You can use these questions to help kick off this discussion thread:
- What is makes fundraising for human rights work unique, compared to fundraising for other sectors such as development and humanitarian work?
- How do human rights organizations find the financial support they need? What challenges do human rights organizations face when finding the right funders? It’s not easy to stay on top of changes in funder priorities, requirements and process - how can we work together to master the ever-changing fundraising environment?
- How do funders find human rights organizations whose work supports their mission/vision? What challenges do funders face?
- What is the environment today for funders and fundraisers? How can we ensure that funders, governments and individuals continue to support human rights work? More advocacy? Lobbying?
Share your experiences, thoughts, ideas and questions by adding a comment below or replying to existing comments!
Thanks so much for opening this dialogue, I am really looking forward to hearing from everyone!
I would say that what makes fundraising for human rights unique (particularly in comparison to fundraising for other sectors) is this.
Human rights work is complex. It is uncomfortable and emotionally challenging. It doesn't fit nicely into a box ... so when it comes time to 'package' it into something that is concrete and understandable, we all struggle to tell the story in brief, high-impact sound bytes.
Aside from the extreme manifestations of human rights abuses -- such as genocide, massacres, torture (sometimes) -- the violations of human rights we are all addressing often don't inspire the kind of interest needed from mainstream funders. Even when funders are interested, the next hurdle (which I know we'll be discussing) is how to engage them in investing in long-term solutions.
Humanitarian emergencies (a field I've worked in for over a decade) tend to receive a lot of support initially -- say in the first few months of a disaster. In these cases, it is easiest to get funding for supplies and obvious services -- such as food distribution, tents, water, medical supplies. In the longer term, as the emergency fades from view and the underlying challenges arise (think Haiti and the sexual violence in camps post-earthquake as one of many examples), the funding also fades.
I think that as a result, we tend to work best with the funders who 'get' the work, and who are inspired and committed to dealing with complexity.
Often we don't have the time -- or the capacity -- to reach out to other potential donors who may be interested, but need support to better understand the issues and to build these relationships.
Thanks for starting this conversation, Jane! I wonder if another reason why human rights work is unique with regard to fundraising is because it can sometimes (unfortunately) be political. As you say:
Yes - completely! And I think successful human rights work can also be uncomfortable for governments, corporations and others that are threatened by this work. There are many human rights organizations who work to hold institutions accountable for their human rights record. I would imagine that there are some governments that are not eager to fund a human rights organization that monitors the human rights situation of their prisons (for example). I believe that this would most likely apply to governments as opposed to foundations and individual donors, but I would welcome your thoughts!
Is it fair to say that human rights work is often more threatening to governments than other sectors like development and humanitarian work? If so, how does this impact fundraising?
Kristin, I think it is very fair to say that human rights work can be perceived as more threatening to governments than other sectors. I would add that from my experience working with aid agencies in the humanitarian world, once humanitarian agencies move into more 'rights-based' work, and also into rights-based advocacy, they also risk their funding base (and have been involved with many conversations about this -- for example during interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, or around work in Palestine).
Another aspect to this is when governments choose to support human rights work (or jump on a 'human rights bandwagon') in order to further their own political aims. The use of human rights abuses as an excuse for military intervention immediately springs to mind, as well as western military forces use of humanitarian aid during combat operations to 'win hearts and minds'. Think Afghanistan, Bosnia, etc.
How does this impact fundraising? I think that as a result, some organizations back away from rights-based work when they perceive their funding may be threatened. Others may tone it down.
And others may simply refuse to take money from those governments, which is a strategy (though complex -- I see there is another thread discussing guidelines on how to make these choices, which is very helpful).
I wish I could be more optomistic that this will change -- I remain hopeful, but I also think it is better for us as human rights organizations to be clear on why and how we accept government funding (and other sources of funding), without compromising the reality that the work can be perceived as political.
