It was year 2000, Sydney Olympics was on, and my parents had finally saved enough money to take us on our first trip to Vietnam.

I was 16. I was excited to see where my parents had grown up and to visit places that I had only heard about from my grandparents, parents and extended family. We went to Ho Chi Minh City, Soc Trang (6 hours south of HCMC where my mum grew up), Hoi An (my dad’s home town) and Hue. We visited family, friends, tomb stones of our ancestors, rode motorcycles, ate everything we could get our hands on (even street food), went site seeing and experienced everything Vietnam had to offer.

However, one particular visit to a relative who lived in the country had a profound affect on me. This experience changed my perspective on life forever and was the catalyst for my desire to help.

They lived in the deep country side in South Vietnam and the only way to get there was by water. 6 of us piled in to a wooden canoe, powered by a small engine that sounded like it was about to break at any moment. On the way it started to rain and water started to come in to the canoe. My brother and I were frantically scooping water out of the canoe, petrified that we will sink in to a brown river that was used as a toilet, washing clothes, swimming pool… everything and anything. You couldn’t see what was in there. After an hour, we got off the canoe (to our relief) and was taken by motor bikes to my relatives place.

We arrived at a small 4 metres x 4 metre cement home, next to a large rice paddock. Inside, there was one wall separating the lounge to the kitchen and a small bathroom area where the walls did not reach the top. The floor and walls were cement, they slept on wooden slats and did not have tables or chairs, water was from the river and food was mainly rice. It was the home for 5 people; my aunt, uncle and their 3 children.

There were two moments that made me realise how lucky I was to live in Australia.

First moment, was when I had to do a ‘number 2’. You couldn’t use the bathroom in the house because it was just a drain. I had to go out to the lake, where there was a wooden platform with a hole and fish flapping in the water below. They tried to cover it for some privacy, but the material had eroded and you were in full sight. That was an experience…

Second moment, was watching my cousin working in the rice fields on a water buffalo. I remember my dad telling me that they didn’t have enough money to send my cousin to school so he had to work to make money for the family. Money from the rice they produced was their only source of income and it was too risky to have him attend school rather than tending to the crops. He was only 12 years old.

At 12, all I had to worry about was doing well at school and everything else was provided. I didn’t have the responsibility of earning money to survive or having to worry about where my next meal would come from. This gave me a new appreciation for everything I had in Australia. I felt so lucky to have access to clean water, a flushing toilet, a comfortable bed, clothes for all seasons and food.

I made a promise to myself that day. I promised that I would work as hard as I possibly could to make enough money to help them one day. 

I always studied hard at school, but after this trip I was even more focussed. Nothing distracted me, I still played soccer at lunch and hung out with my friends on the oval. I was dubbed ‘ice queen’ because I wasn’t interested in boys back then. I found myself in the library during breaks and spending my afternoons studying. I was a geek and I loved it.

I did very well at school. I was able to do anything I wanted at university and chose to study Information Technology because I loved coding. I was on scholarship and was offered a job from the first day of university. I was paid to go to university, it was my dream. I could finally start helping my parents and start savings to help others. Whilst I was still learning the ropes at work, I donated money to different causes. It wasn’t until February 2012 when I was about to go to Vietnam on a charity trip did a colleague suggested raising money. In one week, we had organised a bake sale and raised $3000.

On my return, my work colleagues encouraged me to consider starting my own charity. I didn’t want to create another charity and tried to find one that had a similar objective, but I couldn’t. After 6 months of searching, I decided it was time to start one. I had no clue how to start one, but I did it anyway and this was when Aid Asia Initiative was born.

I found this article on funding models for Not for Profits by Standford Social Innovation Review 2009 very useful when developing our charity business plan.

In summary the ten funding models are:

•  Heartfelt Connector – causes that resonate with the existing concerns of large numbers of people at all income levels, and by creating a structured way for these people to connect where none had previously existed.

• Beneficiary Builder – rely on people who have benefited in the past from their services for additional donations.

• Member Motivator – do not create the rationale for group activity, but instead connect with members (and donors) by offering or supporting the activities that they already seek.

• Big Bettor – rely on major grants from a few individuals or foundations to fund their operations.

• Public Provider: work with government agencies to provide essential social services, such as housing, human services, and education, for which the government has previously defined and allocated funding.

• Policy Innovator: convinced government funders to support methods to address social issues that are not compatible with existing gov. Funding programs and find alternate methods, usually by presenting their solutions as more effective and less expensive than existing programs.

• Beneficiary Brokers: compete with one another to provide government-funded or backed services to beneficiaries e.g. housing, employment services, health care and student loans. Beneficiaries are free to choose the nonprofit from which they will get the service.

• Resource Recycler: collecting in-kind donations from corporations and individuals, and then distributing these donated goods to needy recipients who could not have purchased them on the market.

• Market Maker: service that straddles an altruistic donor and a pay or motivated by market forces e.g. organ donation – there is a demand for organs but it is illegal to sell them. NFP generate revenue from fees or donations that are linked to their activities.

• Local Nationaliser: focus on local communities across the country with issues such as poor schools or children in need of adult role models. Money is raised locally, often from individual or corporate donations and special events.

 

Below is the key message, directly taken from their website, that I need to keep in mind when developing mine in the coming weeks:

In the current economic climate it is tempting for nonprofit leaders to seek money wherever they can find it, causing some nonprofits to veer off course. That would be a mistake. During tough times it is more important than ever for nonprofit leaders to examine their funding strategy closely and to be disciplined about the way that they raise money. We hope that this article provides a framework for nonprofit leaders to do just that.

The funding paths that nonprofits take will vary, and not all will find models that support large-scale programs. The good news is that all nonprofits can benefit from greater clarity about their most effective funding model, and it is possible for some nonprofits to develop models that raise large amounts of money. As mentioned earlier, almost 150 new nonprofits (not counting universities and hospitals), surpassed $50 million in annual revenues between 1970 and 2003.

On the other side of the equation, philanthropists are becoming more disciplined about their nonprofit investing. A growing number of foundations, such as the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation and New Profit Inc., are investing in their grantees to improve both program and funding models. We hope that this article helps philanthropists become clearer about their funding strategy so that they can support their programs more effectively.

As society looks to the nonprofit sector and philanthropy to solve important problems, a realistic understanding of funding models is increasingly important to realizing those aspirations.

 

If anyone reading this has any experience with developing business plans and strategies for not for profits, please share your thoughts and advice.