthcare with only those living in abject poverty. Poverty and need are complicated issues – let’s stop the stereotypes and embrace the complexity.

June 6, 2020 update: A Meals On Wheels volunteer in Clearwater, Florida may no longer be delivering food in Pinellas County after she refused to drop off meals to people at an upscale condo complex. “Why are we delivering to these wealthy people who can call a deli or Publix or McDonald’s and get their food delivered?” she asked. But the non-profit’s marketing director disagrees with Barnes. “Unfortunately she kind of thought some people on that route didn’t deserve that food,” said Sandra Narron of Neighborly Care, the organization that runs Meals on Wheels in Pinellas County. Narron said the non-profit assesses every applicant and some people pay to have food brought to them. “We don’t distinguish between who pays and who doesn’t pay, whether they’ve got a nice house or whether they don’t have a nice house. That doesn’t matter to us. We’re there to help that client with the food they need” said Narron. Narron said Helen will be able to return once she gets retrained.  “As long as she’s willing to play by those rules, we want her back,” said Narron.Barnes says she will comply. Narron tells us this is the first time she’s had to let a volunteer go in her 26 years with the agency and is using Barnes’ story to remind readers that some people are house rich and cash poor.

Also see:

For those that want to volunteer:

Crowdsourcing / Hive Mind – it’s been happening since at least 1849!

2 Replies

Crowdsourcing is an open, public call for contributions from anyone to talk about a pressing issue, offer advice or data or to help solve a problem or challenge. It’s an open-call brainstorming session. While the term crowdsourcing was popularized online to describe Internet-based activities, there are examples of projects that, in retrospect, can also be described as crowdsourcing, without the Internet.

For instance, in, 1848 Matthew Fontaine Maury, an American astronomer, United States Navy officer, historian, oceanographer, meteorologist, cartographer and more, distributed 5000 copies of his Wind and Current Charts free of charge on the condition that sailors returned a standardized log of their voyage to the U.S. Naval Observatory. By 1861, he had distributed 200,000 copies free of charge, on the same conditions. The data the sailors provided was used to develop charts for all the major trade routes.

The Smithsonian Meteorological Project was started by the Smithsonian’s first Secretary, Joseph Henry, and in 1849 he set up a network of some 150 volunteer weather observers all over the USA. Henry used the telegraph to gather volunteers’ data and create a large weather map, making new information available to the public daily. For instance, volunteers tracked a tornado passing through Wisconsin and sent the findings via telegraph to the Smithsonian. Henry’s project is considered the origin of what later became the National Weather Service. Within a decade, the project had more than 600 volunteer observers and had spread to Canada, Mexico, Latin America, and the Caribbean. These remote volunteers submitted monthly reports that were then analyzed by a professor at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, and published in 1861 in the first of a two- volume compilation of climatic data and storm observations based on the volunteers’ reports.

The Smithsonian information in this blog is from a 2011 article “Smithsonian Crowdsourcing Since 1849!” by Elena Bruno, a Smithsonian intern who conducted research into how crowdsourcing could be integrated into mobile applications and making the Smithsonian experience, for those inside our Institution and beyond, more valuable and engaging.

I miss the crowdsourcing feel of the 1990s Internet, particularly via USENET newsgroups. My favorite was soc.org.nonprofit, for the discussion of nonprofit organization management issues. It was amazing to see someone post a question about how to reach a particular audience or databases or whatever and see knowledgeable people offer helpful advice on the subject within days, sometimes hours. There was lots of help and very little posturing – or trolls. Good times. Read more about the Early History of Nonprofits and the Internet (before 1996).

 

vvbooklittleOnline crowdsourcing is one example of virtual volunteering. Wikipedia is probably the most well-known example of online crowdsourcing, but there are many more. For advice on working with remote volunteers, or using the Internet to support and involve volunteers, whether in crowdsourcing initiatives or in more formal, higher-responsibility volunteering, check out The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook. It’s written by myself and Susan J. Ellis, and is the result of many, many years of research and experience.

