Summary
Shakthi Organization assisted women beekeepers to produce more honey. An export company and local distributors were willing to sell the honey and also provided cash and in-kind donations to get the whole project started.
Tips and lessons learned
1. You can save money and build fundraising capacity by involving volunteer staff for different local fundraising activities.
2. Many members of the women's group are illiterate. They are not aware of possible resources and need help in listing what might be key stakeholders for them.
3. Strong facilitation is needed to meet the stakeholders and gain support for the future project, but it is possible to involve different rural stakeholders according to the needs-based approach of the project.
4. Shakthi Organization understood that it should provide continuous mobilising support in order to secure a sustainable income for the women's group.
5. Engaging women's group volunteers in local fundraising activities under the guidance of Shakthi Organization to learn the process by doing is the only way to train them in local fundraising. Other lessons to be learned will be taught to them according to needs.
6. Coaching women's groups to generate income by engaging in bee honey production, could also lead to a sustainable source of income for local CSOs/NGOs.
6. Shakthi has learned to deal with different stakeholders in the implementation of different projects to strengthen both the organisation and society.
7. Shakthi should prepare an action plan specifically considering the possibility of a bee honey surplus, which quickly leads to more income.
Review by Wilde Ganzen Foundation
This is a very nice example of raising funds by selling products. And it also shows how a chance meeting on a bus can lead to a collaboration between a group of rural women who produce honey and companies that can provide marketing for that honey, with Shakthi Organisation in the role of broker.
Details
Short description of the organisation the funds were raised for
The Shakthi Organization was established on 15 September 1999 in Kanthale to help affected women and children in the area. With the aim of raising women's voices against domestic violence and solving the problem.
Initially Oxfam GB came forward to support and strengthen the organisation by providing funds for two projects. Gender and development and Microcredits for women were the thematic areas of the projects implemented by Shakthi. During 2004 we implemented tsunami relief and rehabilitation projects funded by SOLIDAR and Christian Aid. And we were implementing partner with UNICEF, Save the Children focusing on Child Rights, Women’s rights, Violence Against Women, Peace building, Livelihood for people with disabilities, improving the economic situation of mentally retarded. From 2014 to 2018 we then implemented emergency response mechanism for war-affected people funded by National Peace Council and Asia Foundation.
In 2018 Shakthi Organization participated in trainings on Local Fundraising and Mobilising Support provided by Assembly of Social Mobilization (ASM)- Sri Lanka national partner of Change the Game Academy.
Currently Shakthi Organization started implementing projects focusing on local fundraising and mobilising support to strengthen rural civil society organisations and smallholder farmers in rural and isolated areas who have no income to support themselves due to the prevailing economic and political crisis and also the absence of foreign donors in Sri Lanka.
Short description of the project or programme the funds were raised for
Local fundraising by the Shakthi Organization, through collecting bee honey, packing and selling it, to start a beekeeping project for women's groups in a rural village.
Summary of fundraising action
• On a bustrip to the capital city Chathurani, executive director of Shakthi Organization, met the donor, a representative of a multinational company.
• Shakthi Organization as a supplier of bee honey worked locally with the multinational trading company and local distributors.
• Shakthi Organization recruited volunteers for creating awareness in rural villages regarding marketing facilities for villagers.
• A meeting with rural villagers was organised to create willingness to increase productivity, with Shakthi Organization promising to buy the bee honey they produced.
• Meetings with the multinational company and local distributors took place to fix prices for selling and buying, transaction activities and sharing responsibilities.
• The partnership with the multinational company and the distributors was laid down in a Memorandum of Understanding.
• Preparing attractive packaging materials such as bottling and labelling, for local distribution and export quality
• Local fundraising by Shakthi Organization, delivery to the multinational company, linkage with local distributors and rural women's groups in the village.
Objectives
1. To create awareness among local rural producers and purchase bee honey in rural villages.
2. To sign a MOU with REG & CAD Export company and SAS local distributors.
3. To receive capital and an attractive label from SAS distributors for the purchase and local disribution of honey.
4. Shakthi Organization supplies to REG & CAD for export and SAS for local distribution.
Targeted donors
A multinational export company and local distributors
Results
| Cost/benefit |
National currency (LKR |
Euro |
| Total amount raised |
320,000 |
810 |
| (-) Total amount invested |
129,000 |
325 |
| Net amount raised |
191,000 |
485 |
Accounting details
Income:
Packed bee honey sold to the RAG & CAD, Shakthi Organization received SLRs. 320000.
Costs:
Purchasing bee honey SLRs. 111000 (donated in cash by SAS)
Staff and volunteers (food and transport only): SLRs. 18000.
Result comments
Stickers were designed and printed by RAG and CAD company, who also provided the empty bottles for packing.
Local transport for selling was provided by SAS.
Training given for sterilizing; packaging given by the Department of Agriculture.
Voluntary work was done in order to process and pack the honey; until the time of delivery this took 17 days.
Description of preparatory work
• Dealing with the multinational company, by involving a volunteer for sales activities.
• Preparing a Purchase & Collection point for purchasing bee honey.
• Training the staff to sterilise bottles, labelling, pasting printed labels on 200 bottles and packaging, ready for delivery.
• Advertising through Facebook, WhatsApp and other advertisements (preparing a combined logo as per the donor request as SARCS, the word being a combination of Shakthi-SA, RAG & CAD- RC, SAS- S).
Description of implementation
1. Meeting with company for initial discussions, feasibility assessment, preparation and signing of MOU.
2. Several meetings with the women's group to create awareness and purchase bee honey at the local collection point.
• Training of the staff in sterilizing bottles, bottling, labeling and packing 200 bottles to supply to the export company.
• Preparation of attractive social media pages to announce that bee honey is available for sale.
Follow up: Donor appreciation and acknowledgement
The activity was highly appreciated by the donor.
Plans to repeat the action
The action will be repeated in cooperation with the same women's group.