Freedom of expression is the human rights area that IFEX focuses on, and we have discovered through engaging donors in a research project that there are many answers to the question 'where is the money'. Last year we sent out a survey to a number of donors that support work in the field of free expression and many of them had difficulty themselves giving a complete picture of all of the 'locations' where free expression work is funded from in their own institutions - be it in Democracy, Human Rights, Governance, Media Developement, or more rarely but so welcome under Freedom of Epxression! Imagine then the challenge for all of the frontline free expression groups around the world trying to keep up to date on the latest trends in free expression funding. Not to mention the myriad changes in programming policy and programme officers that shake things up on a regular basis.
The answers we did get in our research told us a few things that surprised us – that funding for free expression wasn't necessarily declining (as it had seemed to the majority of IFEX's member groups, who we had surveyed previously) – but that it was moving into new areas, such as 'Internet freedom' – a whole new domain where human rights and technology intersect, for example, and of course surging into places where massive social change is taking place such as Middle East /North Africa, and completely drying up in other parts of the world where it is still seriously needed such as Latin America.
We published the results and you can find them online – a summary is available in English, French, Spanish, Arabic and Russian from the website of our research partner, Center for International Media Assistance. And the full research report is available too – in English only:
You can also find the results of our original research across the over 80 IFEX member groups asking them about their experiences and challenges in raising free expression funding here:
As a network of dozens of small and large NGOs, IFEX often hears from its members about these challenges, and we also face our own, so in conversation with some of our donors, we decided that we could help start more of a dialogue between NGOs and donors by looking into some of these vexing resource questions and using the results as a springboard for discussion. We found many donors very forthcoming in sharing what they could about their side of the coin, so to speak :)
So I'm happy to share these findings, and this approach, here and would be interested in hearing more about everyone's experiences in this regard.
Maureen
Thanks so much, Maureen, for sharing your IFEX findings on the struggles that your members have faced in fundraising! I took a look at the report Funding Freedom of Expression - an IFEX Overview and I wanted to share something from your report here, because I think it relates well to the struggles that other human rights groups are facing:
When asked, do you face challenges in finding funding? 88% responded YES! The biggest challenges in finding funding were:
Does this sound familiar?
Are there other initiatives exploring and seeking to understand the trends in fundraising and the challenges that are being faced? I know that the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) launched the Where is the Money initiative in 2005 to increase the amount and quality of funding for women’s rights work. They have a number of reports available for free on their website, including one on Trends In Bilateral And Multilateral Funding.
Please share any other related reports, findings, intiatives here!
Hi,
I work with Consumes International on promoting consumer rights. We celebrate each year on March 15th, the World Consumer Rights Day, because in 1962 president John F. Kennedy spoke about 4 basic consumer rights (have a look at our site for more information: www.consumersinternational.org).
Consumer rights are human rights; even though they are not about torture or other horrible things, people still get "screwed" (sorry for the language) because of abuse clauses in contracts, unsafe products, etc. which can set back people economically or harm them physically or emotionally.
I feel that these kind of rights issues are transversal and therefore apparently not that interesting to funders as, for example disaster relieve. Something which makes it quite hard for us to find funds. So I will be logging in a lot this week to see if you have useful tips and ideas for us :-)
Thank you in advance, Hubert
Glad you can join us for this conversation, Hubert!
Yes, it can be difficult to keep funders interested in your work - especially because often it can take years and decades to see the outcome of ongoing human rights work. In other cases, the human rights work never stops, which is I think the nature of your work in protecting consumers' rights.
How have you, Hubert and others, kept funders engaged in supporting your work? What has worked and what has not worked so well? How do we keep funders interested or engaged for the long haul? Or perhaps the question is: is it important to keep funders engaged for the long haul?
Hi Hubert - You do pose a challenging question. We might have experienced a related type of challenge at IFEX, because we are a network hub... and many funders don't immediately see the value added of a 'central point' that facilitates and catalyses work of individual organisations that also need funding. (In fact in our donor resarch we asked them about their interest in funding networks, coalitions etc - many were favourable to it!)
