FUNDRAISING AND MONITORING AND EVALUATION TRAINING REPORT

MANHATTAN SUITES HOTEL, Abidjan, Cote dIvoire

1-3 September, 2009

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 Introduction 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 2.0 3.0 Objectives Opening Remarks Expected Outcomes Methodology

Training content Conclusion and Way Forward

Programme Agenda List of Participants

1.0

INTRODUCTION

The West Africa Civil Society Institute in collaboration with the Coalition de la Socit Civile pour la Paix et le Dveloppement Dmocratique en Cote dIvoire (COSOPCI) and La Convention de la Socit Civile Ivoirienne (CSCI) supported by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa organised a specialised training workshop on Fundraising and Monitoring and Evaluation for civil society organisations in Cote dIvoire. The overall objective of the workshop was to strengthen the capacity of civilian actors to raise funds on a sustainable basis and proffer skills that will enable them professionally assess the efficiency, effectiveness and impact of their projects/interventions and organisational performance. The meeting attracted 26 participants drawn from two civil society coalitions. 1.1 Objectives

The specific objectives of the workshop were: 1.2 To deliver contextual knowledge and skills to trainees concerning the planning, strategising and implementation of their fundraising objectives; To identify funding sources and the appropriate techniques to secure funds from donors and philanthropists; To help trainees understand the fundamentals of designing and implementing a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system for a project or an organisation; and To provide a comprehensive overview of a sample of M&E tools, methods, and approaches, including their purpose. Opening Remarks

(Ms. Thelma Ekiyor, Executive Director, WACSI) The Executive Director introduced WACSI as the institution that conceptualised the project and an implementing partner. Ms.Thelma Ekiyor remarked that the programme had been possible because of support from OSIWA. Ms. Ekiyor emphasized the importance of actors building their fundraising skills to strengthen the resource mobilisation capacities of their various organisations. The Executive Director concluded by stating that the course will help civil society actors to raise resources for their organisations and encouraged participants to commit to replicating the training within the civil society sector in Cote dIvoire. 1.3 Expected Outcomes Increased understanding of major trends in fundraising; Enhanced knowledge of project proposal techniques and skills; Improvement of CSO capacity to design a Monitoring and Evaluation system for a project or an institution; and Improved capacity to act on information that emanates out of the analysis of data collected.
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1.4

Methodology

The training workshop was delivered using interactive, learner-centered methods, audio visual tools, experiential learning, and practical exercises. Participants were encouraged to use real life experiences to address fundraising and proposal writing challenges.
1.5

Target Audience

Executive Directors of NGOs, Faith Based Organisations, CBOs and Coalitions in Cote dIvoire 2.0 TRAINING CONTENT

Essentials of Project Management and Development This session introduces the trainees to the concept of project management and helps users develop understanding and skills in project cycle management concepts and practices. The project cycle is very important concept for civil society actors. All the steps of the project should be considered in order to reach the objectives of the organisation. A project should be conceptualised from its identification to its implementation phase. A good project management requires funds. It is the reason why having a fundraising strategy is essential for the effective management of a project. Management concepts and practices were discussed in this section of the workshop for the trainee to learn the basic tools needed to help manage their organisations and reach their expected objectives. GROUP EXERCISE 1: Who are your stakeholders? List your internal and external stakeholders? Stakeholders are defined as the parties who affect or are affected by the CSO project. They can be individuals, groups, a community or an institution, all those with an interest in the organisation and its activities. Internal stakeholders include employees, managers, and owners/shareholders while external stakeholders include people or organisations that willingly support the organisation. For an organisation to grow, it should know the different stakeholders that directly or indirectly influence the organisation. The participation of the stakeholders is very important in the running of an organisation. It brings about effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, transparency and accountability. The involvement of the stakeholders in the management of the organisation improves the quality of the work in the organisation. Feedback from Trainees Initially, the majority of the participants were not able to distinguish between their internal and external stakeholders. The exercise helped the participants have a better understanding of their internal and external stakeholders. As a result, the topic was a new point of learning.

