Connect. Collaborate. Lead Together.

Learn more about what happened at the last Leadership Labs session!

Does your organisation struggle because of limited funds? 

Do you find it hard to develop new donor relationships or longer-term sources of income? 

Do the administrative requirements of donors make it harder to get funding, or get in the way of making an impact? 

In the two scheduled sessions for the second Leadership Labs event, we explored how to secure old, new, and additional resources to support social change.  

• In the first session,we looked at the many barriers organisations face when mobilising resources and how these challenges can be addressed
• In the second session, you learned how to do donor profiling and develop a local fundraising plan, and learnt from each other’s experiences of resource mobilisation

Key takeaways:

Despite challenges faced by Youth Civil Society Organisations including the impacts of Covid19, resource mobilisation remains vital for social capital, sustainability, independence, and scaling up and it continues to impact society. These challenges include the shrinking of global- giving, thinking of new donor approaches, a mismatch between donor interests and NGO needs, and increasing technical requirements in winning grants.

• Resource mobilisation is about engaging and mobilising people and organisations to secure old,  and new resources, to support social change. Resources can be money, services, goods, networks, time and even moral support – all. All resources are equally important

• Resource mobilisation is NOT begging, harassing, forcing or fundraising. It is offering something in return for being supported. It involves developing and maintaining contacts and networks

• There are three major components of resource mobilisation– accessing existing wealth, generating new wealth, and expanding non financial resources

• Key to unlocking resources is effective partnership building. Mobilising resources is a process where the key to unlock those resources lies in an effective partnership building. Always report back to the donor and say thank you! 

• There are new donors rising– as well as new ways of raising resources and growing prospects of domestic resource mobilisation

• Donor mapping and developing the resource mobilisation plan is key. It is important to be organised and aware of your project needs,  in kind support or volunteer support.

Through the interaction with participants, we learned that most of them think communication is the most important attribute of a good resource mobiliser. But the greatest challenges that organisations face in mobilising resources includes difficult donor requirements, followed by inadequate skills, capacity and inadequate information of resources.

Youth CSO Organisation  

Event Speaker

The two sessions were led by Gervin Chanase from the West African Civil Society Institute (WACSI) with support from Intrac. 

Gervin Chanase is an international development expert affiliated with WACSI, with over 8 years of professional experience in 3rd sector governance, policy and advocacy, results-based monitoring, and evaluation. Gervin’s work is currently situated in the intersectionality among civil society research, capacity strengthening, and policy advocacy. Gervin holds a Master’s degree in Development & Governance from the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, and a second Master’s in Global Studies from the University of Vienna (Austria), University of Leipzig (Germany), and University of California (Santa Barbara), USA. He is also the author of numerous publications centering on civil society strengthening in the Global South.

What are the ‘Leadership Labs‘?

In this peer-led initiative, Youth Collective members share their leadership skills and tools through interactive, online sessions. Leadership Labs sessions are a collaborative online space for Youth Collective members to explore effective leadership approaches together- and develop stronger collaborations.

If you have an idea for a Leadership Lab session, or a query about the series, please contact youthcollective@restlessdevelopment.org