So our challenge for years has been how do we distinguish what we do and show the value of 'being' a network - and one of our main ways has been to find ways to have our members explain the value of what we do for them in their own words... We know our work is working if they are asking us to do more of it and if they can point to specific examples of the difference we have made to their work. So maybe that is somethign you have already tried - telling specific stories of how the work you do improves lives and your organisation's specific piece of the picture that is different and necessary. We do bi-annual surveys of our members to check in on the value of our programme work as well as involving them directly in our planning, policy development, etc. so that we plan everything with their experiences and priorities at the fore.
Maybe that could spark some more ideas?
Thanks for asking!
Maureen
Hi Kirstin and Maureen:
I am too new at fundraising to be able to say whether it is good or not to maintain a relation with a funder. I know that it is easier to maintain a customer than find a new one, so I assume the same holds true for donors. However, once donors decide to change their course, one cannot simply change with them and become "donor-driven". Still, maintaining one's own principles can also damage your income.
The ideas for a donor survey and using the stories of our member organisations are great.
Thanks, Hubert
Hi Hubert
You said: However, once donors decide to change their course, one cannot simply change with them and become "donor-driven".
I think that's really important to keep in mind. I think a few of us are saying it is definitely something to avoid. And so again it comes back to being in regular communication with your donors... to find out and get advance warning if possible about changes they are coming up against that might change their support to you. It happens all the time - even though we have great relationships with our donors, things change at their end, their priorities change, people change, etc... and so you're right we can't always just change along with them. So we have to be ahead of that curve and hopefully have 'irons in the fire' with other potential donors... so that when some change course we have new ones coming along to take their place. And for me, that's the challenge I find in 'sustainability'... donors will eventually shift direction, and you have to be ready for what to do when that happens.
Maureen
Pete--
What is the average size of gift from your individual donors and how large is your database? How many donors do you add each year? Our organization is not new, per se, but we are taking a more focused approach to developing individual donors.
Thank you, Pete. I look forward to hearing more about the success of your individual donor base.
Jeremy
Thank you for hosting this online dialogue and for the mention of AWID's initiative Where is the Money for Women's Rights? (WITM).
WITM has been researching many of the issues raised here, especially around convincing donors of the impact of our work as rights organizations and the importance of funding rights work when the changes we are seeking are long-term and complex. What WITM tries to do is to offer a collective perspective on funding — which we refer to as "resources mobilization," emphasizing both financial and non-financial (i.e. publicity, volunteer time etc.) resources that are necessary for organizations to sustain their work. We try to approach funding from the perspective of collective resources mobilization – focusing on making the pie bigger for all rather than just increasing our own share.
We recently completed a global survey of more than 5,000 women's organizations in order to gain an updated understanding of the state of funding for women's rights work worldwide. Preliminary results from this survey will be presented in April at the 12th AWID International Forum on Women's Rights and Development "Transforming Economic Power to Advance Women's Rights and Justice" taking place in Istanbul, Turkey. The forum is open to activists engaged in a wide variety of rights and social justice work, not just women's rights activitists, and we encourage human rights organizations to attend. We will be convening sessions between activists and donors in order to promote dialogue around funding issues.
Though they focus on women's rights issues, some AWID publications that may be of interest more broadly include our compilation of resources mobilization tools and the Building Feminist Movements and Organizations Wiki on monitoring and evaluation. The wiki is designed to help share ways of measuring the impact of complex and long-term rights work.
Thank you all for the opportunity to contribute and we look forward to engaging with this dialogue!
Warm regards,
Amanda Shaw, Program Associate on behalf of the "Where is the Money for Women's Rights?" Team
Hi Amanda
The AWID research sounds fantastic! It's so great to know it is being done.Can't wait to see it.
