Investing in Progressio's future

Pamela Jackson reports back on the fundraising workshops at Have Your Say...

Progressio’s Have Your Say event was a great success. Our supporters said it was ‘a pleasure to be with so many like-minded people’ and described the day as ‘uplifting’ and ‘a good opportunity for direct involvement’ and ‘real engagement with the issues.’

While many supporters did enjoy talking through the issues surrounding fragile states and explored the challenges facing people living in Somaliland on the Horn of Africa, and others got stuck in to planning a water campaign, there was another recurring theme of the day which could not be ignored: fundraising!

Like almost every charity, Progressio is facing a huge challenge to raise the vital funds it needs to fund all the fantastic work which takes place every day overseas. We need to raise £1 million over the next three years from the general public. So we thought it would be a perfect opportunity to get our supporters to see the challenges we’re facing and to see what they would do if they were on Progressio’s Board.

The challenge

The challenge was to decide what projects they would spend their money on in year one, bearing in mind there was not enough money to do everything.

We presented them with three scenarios:

A project across Zimbabwe and Malawi over 3 years on small-scale farming which would dramatically improve the lives of 5,500 people, giving them the skills they need to grow their own crops and run their own businesses. This project will have an impact on 41,000 people by giving them better access to food and by protecting and preserving the environment. 

A project in Haiti over 2 years working with a grassroots organisation to improve their capacity so that they can improve the lives of 21,189 internally displaced people who are still living in camps following the devastating earthquake in 2010. This project also works to lobby international and local governments to ensure Haitian people are included in the re-construction of Haiti and are given better rights.

A fundraising project in the UK which will raise £600,000 over the next three years from people here in the UK, but that will only break even in year 1.

The results

The results were very interesting as nobody came to consensus. There was talk of reducing the size of the projects so that all three could take place. Other people were adamant that fundraising was key in order to provide future funding and ensure Progressio remains a robust organisation. Whilst some decided that there simply must be a cheaper way to raise money. But we all know money doesn’t grow on trees!

So what next?

Progressio will be working hard to raise money over the next few years and will be launching many new exciting projects. We need you to help us FUNDraise, FRIENDraise and AWARENESSraise so that we can keep doing what we do best, support people in poor communities.

Read more about the Have Your Say supporter day

Catch up on the campaigners' workshop and ideas for our new Waterproof campaign

Catch up on the 'fragile states not fragile people' workshop with our Somaliland country representative Suad Abdi

Pamela Jackson is Progressio's Fundraising Executive.

Photo: participants in the fundraising workshop (photo © Layton Thompson/Progressio)