Bridge Builders

One strategy used by several development projects to become more self-sustainable is to appoint bridge builders.

Some development initiatives appoint individuals or teams to help them establish links and improve collaboration either among the project’s different participants, or between the project itself and external stakeholders. These individuals or work groups function as “bridge builders” because they have either knowledge, skills or experience that allow them to bring the different actors involved in the initiative together (maybe they speak a certain language or have a good social standing in the community, for instance). 

Bridge builders are the ones who facilitate communication between project participants, or between them and donors, beneficiaries, the press, etc. They are therefore important for integrating and improving collaborations between the different work teams or even for attracting new networks of collaborators. This helps initiatives increase their self-sustainability because it allows them to better leverage, expand and diversify their sources of support (money, expertise, contacts, etc.) and, above all, to implement more comprehensive and relevant solutions for more people.

Some development initiatives seek the support of agencies devoted to fundraising or to publicizing projects in the media in order to build links with people or institutions interested in common problems (which can be very useful for scaling up projects or obtaining resources).  Others rely on local leaders or stakeholder organizations to enable a good communication with the communities they work with. Still others hire staff to take charge of the initiative’s public relations with potential collaborators, the press, etc., while others use different strategies to give visibility to the project’s efforts and attract more support with the help of volunteers, celebrities, or even the beneficiaries themselves, who share their experience to raise awareness using different media, such as social networks.