One of the motivators for IFEX to do the research piece we did was to be able to aggregate information on the experience of our members so that they didn't feel singled out or like they were 'complaining' about the challenges - because it is often hard for an individual organisation to initiate a discussion with their donors on the challenges they are experiencing. They may be afraid it would jeopardize a valuable relationship. So by doing it in a 'group' way, we were able to give voice to the issues and provide that as a departure point for ongoing conversations with donors. The reality is so many groups are struggling because they are funded project-to-project and in some cases donors may not be aware of how debilitating it can be for groups not to also receive funding just 'to be': to have the lights on, have a secure office, have computers and phone lines, etc...
So like AWID, though on a much smaller scale, IFEX uses the opportunity of its bi-annual meetings to convene the donors that are there to talk about these issues and funding trends. And also to make as many connections as possible between members and donors.
Another thing we try to create space for at our meetings is fundraising clinics. We had a great regional one at our 2011 meeting where all the groups from a regional networking project shared time identifying their fundraising challenges and concerns and two of the more 'advanced' groups facilitated and shared lessons learned, and IFEX participated to listen and also be a 'purveyor' of those concerns in our ongoing discussions with donors. They decided to do a fundraising clinic at every one of their regional meetings because it was so useful - learning from each other's experiences.
We've also had sessions where donors sit with a group of organisations and they talk about expectations, opportunities, try to worskhop proposal ideas, etc.
Maureen
For human rights organisations seeking human rights funding from the European Union, and for institutions interested in organisational change, I would highly recommend you take a look at the blog of Sonia Herrero, an independent consultant with years of experience both as a human rights funder (within the EU) and as a grantee (within a major European human rights INGO).
The blog is full of classiccal challenges that we face in our daily work as development and fundraising professionals, and practical tips on how to overcome these
I particularly recommend the post on the "always being busy syndrome" and the one on the "super-hero syndrome"
Great posts, Vincent! Thanks for sharing these. They really highlight the importance of taking time to reflect on your work and make realistic goals. I completely agree with Sonia's encouragement to "change the culture" around the nonprofit "always being busy syndrome". She writes:
In my experience it is often by changing small things that you can start changing the culture. We use a tool called the action learning cycle (you can read more about it in the Barefoot guide) that helps people to always reflect, learn, and integrate that knowledge into the next action whenever they conduct a main activity or project. Freeing up time to discuss and think in a group is also one of the core tools to start creating a culture of learning.
It is so important for human rights practitioners to take the time to reflect and plan in order to work effectively. Do you think that funders recognize this? How have you been able to include time for planning and reflection into your budget? Is it challenging to get funded? Is it one of those line items that gets cut when you need to decrease the budget?
Hi Kristin and Vincent,
In answer to Kristin's question:
First of all, I am so happy to see all of the vibrant and dynamic discussions on each of the dialogue threads, but I am particularly pleased to see this aspect of fundraising being discussed -- having time to reflect and plan isn't a 'nice to have' or a 'luxury' in human rights work.
It is simply essential.
Without it, we see, far too often, the effects on human rights defenders as they try to juggle all jobs at once on little to no budget. They end up forsaking their own safety, health and happiness to get the work done -- including writing reports, communications, fundraising.
But we also see this changing within the human rights world as human rights defenders recognize they can't -- and shouldn't -- do it all.
I think we are facing a challenge at 2 levels, which are inter-related.
First, we need to keep changing our own human rights culture to recognize -- and stand up for -- the right to rest, reflect and do our work well. That means consistently including this time -- as well as provisions for security and health care -- into our budgets.
Second, we need to continue a growing dialogue with funders to ensure that this time for reflection and strategizing is seen as integral to the work.
Kristin, there are some donors who are recognizing this -- and even encouraging grantees to include line items for this in their budgets. But it is going to be an ongoing dialogue between grantmakers and their partners to ensure that this trend continues and grows.
So thanks for asking the question and keeping this entire dialogue going!