Conceptualising Fundraising The objective of this session was to introduce users to the concept and definition of fundraising and to help them explore the types of fundraising, ethical issues and the fundraising process. Fundraising is the process of soliciting and gathering money or other gifts in kind, by requesting donations from individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Fundraising is a significant way that CSOs may obtain funds for their operations. These operations can involve a very broad array of concerns such as religious or philanthropic groups such as policy and research organisations, public broadcasters, and political campaigns. Some examples of charitable organisations include student scholarship merit awards for academic achievement, humanitarian concerns, disaster relief, human rights, research, and other. Fundraising is necessary for any organisation to develop. Thus, there is a need to understand the process and strategy of fundraising. A nonprofit approach helps people to show integrity in fundraising for the development of the organisations. GROUP EXERCISE 2: What do you need funds for? Community Based Organisations (CBOs) often use fundraising revenue to support the recruitment and training of volunteers, office maintenance and activity buildings, keep membership and participation fees low, and provide services to the community. Feedback from Trainees

Participants could not explain the reason why they were sourcing for funding. Their answers were vague, undefined, and unconvincing. Also the trainees couldnt adequately articulate their thoughts in a coherent and purposeful manner. Examples of phrases used in their proposals included: We need funds to implement the project activities, to reinforce womens capacities, to get women involved in the socioeconomic development of the country. Need money for training of local communities on specific topics related to their domain of intervention. Sensitization of the local communities. After the training, participants had a clearer understanding of project proposal writing techniques.

GROUP EXERCISE 3: Donor and funders that give you money, have rights as it relates to your organisation. What are those rights? Feedback from Group Exercise Most of the trainees were not able to list the rights of the funders related to their organisations. In addition, they were surprised to know that donors have rights on the management of their organisation. After the training, the participants were able to state the rights of partners related to their organisations. For example, - the donors should have access to the organisations most recent financial statements. - They should be assured that the given funds will be used for the stated purposes; make sure that information about their donation is handled with respect. Developing a Fundraising Strategy The purpose of this session was to guide participants in formulating a written fundraising strategy document and be able to design an action, increase their chances of success and remember their goals and be able to spot potential links. GROUP EXERCISE 4: Classification of the group projects into the failed one and the succeeded projects This exercise was done by classifying accepted and rejected proposals written by participants. It revealed that, these proposals were not clear and convincing. The outcome of the exercise was to analyse the characteristics of successfully funded project proposals. Current position Future plans Retaining existing income Options appraisal Actions Resources Targets Feedback From The Group Work The participants were pleased to learn of the different processes of fund raising strategies. They recognised the weaknesses that prevented them from obtaining funding. For example their primary objectives of sourcing for funds were not well specified. A group of participants remarked that through this training, they have now come to realize the reason why their proposals have often been rejected because their fundraising strategies have been weak.

Media and Fundraising The objective of this session was to provide participants with an insight into using media for fundraising purposes and help actors understand how media fundraising works. The media helps to increase the organisations chances of success. An organisation can build its own branded fundraising page linked to their website. This will help the donors to know better the organisation and fund the project if they find it relevant. GROUP EXERCISE 5: Knowledge through media According to the resource person, the best way to make online fundraising available to their organizations fundraising team is to Create a fundraising page link on an organisations web sites How to help section. An organisation can build its own branded fundraising page linked to the website. Feedback from Trainees The participants had not understood prior to this workshop the importance of media in the process of fundraising. They appreciated the resource persons determination to provide them all the necessary media tools to help them strengthen their fundraising strategies. Effective Fundraising in the CSO Sector This session offered contextual knowledge on fundraising in the CSO sector and also teaches trainees the steps for effective donor/philanthropic fundraising. Fundraising is a difficult work but important and rewarding for an organisation. Therefore it requires the participation of all in the civil society sector. Effective fundraising requires discipline and hard work. Successful fundraising programmes will have a calendar of planned activities, clearly laid out areas of responsibility and preparation of necessary resources and materials. Understanding Funding Environment, Donors And Philanthropists The overall objective of the session is to proffer knowledge to trainees on the various sources of funding and to teach trainees how to engage donors/philanthropists. Practical Session: Project Proposal Writing The objective of this session was to define the structure of a project proposal and its main elements. It provided guidance on the process of developing project proposals and teaches trainees how to structure a good project proposal.