Please vote for “Living & Loving Digital Inclusion”

Leave a reply

There are only a few hours left to vote for my proposed session at NTEN: Living & Loving Digital Inclusion!

Voting is open only through August 31. The 2019 Nonprofit Technology Conference will be held in Portland, Oregon, March 13 – 15, and I will be able to go if I get to present! If I can’t present then – let me be blunt: I won’t be able to afford to go.

Digital Inclusion means working to ensure ICT tools, resources and associated spaces are welcoming to the widest audience possible. Helping children in communities with rates of high poverty to access the Internet and gain skills might be the first thing most think of when they hear the term digital inclusion, but it’s also about accessible web and app design, providing safe, encouraging spaces for women and girls in community tech centers and hackathons, and being mindful of our language when promoting or talking about public tech initiatives. This energizing session will give attendees lots of ideas to consider and employ.

Learning Outcomes

  • understand what is meant by “digital inclusion” in practical terms
  • understand the benefits of making “digital inclusion” a priority
  • put into immediate practice activities that improve an organization’s “digital inclusion”

Update: “Although your session received a strong level of support during the voting stages it was not selected as part of this final process to balance out the overall range of topics in the related category.” That’s the final word from NTEN. Unfortunately, I cannot afford to attend the conference (it’s VERY expensive), so even though NTEN will be right in my backyard in Portland, Oregon, I won’t be there. Very sorry to miss out once again on NTEN.

I have already developed the workshop and hope I will get a different opportunity to deliver it.

Would you like for me to speak at your conference or train at your organization? Here’s is more about my presentations and trainings. Also read more about my consulting services.

the first steps for a nonprofit dream

Leave a reply

Some years ago, I worked with a very specific community – I prefer not to say which one nor where it was – that wanted its own cultural center. The community members envisioned a place where they and their families could celebrate their unique culture, host activities that could help address the needs of community members (job training, skills development, counseling, etc.), host events that could educate people about their culture’s history and challenges, offer low-cost childcare for pre-K children, offer after-school activities for teen members of their community, offer activities for elders in their community, offer legal clinics, and on and on.

The challenge I faced in trying to help this community reach their goal is that, in talking about the community center, they wanted to focus only on what the building would look like. They wanted to talk about the kinds of rooms it would have, how it would look on the outside, the murals that would be drawn inside, etc. They even spent time talking about what the logo would look like. And, indeed, those conversations were important, but what was so much more important in starting to talk about the center was their answering these questions:

  • What documented data do we have that shows who makes up our community, in terms of their ages, their backgrounds, their most critical needs and their desires regarding the programs offered via a cultural center? What data do we still need to gather and how might we gather that information?
  • What programs might we launch at first, and which might we want to have later? What data do we have that shows we are prioritizing our initial programming correctly?
  • How do we envision the staffing for our initial programs – by volunteers? If so, what tasks might these volunteers do? Could the tasks be divided into different roles: leadership roles, one-time group activities, short-term individual roles, online volunteering, university classwork, etc.? And what might the costs be to involve such volunteers (recruitment, screening, support, etc.)? Or will we staff these initial programs by paid employees or consultants? If so, what might these roles look and what would the costs be?
  • What will the decision-making and leadership of the center look like? How will the board of directors be chosen? How long will each member serve? How will their fiscal responsibilities and other oversight responsibilities be defined? Will there also be an advisory board?
  • What could we do in terms of programming without our own physical space? Could we leverage church fellowship halls, library meeting rooms, other cultural centers, arts spaces and other existing facilities to offer our own programming until we get a physical space of our own?
  • What would success look like in the first year of our operations? How would we collect data that proves our success?
  • How much would all of the above cost for the first two-five years?
  • What would we need to have in place to get fiscal sponsorship or become an independent nonprofit, and how would we get those things in place? What would the timeline look like?
  • When would we be ready to start accepting financial donations for our efforts and what avenues could we accept those donations (how would we accept and track checks, online donations, even cash donations)?