Hi Jane - Your post today reminds me of something we also see a lot of when it comes to fundraising: groups that have left it 'to the last minute' to try to negotiate next rounds of funding or just don't deal with funding uncertainty proactively. It seems like they are waiting for miracles sometimes. And that's when they ask for help. Which is too very often too late. They seem to operate constantly in emergency mode - which doesn't make it easy for funders to be able to support them.
So your point Jane of moving from an 'urgency' or emergency way of operating to a more stable proactive planning and reflecting way of operating is an important and as you say essential shift that some organisations need to take. It enables groups to speak with more confidence and strength coming from that position rather than a position of desperation.Groups need to realise that funding timelines at donors are not quick... especially with a brand new donor... it can sometimes take a year or more from first contact till support actually comes through...
So I certainly agree with you on this one Jane! And hope we can keep supporting our networks in making this shift.
Maureen
The million-dollar question -- how do we find the right funder? How do we find up-to-date information on funders, their requirements, their funding priorities, processes for application, etc? Is there a one-stop-shop for this?
One resource for finding funders is the International Human Rights Funders Group Directory of Human Rights Funders. This is an online tool that allows you to search a database of human rights funders by these criteria:
Have you found this online directory useful? Are there other useful websites to use when searching for the right funder and their information?
I think a database such as the IHRFG is a really good starting point - and in fact you're reminding me to take a look at it Kristin! Especially if you're new to the work and want to get a picture of who is supporting what. It is quite the job to go through all of the information to narrow down to a reasonable number... and after that it is still a hit and miss slog of pitching via a quick letter of inquiry or maybe even a phone call to the right person. Basically if you're starting with the database, you are cold calling. Which is tough. But you need to do that to find out who you should be 'stalking' as we like to call it :) ..and then I think that really needs to be a key next step: Finding ways to meet people in person, informally or fomally, to tell them about what you do AND to ask them about their work and priorities - important nuances of which will come across much better in person than thru their websites or documentation.
So every time you travel, check if there is a potential new funder in that location that you should be meeting to give an introduction to your work. It is easy enough to say 'I'm going to be in town and thought we could have a chat about how our work intersects with yours - no pressure!' ... especially to those donors that hang the 'no unsolicited proposals' sign on their door. A conversation will tell you so much, and save you a lot of grief.
And of course conferences that bring NGOs and donors together are a great opportunity - check out participant lists in advance and see if there is anyone you should be making a meeting with. And you can't be shy - donors are there to meet people, not to hide behind potted plants :)
So yes to databases, but not only databases. Keeping track of who is funding organisations in your field... by asking them directly, or looking at their annual reports if you don't know them well enough to ask them, is also a way to find out about potential funding sources.
And asking your current donors - who are they aware of that might be a potential funder. If they are already funding you, chances are they could make an introduction for you.
I think having contact with someone BEFORE you go to the work of a proposal is essential... so that you can really check whether your ideas align before putting everything to paper.
Maureen
Office visits, conferences, asking your current donors - these are all great ways to find new funding sources! Thanks for sharing these ideas, Maureen.
I wonder, when it comes to researching the funders of organizations that do similar work to yours...is it bad form to request that the organization introduce you to that funder? It seems that the more difficult it gets to find funding, the more competitive and potentially protective over their funding sources. Is there a way to break down these walls with the idea that funding another organization's work will eventually benefit your own work -- or is that just wishful thinking?
Furthermore, how successful are collaborative efforts to find funding? It would be great to hear examples of this kind of relationship!
I wanted to add another dimension to my question above about collaborating on fundraising strategies...how much impact is the fundraising environment having on human rights organizations' ability to collaborate in their work?
Collaborating and coordinating with other human rights organizations is essential to successfuly human rights work. We know this and funders know this (as Maureen mentioned in her comment above). However, human rights organizations are finding it challenging to partner with other organizations because of the difficult funding environment. There is a quote from a human rights org that speaks directly to this, from AWID's report on Context And Trends Influencing The Funding Landscape For Gender Equality And Women’s Organizations & Movements:
Are you experiencing less partnership among human rights groups? If this really is a trend, what impact will this have on human rights work in the future? How can we rebuild the spirit of collaboration and partnership in the human rights community?
I look forward to hearing your thoughts on these questions!
This is great to hear, Vini! Collaboration is so important, but as you mention, it can be difficult to implement. We're hoping to host a dialogue this year on the topic of collaboration so stay tuned!
Hi, everyone -
I think that Maureen is suggesting that organizations ask their existing donors (not like-organizations) for introductions to other funders of human rights issues. That's a great idea, because most donors are keenly interested in the sustainability of the organizations they fund, so that they aren't relied upon indefinitely.
Indeed, human rights funders, and particularly US based and UK based Foundations such as the Oak Foundation and the Sigrid Rausing Trust do talk to each other and exchange regularly, including on respective grantees.
In some circumstances, donors may appear to be better coordinated in their approach to human rights grant-making although we have example in Europe of NGO networks which do share and exchange on fundraising work including the informal Geneva Human Rights Institutional Development Network or the more formal Brussels-based Human Rights and Democracy Network (HRDN), a group of nearly 50 prominent HR & democracy organisations, which has a specific working group on the European Union's human rights funding instrument (EIDHR)
On the issue of recommendations by fellow organisations to funders, raised by Kristin, I think this is certainly not wishful thinking. Of course we cannot deny that there is competition over funds, including in the human rights non-profit sector, but in our experience, we have recommended various organisations which we thought made an excellent work to donors of ours. And thanfully this was not viewed either from our side or from the donor side as any sort of potential threat to the funding we received from this donor!
I agree with Maureen and Kristi: donors, whether they're organizations or individuals, have demonstrated their support for your work by giving you financial support. They have a keen interest in seeing you succeed. In my experience, donors are pleased to help facilitate introductions to other donors -- just as long as you don't take advantage of the favor by asking too often.
Pete Dross, Director of Policy and Development, The Center for Victims of Torture
I agree with several of the suggestions already made. Just to add my two cents -
We recently did a huge scan of the human rights funding landscape and found the then-newly launched IHRFG database a tremendous resource to search by issue area or region. Yes, you can do the same thing on the Foundation Center's site, but often it is difficult to tease out the true human rights funding at this level of detail.
Another thing we have begun to regularly do, as Maureen points out, is to ask our funders at every meeting who else they think could be interested in our work. An intro from an existing funder is often all you need to open the door to a meeting or phone call, and this approach has led to some significant new grants for WITNESS. We have also begun to create a list of "connectors" - peers at other human rights or social media organizations with whom we share strategies, ideas and contacts. This "we're all working toward the same goal" approach breaks through the competitiveness that can sometimes exist among nonprofits and again has led to some great intros for us and our friends. Guess it's fairly obvious that a strong personal intro goes much farther than all the database research out there, but both are really essential to turn up new sources of funding!
If like me some of you wonder why human rights feature amongst the top priorities in most of the world's national Constitutions, and so little funding is made available to human rights charities, part of the answer may be found on Dan Pallotta's website Uncharitable
Hi - I am wondering if anyone following this dialogue has ever done a financial sustainability plan for their organisation - so beyond just fundraising, but obviously the fundraising strategy is a critical piece of it. This is something we've been working on at IFEX, and we haven't found a lot of models for doing this. I'm happy to share more about how we've approached it, but also wanted to hear who else has given this a try, and what their experiences have been. And if they have any examples that inspired them.
Thanks!
Maureen
Oh shoot - I meant to put this under thread 3... sorry... ! :)
Maureen
Maureen, I'd love to hear more about your experiences since we're just beginning this process at WITNESS. Thanks!
Hi again - We've been working on putting together a financial sustainability plan for our organisation... which I said I'd tell you a bit about. So here's what I can say today.
