Summary
Nguzo Africa is working in Narok South County, a rural environment where trees have been cut to enlarge the agricultural area. This is causing drought problems and lack of firewood. Nguzo Africa promotes tree planting, especially in the vicinity of schools and at the same time encourages the population to switch to renewable energy, such as biogas for cooking and solar energy for lighting. The current fundraising campaign was designated to raise sufficient funds to plant trees near three schools, while at the same time informing the community about the advantages of biogas and solar lighting. Personalised letters were sent to the ´Friends of Nguzo´ and several organisations. Nguzo Africa dedicated part of the income from its farm and tent hire unit to this purpose and also income from consultancies and services offered to the government. Kenyan Change the Game Academy partner KCDF matched the amount raised with an equal grant.
As a result of the action many households are now aware of the importance of using solar energy. Tree planting has also increased. Private nurseries were even struggling to meet the demand.
Tips and lessons learned
Nguzo Africa will repackage Nguzo Social Enterprise of planting trees near schools, and sell it as a product to the county government, business community and local farmers.
Nguzo Africa is organising a dinner for local leaders, professionals, large scale farmers and the business community to support the initiative. When organising an event like this you have to take into account the costs of publicity materials, media attention, location bookings, etc. After all it costs money to raise funds and you have to budget for this.
Local professionals and business people should be made aware of the importance of giving back to the community. And don´t forget to give them proper recognition when they do donate. Personalised thank you letters, awards and maybe even their names linked to the initiative are some good ideas.
And finally: call regular community meetings to share the project outputs. With stakeholders share prompt and transparent financial and project status reports. This will encourage people to support your future projects.
Review by Wilde Ganzen Foundation
Nguzo Africa tried to get matching resources from a local development institution and found this to be very difficult. This fundraising campaign taught them how important it is to involve the local community, local leaders, and local businesses in your activities. If you inform them well and continue to do so, if you give them proper appreciation and recognition when they support you, you may not even need institutional support in order to fund your projects. Nguzo Africa is making a strong plea for local fundraising and obviously learned a lot from this experience too; see their ´Tips and lessons learned´.
Details
Objectives
To implement climate change activities such as planting trees in three schools.
Promoting adoption of use of solar lanterns at Household level for lighting.
Promoting the use of domestic biogas units as clean source of energy (and tree conservation).
Targeted donors
Friends of Nguzo.
Members of Nguzo Africa.
Results
| Cost/benefit |
National currency (KES |
Euro |
| Total amount raised |
1,000,000 |
8,790 |
| (-) Total amount invested |
100,000 |
879 |
| Net amount raised |
900,000 |
7,911 |
Accounting details
| Income: |
|
|
|
| Friends of Nguzo |
|
300.000 |
| Nguzo farm/tent hire |
180.000 |
| Members |
|
|
20.000 |
| Consultancies/services |
500.000 |
|
|
|
|
| Costs: |
|
|
|
| Time of staff and volunteers |
|
| valued at |
|
|
100.000 |
Description of preparatory work
1. Mapping out potential donors: profiling of possible people/institutions who were going to support the initiative.
2. Writing personalised letters to individuals and local business people, soliciting their support.
3. Face to face meetings with these supporters.
4. Pooling resources from members, individuals and organisation income.
Description of implementation
Nguzo Africa held consultative meetings with leaders and stakeholders to share the concept. They proposed the schools that were to be supported with trees and households that were to benefit from household biogas systems.
This was followed by market based campaigns and sensitisation of residents on the importance of planting trees and where to get the seedlings. During these meetings Nguzo Africa also emphasized the importance of adopting the use of renewable energy sources, such as biogas and solar.