Altogether, the answers to these questions create both a business plan and all of the information a group needs for a funding proposal. All of these activities create a cultural center without anything having to wait for a building to be built or a rented and, at the same time, make funding an actual building all the more attractive.

Sadly, the cultural center, as a building, didn’t happen, and efforts to offer these programs in other spaces have come and gone over the years. I think community members still dream of a magical mega donor descending into the area and offering them millions of dollars to make this happen.

I think about this situation frequently as I am asked by so many people, “How do I start the nonprofit of my dreams?” The steps are all neatly listed in my blog, but the reality is that it’s messy in execution. None of these steps are easy, but I regularly see new nonprofits flourish after diligently completing each.

If you have an idea for a new organization, a new program or a new project, I recommend you have a look at this UNESCO project planning tool. It’s developed for youth and the projects they want to undertake, but it’s something that a lot of adults could use as well. This can be a good tool to use in a group exercise with the core leadership of your effort to establish a new program or organization.

Also helpful is this free NGO Capacity Assessment Supporting Tool. It can be used to identify an NGO’s strengths and weaknesses and help to establish a unified, coherent vision of what an NGO can be. The tool provides a step-by-step way to map where an organization is and can help those working with the NGO, including consultants, board members, employees, volunteers, clients, and others, to decide which functional areas need to be strengthened and how to go about to strengthen them. Share the results of your using this tool in your funding proposals – even on your web site. The tool was compiled by Europe Foundation (EPF) in the country of Georgia, and is based on various resources, including USAID – an NGO Capacity Assessment Supporting Tool from USAID (2000), the NGO Sustainability Index 2004-2008, the Civil Society Index (2009) from CIVICUS, and Peace Corps/Slovakia NGO Characteristics Assessment for Recommended Development (NGO CARD) 1996-1997.

Also see:

Brilliant volunteer firefighter recruitment video from Germany

Leave a reply

A brilliant volunteer firefighter recruitment video from the station in Meldorf, Germany (Freiwillige Feuerwehr Stadt Meldorf): a man drives by a training exercise by volunteer firefighters in his village. The popups in the video show what professions the volunteers come from: IT professional, farmer, chimney sweep, lawyer, clerk, caregiver, student, etc. It’s meant to say that a variety of people can be volunteer emergency responders (and are needed as such).

A big difference between Germany and the USA re: firefighting is that firefighters aren’t EMTs. Instead, for emergency medical calls, there are ambulance corps throughout the country. That definitely makes it much easier to recruit volunteer firefighters in Germany than in the USA, and as a result of the model used in the country, Germany has the highest number of volunteer firefighters per capita in the world.

Still, this is a terrific recruitment video, one that firehouses in the USA that involve volunteers should consider re-creating for their own communities. Don’t have the video shooting and editing skills to make it happen? Consider recruiting volunteers with such skills from nearby universities and colleges – even high schools.

Also see:

Some people think they aren’t perfect enough to volunteer with you

Leave a reply

Meridian Swift has a terrific blog about the impression our volunteers-in-action photos might give, unintentionally. She imagines this scenario:

Yvonne took in the photos of volunteers working together, triumphant smiles on their busy faces. She imagined how dynamic these volunteers must be, and here she was, shy, insecure, and full of doubts. She wasn’t like them. They were so…amazing and who was she kidding, she was just stumbling through life. With a wistful sigh, Yvonne closed the tab and moved on.

She’s right, and not just about photos: when we celebrate volunteers on the organization web site or in a press release or at a ceremony, we celebrate things most people cannot do: volunteer for more than a decade at the same organization, in the same role, or volunteer 100 hours or more in a year. That isn’t to say that those volunteers shouldn’t be honored, but what about honors for the most tenacious volunteer, or the volunteer who made a big impact with a small project?

As Meridian says in her response to volunteers who may be thinking they aren’t perfect enough to volunteer, per the perfect-volunteers imagery:

You may think we want you to be perfect. What do we want? We want to do some good in this crazy world and we don’t have all the answers. We’re not looking for perfection. We’re looking for you.  

It’s something to keep in mind as you recruit and welcome new volunteers at your organization.

Also see: