This document sets out the fundraising methods that WISE will strengthen, initiate and/or cease in the short, medium and long term in order to meet the organisation’s fundraising objectives. The strategy is the outcome of a study conducted to evaluate WISE’s existing fundraising methods as well as investigate new ones.

The study was initiated in early 2019 and subsequently updated in end 2019 by the Core Team for the following reasons: consulting fees, which WISE had relied on for the first two years of operations (2016-2017) had dried up in the third year (2018) and was an unpredictable source of revenue; WISE did not have sufficient funds to sustain more than one year of overhead. Additionally WISE had expanded their operations by registering as a Foundation (Yayasan) and initiating more projects in Indonesia, and intended to expand their operations by registering and hiring one full-time staff in Cambodia.

Figure 1 Breakdown of income (US$) since 2016. Notes: (1) Consulting fees are nett of expenses; (2) Donations in 2016 were predominantly from WISE core team members; (3) Income in 2019 includes grants and assignments that have been awarded and donations that have been committed.

Among the five sources identified in Figure 1, consulting, grants and crowdfunding are currently the main sources of revenue for WISE. Donations that were received were made on the initiative of WISE supporters; Fees were charged as part of workshops being conducted, rather than a means to raise funds.

Approach

The fundraising strategy is a roadmap describing where WISE is now in terms of funding, where we want to be, and how we will get there. The approach undertaken to develop the roadmap was as follows:

1️⃣ Determine fundraising objectives

The Core Team determined the short, medium and long-term fundraising goals, considering the initiatives that WISE plans to implement and expand. The yearly budget necessary for each phase was estimated.

2️⃣ Evaluate current fundraising position

A SWOT (strength, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) and gap analysis of WISE’s existing fundraising methods was carried out using available data from the organisation, desk-based research and inputs from relevant WISE team members. The desired end state for each fundraising method was envisioned and practical steps required to get from the current to desired state were identified.

3️⃣ Evaluate potential fundraising methods

A similar analysis was conducted for as-yet unutilised fundraising methods.

4️⃣ Develop fundraising strategy

The action steps identified in Stages 2 and 3 were prioritised for the short, medium and long term, taking into account the effort required to implement each step and their potential payout.

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