As a network that relies on donor funding to carry out its programming, IFEX wants to be as prepared as possible with respect to its financial future. So we decided to try to develop a financial sustainability plan as a way to capture the knowns and unknowns about our future, that would help us feel more informed about risks and also to help us make informed decisions regarding resources and the strategies we choose to seek resources. As well, thinking this through helps us to articulate to donors and other stakeholders where/what we anticipate our needs being going forward.
We decided to time the financial sustainability plan on the same time frame as our current strategic plan, 2010-2014.
Here was the objective we set for ourselves:
Objective: To map out a financial resources action plan to support the implementation of the 2010-2014 IFEX Strategic Plan in particular, and to enable ongoing assessment of IFEX’s sustainability in the long term.
We collected and organised a lot of information about ourselves so that we could look at where we are now and how we got here:
- the history since 1992 and evolution of our membership, our programmes and our funding (including detailed charts and graphs that track things like how our programme emphasis has changed in terms of expenditure over time, our sources of funding over time, the shift from project to core funding, the number of staff in relation to funding and membership, etc).... getting this info all in one place has proven very useful
- a SWOT analysis specifically focused on challenges and opportunities we face in terms of resources but also as a network service provider
- a forecast of our assumptions about programmes/membership/revenue and expenses/funding that is rooted in the goals in our strategic plan - so that we could see where the gaps are between what we want to do and what resources we anticipate will be available (based on what we know today)
- we also included a section on our current fundraising strategy and the financial sustainability principles and practices that guide us
And then we looked at that all together, and especially the gaps, and we brainstormed a list of possible things to explore to address the gaps during the period 2012-2014... and have set aside time in 2012 and 2013 workplans to delve into those topics – e.g., what the opportunities for earned revenue might be and whether we would pursue them; looking at joint fundraising experiences and whether we would pursue that; looking at membership fees (right now that is our only earned revenue); building a reserve fund; etc... the list goes on, but the point was to make sure we were setting aside time to look at options that we haven't needed to or taken time to yet. Looking at them in more depth will give us the opportunity to decide whether/how to do them.
And the idea is that we'll maintain our financial sustainability plan going forward, in step with our Strategic Planning processes – so they are integrated.
So it is all in early stages, and we are learning as we go. But it's another ingredient in helping to minimise unpredictability. Which we like :)
Maureen
I'm wondering if anyone has had luck securing funding for human rights advocacy work from foundations that do not traditionally support human rights. For example, approaching funders concerned with the welfare of elders (but not necessarily from a human rights perspective) for a campaign on elder abuse. Or approaching environmental funders for a campaign around the human rights implications of climate change. Since the pool of "human rights funders" is so small, yet the definition of human rights is expanding, can we turn to other sectors to find the funding we need? Would love to hear others' experiences and perspectives.
This entire thread has been so informative - thanks to all for their comments. Working at the intersection of women's empowerment (as in supporting women being able to attain their full potential and live lives of dignity), human rights and what is seen as "development work" both complicates the ability to find funding as well as offers some opportunities. The Global Fund for Women's work is not seen by many funders to be "human rights work". Thus, traditional human rights funders might not fund our work, but we have been able to attract funding from sources that in no way will define themselves as human rights funders. For instance, we might have a donor interested in supporting education for girls, and while we do not fund service delivery projects, we have been able to engage with such donors in initiatives whose end result is to help women achieve their full human rights, but through using education as a key strategy. We have, for example, made the case that by funding women's organizations who "create the enabling circumstances" for girls to access education and remain in school, get life skills training and also other non-school based educational opportunities, we are strengthening the ability of particularly marginalized populations to achieve their rights in the long-run.
Excellent points have already been made about human rights work being long-term and intersectional (no magic bullets to get fast results, unfortunately). Human rights work also needs funding that enables organizations to demonstrate agility in responding to changing needs - core support funding is essential to building the long-term capacity of organizations to deal with the kind of systemic challenges they are addressing.
