The Long and Short Run of It
Posted by BethP in Fundraising Ideas, Fundraising News, Social Media Fundraising, tags: disaster relief, East Africa Food Shortage, email fundraising, emergency relief, Ethiopia, food prices, fundraising, Horn of Africa, international development, international relief, Kenya, local knowledge, NGOs, NPOs, online fundraising, Tanzania, Uganda, World VisionThis morning I received an email from World Vision highlighting the most recent news on the current food shortage in East Africa.
BBC East Africa Food Crisis report
World Vision does an excellent job of keeping its donor community up-to-date on how instability (economic, political, environmental) is affecting people around the world and where there are opportunities to donate for impact.
When it comes to international crises and concerns, most charities and NPOs are referred to as NGOs (non-governmental organizations). As you may well know, there is no shortage of NGOs, large and small, working for good all over the world and for a variety of causes. NGOs often occupy a unique position because they are active in local communities on a year-round basis, may employ local staff, and often partner with governmental organizations and for-profits with shared interests. NGOs tend to have a degree of expertise or “on the ground” insight (aka local knowledge) that others do not, and, like World Vision, may be poised to respond quickly to emergencies because they are already there when they happen.
Clearly there are times when immediate and urgent responses are needed, and NGOs that harness the power of social media to get the message out to the donor community are more likely to be effective in this. Information about funding needs might otherwise be slow to reach us through traditional news sources, or it might not reach us at all.
I wonder how much of the fundraising and donor community, however, when it comes to international concerns, associates fundraising primarily with these short-term efforts to provide aid in the form of emergency provisions. Is this a short-sighted view? Can social media also be used to spread the word about fundraising for long-term investment and development projects?
Want to donate or fundraise for World Vision? See the World Vision Landing Page to get started.
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A great supporter of World Vision is AIDtoCHILDREN.com.
AIDtoCHILDREN.com is a dual-purpose site for building an English vocabulary and raising money for under privileged children in the most impoverished places around the world.
Check it out at http://www.aidtochildren.com
[...] Consider the impact of the work. Is it a short-term project or a long-term one (or both?) Is the goal sustainability or self-sufficiency? Does it have any longevity beyond the project [...]