The Start of a Local Fund-Raising Journey
Once again the Uganda National NGO Forum (UNNGOF) in partnership with Change the Game Academy organised a Local Fundraising training for Wilde Ganzen partners in Uganda.
This year the local fundraising training took a different turn. The content was not only limited to class content but also team building and soft skills.
Participants’ creativity, confidence and presentation skills were tested through several exercises; elevator pitch, active listening, building a case for support, brainstorming on Local Fundraising steps, setting up a local fundraising plan and coming up with a local Fundraising Event ideal for projects created.
The one-week training (19th to 23rd September 2022) provided a reflection space for organisations to share the possible local fundraising strategies for projects across all sectors. One of the organisations; Restitute Team –Uganda shared that since it was founded, it has solely been depending on local funds from the community and its management to support the implementation of projects. This sharpened the attitude of the participants that local fundraising is possible and is not only limited to funds but can be in kind and time.
By the end of the training, participants attested that the knowledge acquired had given them a standard on how to carry out local fundraising in their communities. Others promised to pay it forward by sharing the knowledge with other organisations in their communities and possibly setting up consultancies on Local Fundraising.
Another added that the publicity of their projects has been lacking, but with the skills acquired they can innovatively build their case for support and design organizational leaflets to publicize their work more.
As the Executive Director of UNNGOF awarded participants with certificates, he emphasized that knowledge acquired not put into practice serves no purpose. He also commissioned participants to go out and train their team members to actualize the fundraising plans made. Finally, he urged CSOs working in the area of governance to jump on to the local fundraising journey as this would lessen the bias that their organisations are foreign agents.