I would say that human rights work can be pitched to non-HR funders by starting from their point of entry. Once they see that for transformative change to happen root causes have to be tackled, communities need to be aware of their rights and become self-advocates and to do all this they need long-term accompaniment and flexible support, then it will be easier to get them to fund your priorities. Many new sources of funding (corporates, individuals, etc.) do not want to define themselves as human rights funders because it seems too controversial or they are unsure what exactly that entails. Another big challenge is "measurement" and "metrics" - long term change with a human rights agenda doesn't easily lend itself to measuring results. Also, in many cases, just holding the line against backlash or regressive moves by governments or non-governmental actors supports a human rights agenda, but its hard to make the case that success should be defined by what did not happen!
Thank you so much Shalini for this really important point and for the leading work of the Global Fund for Women in this arena of offering an entry point for so many women to become engaged philanthropists towards human rights. How do you and others attend to this process of keeping donors engaged as they move along the continuum from entry point to life long advocates? What are some important lessons that all of us can learn from?
Thank you all for your contributions, the topic is so interesting. I am from Benin, I’m a human right activist I just created with some friends in Africa a network called "Youth South South Cooperation for Human Rights". I was wondering who can help me with to develop this initiative. Where can I find support to finance the beginning of our activities, who can we work with?
I’m seeking advice from anyone here who wants to help developing together activities for young people in Africa and elsewhere. Find a partner who agrees to manage and work with us for this vision is quite difficult.
ALL THE BEST,
ysschr@gmail.com or bidelbert@yahoo.fr
Welcome to the New Tactics online community, Idelbert! It's great to have you in this dialogue.
Can you tell us more about why finding partners for your work is so difficult?
I think it would be difficult for practitioners in this dialogue to address the needs of specific organizations, like the Youth South South Cooperation for Human Rights. Instead, we are participating in this dialogue to share resources, ideas and experiences that can be used by many organizations. Therefore, I would recommend that you read this dialogue to get ideas on where to look for funding, how to find funding, how to measure your impact, etc.
There are comments specifically on ways to find funders in this dialogue - I would recommend that you start there! Some of the suggestions there include:
Good luck, Idelbert!
Thanks for creating this dialogue. These are very challenging times in the voluntary sector both for programming and fundraising so any fora like this that might help us raise much needed funds and increase our networks is a very good thing. I look forward to reading all the comemnts and gaining from the experience and wisdom of the participants.
The Walk Without Fear Foundation is a new Canadian charity (I know brilliant timing in launching a new charity!) that focuses on all aspects of landmines, cluster bombs and other indiscriminate or inhumane weapons. We use a human rights based approach to victim assistance and have a special emphasis on empowering young survivors.
Sometimes donors like new ideas and groups and sometimes they prefer those with extensive track records. My sense is that as a new organization we'll face more barriers with both institutional and individual donors, but I would like to ask here whether others feel that is true or not? If you do believe that is the case any useful tips or suggestions would be most welcome.
Cheers,
paul
This may be of interest or use to participants. AlertNet is launching this week an new package called Where Is the Money? Here is their message:
Our brand new special package of stories, videos, info-graphics and blogs looking at the future of humanitarian aid titled "WHERE IS THE MONEY?" will be out on 26th of January.
We've surveyed more than 40 leading NGOs to get a view of the challenges and opportunities facing the aid world in light of climate change, financial pressures, the emergence of new players and much more. The findings are provocative and intriguing. We'll have articles from Niger, Sri Lanka, Haiti, Somalia and elsewhere probing the effectiveness of aid, plus sidebars, backgrounders and opinion pieces.
Please join the conversation on youTrust or on Twitter (#improvingaid) - either in the run-up to the package or once it's all out on Jan. 26. We'd love to hear your thoughts and reactions. We're also gathering hard-hitting questions to put to heavy hitters in the aid world such as U.N. relief chief Valerie Amos.
This year AlertNet team is keen to build even stronger relationships with our members, so we will be looking for exciting ideas on topics we wish to focus on with your help and contributions. For any suggestions, comments or requests get in touch with our Communications and Membership Officer, Branka Juran.