Local fundraising example:
Company - school partnership

Summary

Don Bosco Foundation of Cambodia is committed to stay at the side of the most unprivileged children and youth throughout of its projects in Cambodia, including technical schools, kindergartens, basic education and sponsorship programmes for children in different regions of the country. These projects have always been made possible through support of foreign donors. However, in recent years the organisation started to build a local fundraising base, by starting to tap company partners and other groups of individuals who could support partly running costs and upgrading of facilities by sponsorship or donations in kind.

DBTS Phnom Penh in 2011 got Bosch for upgrading facilities and teachers in automotive department and providing power tools in mechanical-welding, automotive, electronic and electrical departments. RMA Cambodia, in turn, donated a brand new Ford Ranger for the training of the automotive students in 2012. In 2015 DBTS got the donation of pneumatic facility of FESTO from Germany after submitting a request in 2013. In 2014 a partnership was signed with the representative of Schneider Electric in Cambodia for the upgrading of the electrical workshops in Phnom Penh, Kep, Sihanoukville, Battambang and Poipet. It is only now that the project is materialising. The inauguration of the renovated and upgraded electrical rooms in Phnom Penh took place on July 7, 2017. Then, the other four locations will follow. This is a three year contract that can be renewed.  Schneider chose DBTS to be a model in training the poor.

DBTS is in the process of connecting with their company partners to sponsor students. Crown company, after realising that 60% of their staff are DBTS graduates, started 3 years ago offering scholarship grants to two students per year both in school at Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh. In 2016 a partnership has been signed with Phnom Penh City Center for their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). They started sponsoring 20 students for two years and put up a computer lab for auto-cad for students' use. 

Partnership with companies for job placement is strong, but DBTS still needs to make extra requests for sponsorship of students and invite them to Corporate Social Responsibility which just started to pick up in the past two years.

Tips and lessons learned

Review by Wilde Ganzen Foundation

Don Bosco Technical School Phnom Penh provides technical training to underpriviliged youth. This has always been made possible by foreign donors. A couple of years ago DBTS PP decided to change its fundraising policy. They now successfully attract funding from inside Cambodia, mainly from foreign and Cambodian companies. The key to their success is the real partnership they manage to create between school/students and company. The companies are carefully chosen and linked to the skill department that will most appeal to them. Their involvement is not only financial, they also contribute to the educational programme by giving lectures and workshops, and offer internships to students. No wonder most of the students easily find employment after they finish school.

Details

Short description of the organisation the funds were raised for

Don Bosco Technical School Phnom Penh (DBTS PP) is an educational institution under the Don Bosco Foundation of Cambodia, a not-for-profit organisation whose main office is located in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Since the establishment in 1991, the school has sought to answer the educational needs of a country in its post-war period of reconstruction. Don Bosco Technical School is the first institution to provide a free technical skill education to young adults in extreme poverty and to facilitate the schooling of marginalised youth. It is regarded as the site of Cambodia’s first printing press following Pol Pot’s regime from 1975-1979, initiating the republishing, translating and writing of books and documents of education. Today DBTS PP continues to uphold its mission of inviting disadvantaged youth from across the country to receive a technical skill education, thus providing them with the foundations necessary to create a future of possibilities. Courses given include: automotive, electronics, computer, electrical, mechanics, welding and printing. In addition the school offers a 3-month Supervised In-Plant Training (SIPT) programme to graduating students. Following their seventeen-month in-campus training, all students from each faculty are required to participate in undertaking work experience in an industry partner’s plant. This programme seeks to further enhance the skills of students and enable them to gain more experience within their field. As a result the employment success rate is very high, in some years even 100%.

Short description of the project or programme the funds were raised for

This programme is called Company-school partnership. It aims at encouraging foreign and local companies especially in Phnom Penh, Cambodia toward Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). This entails upgrading school facilities, training staff/trainers and partnership in the three-month internship programme of Don Bosco Technical School leading to the job placement of graduating students. The companies offer sponsorship to students and a few monetary donations which partially support the running cost of the Technical School. Besides contributing just monetarily the company goes further to take active part in the education and formation of the students by getting its qualified staff to offer seminars and motivation talks; this model ensures the young students a view of the world that they would soon encounter. A few other companies had done outreach activities in school like training the trainers, donation of technical equipment and installing them with the teachers and students as part of their training, and contributing rice and goods for the school lunch. The core of the programme is to facilitate the corporates to community development by actively participating in equipping the young men and women of Cambodia with the right skills necessary to compete in the corporate world and involving them as partners in the mission in many practical ways.

Objectives

1. To secure sponsorship of upgrading of technical facilities.
2. To secure scholarships and donations for underprivileged students.
3. To secure internship and job placements for students.

Targeted donors

Foreign and local companies in Cambodia.

Results

Result comments

Schneider Electric contributed US$ 75,000 during a three year partnership. With their contribution DBTS realised two upgraded electrical workshop rooms, upgrade of the teaching proficiency of teachers in electricity and upgrade of the learning of the students, including on renewable energy. As an addition to the Solar Pump project Schneider Electric donated another US$ 3.500 for the fish pond project.

Description of preparatory work

1. Drawing up of SIPT (internship) programme and Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with company partners; asked the partnership and cooperation of the Don Bosco Past Pupils Association of Cambodia (DBPPAC) for the implementation of the programme; identified the first prospective companies for each skill department.
2. Drawing up of the scholarship programme; preparation of request for scholarship to particular company partners; personal visitation and presentation of scholarship funding request to company partners.
3. Identifying what skills and facilities to upgrade in the curriculum for each department; choosing the prospective companies to tap for upgrading; writing and submission of request for upgrading of facilities and of teachers.

Description of implementation

1. In the SIPT programme the job placement officer and secretariat of DBPPAC were oriented and trained for the implementation of the programme, especially on how to convince each company to partner with the school; signing of the MOA and sending off student trainees; visitation of company and students during the internship programme.
2. In the scholarship programme the company finalises with the school the details of the MOA; identification of the students to be supported; update report regarding the scholars performance.
3. In the upgrading of facilities and teachers: discussion and preparation for the upgrading with the interested partner company; finalisation of the details of the project and the MOA; signing of the MOA, real implementation of the project and formal opening with media.

Follow up: Donor appreciation and acknowledgement

The school shows appreciation and acknowledgement to donors by giving a token of partnership for public display, putting up the name of the company in the school and in the website and posting an article with regard to their donation in the website.

Plans to repeat the action

The company-school partnership is a non-stop programme.