Advice to Funding Organizations

My foray into the arena of fund raising came about as a result of my volunteer work with NABUUR. This is an online organization trying to bring together volunteers from all over the world to help communities in need. In concept, it is a great alternative to just donate money. It provides a vehicle for someone like myself who has some free time and some skills to help villages around the globe. The problem as I found out in short order is funding. We can have all the skills and the good intentions and discussions and planning but a the end of the day, it will take money to bring all the ideas to fruition. After spending a few month coming up with a project plan and a budget and a Constitution, our small group (NESC) in Nairobi Kenya decided to embark on our first funding application to the Gates Foundation.

After submitting an email request and followed by an online submission of a letter of Inquiry (LOI), our project was rejected out right.

It took our team approximately 3 months to put together the proposal. It took myself approx. 2 weeks to write the LOI in the format that the Gates Foundation requested (4 pages maximum). After my submission, it took them less than 24 hours to reject it. My problem with the process is not that they rejected our application but the cavelier attitude they took to our request and the rejection letter. They could have organized this process much better. That is the main reason for my lens. I hope they can learn from my experience and modify the process for future applicants. Here are my list of suggestions to the Gates Foundation.

The suggestions I made are vey basic. I am somewhat disappointed at the Gates Foundation for not having a better system in place. I'm sure they get lots of requests and there are many many good causes. Even for the Gates Foundation, they can be overwhelming. However, my simple suggestions should stramline this process and lead to a more efficient way.

I do want to take the opportunity to make a case for the NESC. The NESC is trying to establish a health center in Nairobi Easlands to treat HIV/AIDS patients and to offer prevention education. This area of Nairobi is the poorest section and does not have any facilities of this sort. The local population have a high incidence of HIV. It is a systemic problem that affects a large number of people. Our village consist of a local representation on the ground and several dedicated volunteers all over the world. Our facilitator is located in Australia. I, as project planner, is located in NY. We have the skills and the energy to commit to this project. What is lacking is the funding to get started. It seems to me, that this would be an ideal situation for any funding organization. Especially one that claims that one of their main focus is to help HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. I just don't get it. Please explain why our project would not be a good candidate.

The one page rejection letter/email I received include a standardized text and a link to their main website. That is my problem with the letter. It places little importance to our specific cause. It appears to me that the author's main responsibility is to find and reject any application that does not meet their goals. It tells me what they won't fund but leave out what they will fund. Pointing to their website is just adding insult to injury. It implied that I did not understand their criteria to begin with. I have a Master degree and a professional degree. If I can't make head or tail out of their web site, I doubt others will either. It is almost by design that they made it this way. They can then use it to reject any applicant. A better method would be to publish some real success stories on their site. That way, we can learn from the experience.