Lilongwe, Malawi – Managers constantly worry about maintaining and expanding their organisations’ activities, while having the capacity to respond to new opportunities and reacting to external shocks. This requires financial resources to pay for staff salaries, activities and infrastructure. Faith to Action Network partnered with Brot für die Welt to train nine organisations from Malawi and Tanzania in resource mobilisation.   

Curriculum-based training increases managers’ skills and knowledge in five areas: How to enhance their organisation’s relevance towards diverse stakeholders’ needs? How to strengthen organisational credibility by being well-governed, accountable, well managed? How to increase the visibility of organisations? How to develop and maintain relationships with donor institutions? How to strategically respond to funding opportunities?   

“The participatory training methodology seeks to reverse traditional donor relationships. We should strive to become donors’ go-to partners. They should be seeking our expertise, our context-knowledge. They should be confident to entrust their resources to our organisation” says Judy Amoke, Head of Programmes at Faith to Action Network.   

The training encouraged sharing of experiences and is action oriented. At the outset of the training, participants will develop a resource mobilisation plan, guiding their efforts for the next three years. Bettina Meier from Brot für die Welt emphasizes that “to increase financial sustainability and reduce risks, organisations need to diversify their funders, opening new funding sources while nurturing existing partnerships”.