Showing Specific Ways to Contribute
a strategy for self-sustainability
More self-sustainability means having more autonomy and less reliance on external funding, expertise or decisions. It means having a larger capacity to choose and negotiate with other initiatives what’s best for your project and what’s not. It means an increasingly equitable participation, which will lead to development models that are more comprehensive and relevant for all, that is, more sustainable. Know more
One strategy used by several development initiatives to increase their self-sustainability is to clearly state what they need in order to achieve their goals, and the concrete ways in which anyone can help them do so.
Many initiatives have found that what often hinders new support and engagement is not a lack of interest from individuals or institutions, but rather that people don’t exactly know what their project needs, how they can get involved and what impact their contributions could have. Therefore, to motivate and promote the engagement of more stakeholders, many initiatives focus their efforts on designing concrete ways for people to contribute and participate, and then on communicating them clearly.
This strategy helps projects attract a greater diversity of sources of support and reduce their dependence on each individual source, which fosters a more equitable negotiation of their interests and ways of working to achieve solutions that are more relevant to their context. In addition, clearly stating what an initiative needs often favors collaborations that help address problems in a more comprehensive way, with outreach to more communities or people.
Because of all this, some projects decide to organize very specific schemes to promote contributions and send clear messages regarding the type of impact each can have (“your donation of X amount will buy school supplies for two children”, for instance). Some do this by fostering emotional connections between donors and the communities they support by putting them in touch through letters or calls. Other projects come up with many possible avenues for people to contribute –such as their websites, phonelines, street stands, fairs, etc.– and make them known. This sometimes involves offering alternatives for donations of money or materials, matching funds, volunteer openings, sponsorship by individuals, companies or even workers’ organizations, and many more. Some other projects put organizations or structures together so that, through them, different groups participate in their projects (school governments, expert forums, participatory diagnosis activities, etc.), and some others hire staff or appoint teams to welcome anyone interested in collaborating, show them the projects and encourage them to participate in different ways.
There are many ways to show concrete ways to contribute to a development project and thus increase its self-sustainability. Take a look at how these initiatives have done it!
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