Page History

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Corporate Fundraising

Starting in Fall 2009, corporate fundraising will be was a new area of focus for the outreach team.  An initial list of prospective companies have has been compiled and stored in the "outreach" Outreach folder of the documents section in the aguaclara gmail account.  This spreadsheet will help record and monitor our progress.  To avoid redundancy and make the process more seamless for future outreach teams, please keep detailed notes of interactions and update contact information as you go on the prospect spreadsheet in the aguaclara AguaClara gmail account.

Two brief points about fundraising from corporations.  First, identify your target with a purpose in mind, in other words think about out why a company would want to support AguaClara or how they might benefit from helping us.  You could randomly pick out some fortune 500 companies, but spending some time researching and answering these questions will help you be more effective.  Second, fundraising is about developing relationships.  Sending a letter is simply the beginning.  Most of the work is in the follow up, which can be a slow, arduous and even frustrating process.  A small The powerpoint document on corporate fundraising can be downloaded on the link belowhas more information.  Of course, clear any company with Professor Weber-Shirk Monroe prior to initiating contact.  Good luck.

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In Fall 2010, limited success was achieved in corporate sponsorship research. The team ran into some difficulties because we do not have 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. In the future, asking for specific donations may be more effective as some companies may be more inclined to donate materials rather than money.

Grants

Finding and applying to grants are a key function of the AguaClara Outreach Team. Below are links to a database and a summary of grant applications that have been completed. Attached to the grant application page are those specific applications we have submitted.

As members of such a unique organization, we must look into a wider gamut of grants. We look for grants that we can tailor to any of the many facets of the project. For our current efforts in creating a series of generic grants for future use, please look at the Grant Text Modules under the Grants webpage.

We search for potential grants using a variety of websites such as:

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A Grant Short List has been created, as well as a more comprehensive Grant Database, showcasing the most current grant applications that the team is working on.

Aside from ensuring that the grants we seek are in accordance with AguaClara's ethical code, the Fundraising Outreach team has also written guidelines for grant writing, facilitating the grant writing process for future Outreach members.

Contacts

The Fundraising Outreach Team is actively involved in developing relationships with potential donors as well as finding contacts within funding agencies that can advocate for AguaClara within their respective organizations. In this respect, the Fundraising group works closely with the Public Relations group. This collaboration occurs because many These organization contacts can yield potential sources of funding as well as opportunities for a press release.

For a complete list of organizations and individuals we have contacted as well as examples of letters we have written to them, please refer to the Outreach Contacts and Outreach Contact Letters page. These letters are valuable resources to team members as they provide guidelines for the level of professionalism expected in all AguaClara correspondences.

Microfinance

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The provision of small loans or microcredit to poor people to help them engage in productive activities including growth of very small businesses is called Microcredit. The term may also include a broader range of services, including credit, savings, and insurance. A database of Microfinance Organizations is maintained by the AguaClara Fundraising group.

Central American Microcredit projects already in existence

In general Microcredit projects can range anything between lending to an individual to implementing a project which would help the whole community at large (generally with the aid of the government or a Non-governmental charitable institution). The current Microcredit projects in Central America are mainly concentrated on small size businesses. Microcredit in Central America has been growing at a steady pace of 12%* in the last decade with Honduras among the lower end of growth spectrum.

How does Microcredit work?

All the Microfinance organizations in Honduras seem to follow the Grameen model for lending purposes, in this model an organization assigns a number of officers to a community to familiarize with the situations on ground and gather loan applications. Once the loan applications are reviewed they decide on potential borrowers (usually the limit is 5 people) and form a group of with all them as members. Then they give money to 2 members of the group (the loan could range from anything between $50 to $5000) and monitor repayments for a two year period. If the two borrowers do return the money on time they extend the loans to everybody else in the group, this dynamics creates a peer pressure among the borrowers to make payments on time.

More information is available on microcredit models that may be applicable to AguaClara.

How can Microcredit can be used to help AguaClara?

Many of the Honduras villages have a Water Board that keeps tax records. The Microcredit institution could verify their credit worthiness and provide them the initial investment required to build the water treatment plant and pay the salaries of the AguaClara/APP employees working on the project.

What is our current position about Microcredit?

Even though the potential applications of Microcredit to fund the building, maintaining and commercializing Aguaclara plants is immense the difficulties associated with organizing a community of people to apply for Microcredit, the time between application for funding and receiving the money and the size of funding provided by the Microcredit organizations is a barrier. After deliberation in class for now we have decided to put a hold on further exploration of Microcredit as a funding option and focus more on traditional funding sources like Grants (as of Spring 2010).  More information about microcredit and Agua Clara can be found at Grameen Foundationon the Microfinance page.