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To make your project successful, you must get the resources you need.

There are two kinds of resources:

• Human resources and expertise: knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate
• The financial resources

Human resources and expertise

Identify the skills that exist within your team and those you lack. Find a partner with complementary expertise.

Indaba-Network can provide you with several useful resources :

• Its group of experts and advisers
• The handouts and files that you can download from the Toolbox

Financial resources

The completion of your project requires financial resources. You have established your budget, you know the total costs that you face. You must find the revenues to cover them.

How? There are two possible sources of financing: own revenues and grants.

Own revenues

Potential donors will be more willing to help you if they see that you have made efforts to gain money by yourself.

Here are some ideas for developing your own revenues

• Rummage sale or flea market – you get a van and make a tour of homes in your area asking people to give you used items that can be sold in a booth that you will organize at the next rummage sale or flea market. The tour of the houses must be preceded by a press campaign (article in the local newspaper, radio interview) to market your project and explain why you need money.

• Piggy in the stores – you ask several shops and supermarkets permission to place a sign near the cash with your project and a piggy bank where buyers can deposit loose change at the time they make purchases. You just have to pick up the piggy at the end of each day.

• Show or concert – If you have friends actors, musicians or singers, get their help to organize a musical show or concert. Advertise to bring as many viewers as possible. The benefit of the show will help fund your project.

• Dinner show – it’s a variant of the previous activity, but this time the spectators pay to attend a dinner. The recipe is therefore higher. In addition, you can propose typical dishes of the country where the project will be organized.

• Raffle – Tour the shops to collect lots and organize a raffle.The raffle is a lottery in which numbered tickets are drawn. Attention in some countries, you need to ask an official authorization to organize such an event.

• Bingo - The traditional lottery (rifle, chloroquine, carton full) is played in an evening or an afternoon in a friendly local. At the beginning of the game, players buy one or several cards. On each card, there is a grid with three rows and nine columns. A bingo caller randomly draws a ball or a chip on which is written a number. Each player at the announcement of the number drawn by the playmaker, check whether one of its cards contains the number drawn. If so, it puts a chip on the card. This is followed by another draw, and so on until one of the participants had filled its card. The winner receives a gift in kind given by a shop. (it is therefore necessary to collect lots from the shops in advance). The organization of a bingo may be subject to authorization.

Grant applications

You can also seek financial support from a donor. This requires implementing a well-prepared process that includes the following phases:

1. Set your goal – you have a project with an action plan and budget. You must be able to accurately answer these two questions: what is the amount of the grant you want to get and when.
2. Identify potential donors – Search in your environment what are the potential donors. Some are private: corporations, foundations, banks, non-governmental organizations. Other are public, in Europe, for example, local authorities (communes, departments, regions) can provide grants to support projects.
3. Select the most appropriate donors - learn about the various potential donors on their funding criteria and select those to whom you can go with the best chance of success.
4. Prepare a grant application – often institutional donors (corporations, foundations, governments) have a model on the Internet and a downloadable application that you must follow. But in general, the information requested is already the ones you have collected to build your project:

• What are the problems and needs that you want to answer?
• What are the answers you want to develop (objectives, methods, resources, action plan)?
• What are the obstacles you must overcome?
• How will you evaluate the results and impact (indicators, monitoring and evaluation)?
• What are the resources you already have to implement these responses (human resources, skills, experience, partnerships, equity)?
• What is your budget? (Income and expenditure)
• How much financial support you are requesting?

Useful Resources

• Handout Fundraising Principles and Tips
• Handout Fundraising Events
• Handout Fundraising Strategy
• Handout Grant Application
• Handout Sources and Uses of Money
• Handout Creating a Business Plan
• Handout Business Plan Template

You can also apply for support from Indaba-Network