GROUP EXERCISE 6: Formulate a project proposal From the proposals formulated by trainees, it appeared that most trainees had difficulties with formulating good project proposals. It was noticed that: Due to the numerous objectives, the funders doubt the objectivity of the organisations; The titles of the projects were vague; and Intervention areas were too broad.

Feedback from Trainees The participants were amazed to discover new techniques of writing project proposals through a rigorous methodology. For most of the participants, this exercise strengthened their writing skills. A group of participants remarked that a new learning point was realising that even the formulation of the project name must be precise to avoid confusion. 3.0 MONITORING AND EVALUATION

The Role and the Importance of Monitoring and Evaluation The participants must be able to integrate monitoring and evaluation as an essential working tool in the daily management of their organisations, their projects and programme for development. Monitoring is the regular, systematic, collection and analysis of information related to a planned and agreed programme of action. This provides evidence of the extent to which the programme is being delivered as intended, meeting its targets and making progress towards the achievement of its objectives. As far as evaluation is concerned, it is the process of undertaking a systematic and objective examination of monitoring information in order to answer agreed questions and make judgments on the basis of agreed criteria. Concerns may relate to the efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability of an organisation or programme. The intention is not simply to assess what impacts have occurred, but what lessons can be learnt and how the programme might be improved. GROUP EXERCISE 7: How to address the weakness and the threat and to strengthen the forces and the identified opportunities? This exercise enlightened participants on how to address the challenges that their organisations faced in monitoring their projects. It also helped to improve the monitoring and evaluation of their organisations.

Feedback from Trainees

The participants learnt that to address institutional weaknesses, they should be able to state the short, middle and long term objectives of their organisations. This would help: Obtain requisite information for effective management of projects; and Determine the different stages of designing and implementing monitoring and evaluation systems.

The Conceptual Framework of Monitoring and Evaluation Through the workshop, the participants should be able to determine the short term, middle term and long term objectives of the projects/programme as well as the criteria to gauge these objectives. The participants will also be able to state the necessary information for effective and efficient of project or a programme management. The session also highlights the main process of designing and implementing an M&E system. Designing and Implementing a Monitoring and Evaluation System The main objective of this section is to strengthen the participants ability to design and implement an M&E system. Writing and Presentation of an M&E Report The M&E report must be explicit and make the important points clear and obvious. An M&E presentation utilizes visual tools like graphs and diagrams and verbal strategies if necessary when communicating to beneficiary constituents. This session and a subsequent exercise revealed some weakness in the organisations of the trainees. Inadequate knowledge of the methods of monitoring and evaluation; Lack of qualified human resource in trainee organisations to conduct project monitoring; Lack of monitoring and evaluation mechanisms; Insufficient documentation of project effects and impacts; and Difficulties in the designing organisational strategic plans. Feedback from Trainees The participants remarked that they have learnt new ways of writing M&E reports. This exercise helped them to know the weaknesses of their different organisations in writing and presenting monitoring and evaluation reports. A participant stated that, Our organisations are not effective and efficient. This specialised training will help us professionalise our structures.

CONCLUSION AND RECCOMENDATIONS The Executive Director of WACSI thanked the participants for participating in the training and for hosting WACSI and OSIWA. At the end of the workshop certificates were given to the trainees acknowledging their active participation in the training course. In addition, the trainees were given a bilingual toolkit for utilisation as a reference document and a training tool. The workshop was jointly facilitated by WACSI and OSIWA resource persons. The following key recommendations emanated from the workshop: Civil society institutions should have monitoring and evaluation systems to strengthen the impact of their interventions; Civil society should explore avenues of self-financing a greater percentage of their activities to prevent excessive influence from donors; More targeted trainings should be organised for CSOs in these areas as the challenges addressed in the course are common to most civil society organisations; CSOs should build their fundraising skills in order to attract substantial funding from donors; Institutional building training interventions such as corporate governance should be organised for civil society actors in Cote dIvoire; and The fundraising and monitoring and evaluation course should be extended to other francophone countries.

