NGO Soul + Strategy 033. Chasing funding - will it ever end? A back-and-forth with Chris of MZN
Tosca is in conversation with Christian Meyer zu Natrup, Managing Director of MzN International, in the second episode of our 3 part, joint podcast series. The other 2 episodes cover ‘Chasing Innovation’ (episode #032) and ‘Chasing impact’ (episode #34, expected to be aired around Feb 23).
Summary
Good projects/programs need good funding. But why do some organizations continue to grow and some stagnate?
And is growth even a good or necessary thing in this era of a renewed look at the appropriate role of global North-founded INGOs, when global-South civil society is asking to #shiftthepower?
Isn’t the business model of nonprofits, taking tax money from the global north for projects in the global south, inherently inefficient and even perpetuating colonialism?
In the second episode, I discuss with Chris the disconnect between the funding we need to solve a problem and the funding we can get.
Christian’s Bio
- Managing Director of MzN International
- Disaster relief and assessment coordinator at European Union (2006 – 2013)
- Senior Executive at Ernst and Young Consultants
We discussed:
- There's a disconnect between the funding NGOs need to solve a problem and the funding they can get. It's more effective to ask what funding people need to solve a problem, then build an organization to get that funding. If grants form part of the mix, great. If not, look for alternatives.
- What are the trade-offs between a strategy of seeking diversification of revenues versus focusing on one source which the organization has shown success in obtaining
- Digitally-enabled fundraising strategies, and the blind spots of 'brick and mortar' NGOs
- Necessary components of a business plan, such as:
* How to generate revenue
* For what impact
* Intersection of revenue and impact
* Intersection of revenue and costs of delivery (which many NGOs don’t really track), compared to the impact generated
* How to interact with the market/ecosystem of other nonprofits
* People side: skills staffing and governance.
Resources:
Links to MZN's social media channels:
Twitter
Next episode alert:
- Episode 3: Chasing impact - ever more desperate? And are we actually interested in measuring and knowing our impact?
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