On 22 and 23 July 2020, a virtual fundraising seminar was held for eleven participants from German organisations from the cultural and environmental protection sector. Employees of the Engagement Global office for development policy advice and networking presented funding programmes, third-party donors and crowdfunding methods. Examples were used to illustrate what exactly the third-party funding of successful applications consists of. This gave the participants an insight into possibilities for start-up financing and organising campaigns.
In addition to third-party funds, the necessary financial additions are provided by donations, participant contributions and own funds. Here it is important to note that the federal funds of Engagement Global may not be combined with other federal funds, but only with funding from local, state or international sources.
Participants were able to present their organisation and their project in small groups and afterwards received individual advice on their project-specific challenges. For example, some German organisations struggle to invest more of their own resources with each project they implement and to collect contributions from young people participating in the exchange projects. When it comes to fundraising by partner organisations from countries of the Global South, German partners often lack information on local funding programmes and well-established relationships are required to make full use of all resources.
A corresponding workshop on fundraising for partner organisations took place in Benin at the end of July, on 7 and 13 August a similar workshop was held for partner organisations in South Africa and Tanzania. These offered the participants above all an overview of the local fundraising landscapes, but also provided assistance with general fundraising strategies in relation to German and European funding programmes.
The workshop series was continued on 29 July and 14 August with a joint training session with the German partner organisations and the African partner countries. Professional trainers were on hand to discuss specific problems and to develop project concerns and appropriate fundraising strategies. The exchange of experience with organisations from different areas proved to be particularly productive and stimulating. Despite the sometimes very difficult circumstances caused by Covid-19 or power cuts, there was considerable interest and attendance at the workshops was high.