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PROGRAMME AGENDA
DAY 1

TIME 8:30-9:30

ACTIVITY Arrival & Introduction of Resource Persons and Participants

OFFICER RESPONSIBLE WACSI COSOPCI CSCI WACSI

9:30-10:30

Essentials of Project Management and Development TEA BREAK Conceptualising Fundraising

10:30-11:00 11:00-11:20 11:20-1:00

WACSI WACSI WACSI

Developing a Fundraising Strategy 1:00-2:00 2:00-2:20 2:20-3:00 3: 00-3:45 3:45-4:15 4:15 4:30 4:30-5:00 LUNCH BREAK Practical Exercise Media and Fundraising Effective Fundraising In the CSO Sector TEA BREAK Practical Exercise Understanding funding environment, donors and philanthropists WACSI WACSI WACSI WACSI WACSI WACSI WACSI

End of day 1

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DAY 2 TIME 8:30-10:00 10:00-10:30 10:30-11:00 ACTIVITY Project Proposal Writing TEA BREAK Monitoring And Evaluation Theories And Processes Techniques For Planning For Monitoring And Evaluation Practical Exercise LUNCH BREAK Tools, Methods And Approaches For Monitoring And Evaluation Practical Exercise TEA BREAK Designing A Monitoring And/Or Evaluation Process Practical Exercise END OF DAY 2 OFFICER RESPONSIBLE WACSI WACSI OSIWA

11:00-12:30

OSIWA

12:30-1:00 1:00-2:00 2:00-3:00

OSIWA WACSI OSIWA

3:00-3:30 3:30-3:50 3:50-4:30

OSIWA WACSI OSIWA

4:30-5:00

OSIWA

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DAY 3

TIME 8:30 10:00 10:00-10:30 10:30-10:50 10:50-11:50 11:50-1:00 1:00-2:00 2:00-3:00

ACTIVITY Collecting, analysing and reporting Information

OFFICER RESPONSIBLE OSIWA

TEA BREAK Practical Exercise Case Studies on monitoring and evaluation Monitoring and Evaluation Challenges LUNCH BREAK Closing Ceremony

WACSI OSIWA OSIWA OSIWA WACSI WACSI, COSOPCI CSCI

END OF DAY 3

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LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

No. 1.

Name TRAORE Wodjo Fini

Position Coordonnateur Gnral

2. 3.

BAMBA Sindou Mme TRAORE ne KONE Ktiengyo Nathalie

Coordonnateur Coordinatrice Nationale

4.

Ali OUATTARA

Prsident

5.

Mme BITTY KOUYATE Christiane

Prsidente

6.

Mme PORQUET Salimata

Prsidente

Organisation Coalition de la Socit Civile pour la Paix et le Dveloppement Dmocratique en Cote dIvoire (COSOPCI) Regroupement des Acteurs Ivoiriens des Droits Humains (RAIDH) Forum de la Socit Civile de lAfrique de lOuest (FOSCAO CI) II Plateaux Cit 246 logements Villa N 21 14 BP 1928 Abidjan 14 Coalition Ivoirienne pour la Cour Pnale Internationale (CICPI) BP 1305 CIDEX 1 Abidjan 06 Women In Law and Development in Africa Femme, Droit et Development en Afrique (WILDAF/FeDDAF) Avenue, 3 rue 17 01 BP 3793 Abidjan 01 Forum International des Femmes pour la Paix lEgalit et le Dveloppent (FIFEM) Ligue Ivoirienne des Droits de lHomme (LIDHO) Coordonnateur Project Team de la CICPI Secrtaire a la communication et porte parole de la COSOPCI Spcialiste en Observation lectorale 08 BP 2056 Abidjan 08 Club Union Africaine Cote dIvoire (UACI) 14 BP 1928 Abidjan 14 Coordination Nationale des Enseignants du Suprieur et des Chercheurs (CNEC) 22 BP 582 Abidjan 22

Address [email protected]

[email protected] [email protected]

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

[email protected]

7.

M. NETH WILLY Alexandre

Secrtaire Gnral

[email protected]

8. 9.

Victor NACLAN TOURE TRAORE Flavien

Secrtaire Gnral Secrtaire Gnral

[email protected] [email protected]

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10.

SOMBO Atse Franck Arthur

Prsident

11.

Vahama KAMAGATE

2eme Vice Amir

12.

YEO Adama

Secrtaire Gnral Adjoint

13. 14.

GAGUY Tablet Oscar YAO KAKOU Albert

Responsable National Prsident

15. 16.

Mme TANOH Danielle Mme SRIBA Christiane epse Aboua

Prsidente Secrtaire gnrale

Association Chrtienne des Elves et Etudiants Protestants de Cote d'Ivoire (ACEEPCI) 08 BP 5 Abidjan 08 Association des Elves et Etudiants Musulmans de Cote d'Ivoire (AEEMCI) 08 BP 2462 Abidjan 08 COSOPCI (Coalition de la Socit Civile pour la Paix et le Dvelop. dmocratique en Cte dIvoire) 14 BP 1928 Abidjan 14 Jeunesse Etudiante Catholique de Cote dIvoire (JEC-CI) Association des Etudiants Juristes de Cote d'Ivoire BPV 179 Abidjan ONG BOKAYE Rseau de Dveloppement et de Communication des Femmes Africaines (FEMNET _ Cote DIvoire) BP 585 Cidex3 Fdration des Associations de Consommateurs de Cote d'Ivoire (FAC-CI) 01 BP 3399 Abidjan 01 ONG Femme-Action-Dveloppement (FEMAD) 03 BP 2035 Abidjan 03

[email protected]

[email protected]; [email protected] [email protected] +

[email protected] [email protected]

[email protected] [email protected]

17.

Doukoua Gode

Prsident

[email protected]; [email protected]

18.

Mme Yapi Epse Gogoua NSou Dorothe

Prsidente Excutive

[email protected]

19.

TEHE Michel

Secrtaire Gnral

20.

Kouma MAHAMADOU

Secrtaire Gnral

ONG- ODAHROM -Organisation pour le Dveloppement et l'Action Humanitaire de l'Ouest Montagne Siege: Cocody II Plateaux, Perles2 Rue L84, Rsidence Gply - 06 BP 6767 Abidjan 06 Conseil National Islamique (CNI):

[email protected]

[email protected]

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21.

NGUESSAN Ndri Claude

Prsident

22.

M. Ahui Sasson Cammille

Secrtaire Gnral

Fdration dAssociations dONG Musulman Fdration Ivoirienne des Associations, Centres et Clubs UNESCO (FIACU) Immeuble Nogus, Avenue Nogus, 2eme Etage, 09 BP ONG Rues dAfrique 08 BP 2056 Abidjan Forum National sur la Dette et la Pauvret (FNDP / CSCI) Centre de Formation et de Recherche en Animation Rurale (CFRAR) 01 BP : V 291 Abidjan 01 Association des Femmes Juristes de Cte dIvoire (AFJCI) 1, rue du chemin de Fer, lOuest du Sige de la S.I.P.F, 01 B.P 1758 ABIDJAN 01, Section SOS EXCLUSION Bouak Plate Forme de la Socit Civile pour la Paix et Dmocratie (PSDPD) Dlgu du Centre de la Coordination National des Gares Routier de Cte d'Ivoire

[email protected]

[email protected] ; [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]; [email protected]

23. 24.

M. OUATTARA Diakalia YAO Konan Alexandre

Secrtaire Gnral Secrtaire Gnral

25.

ZADI Massa Alice

Secrtaire Gnrale Adjointe, Charge des questions lectorales Prsident

26.

DOUMBIA Soumala

[email protected]

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