Today’s Tiny Letter….
If you struggle trusting new campaigners after seasoned leaders leave, you’re not alone. Most funders are torn in between trusting the young person with a burning fire within and a bigger, more bureaucratic but established organisation.
Truth is, only a few campaigners have a solid network of funders. Even less are backed by teams that know how to apply for, manage and report a funding cycle.
The problem
Funders have gotten their fingers burnt and prefer to work with established organizations only... "it is simply less risky."
Many campaigners and organizations that don't scale burn out and drop off, leaving a vacuum of experience and leadership.
Meanwhile, strong voices that founded bigger entities drown to keep their organizations alive and disappear from the movement.
The common phrase, “starting from somewhere,” often refers to the struggles young passionate people endure to learn the ropes and establish a fundable and scalable organisation. The journey to “making it” is often brutal: rejections and backlash are common for those that endure.
Young and on fire, to burnout and exit
There are lots of passionate young people out here, who volunteer, use their little resources and expend their energies for their communities... but as years pass by, and as responsibilities pile, the phrase "you cannot eat passion" becomes more prevalent.
Funders' worries and "less risky" disbursements
Truth is, there are many funders willing to support frontline work direct, but fear of repeating bad experiences forces them to resort to funding bigger, "less risky" entities.
I am lucky to have found a way to tie my campaigning passion with my career. However, burnout is real... and I experienced it as roles shifted from grassroots activism to international coordination.
Bureaucracy takes it's toll on you fast when you bridge the gap between funders and activists... especially when processes are slow, and campaigners are moving fast.
Some context and definition
Capacity building
For organisations, this is often seen as enhancing workflows: operational maturity, financial health, and overall impact, ensuring it can thrive now and in the future, not just survive. For individual campaigners, the lines are blurred, and is mostly tailored on content and not workflows.
Systems building
Improving, connecting, and aligning tools, infrastructure, and strategies of different organisations towards a shared goal. Little is done with a focus on beginner campaigners on this.
Systems building is tied to capacity: aligning donor processes with on-ground organisations. Both leave young, passionate people out.
So you ask...
Why don't they just register their own organisations?
Well, that's already a capacity issue.
Think... a 24-year old, just graduated from college, fired towards making a difference but with little or no connections... registering an NGO, even a CBO.
Where do they even begin when every next step is unpredictable?
So, you ask, what do you recommend?
Invest in online training
Document workflows and processes to survive project cycles and standardise processes: Think Proposal | Implementation | Reporting stages. Young people have access to mobile phones and computers, and most have the time to take the courses.
Platforms like https://tinyteams.africa/courses/ work across borders, and are scalable. Do it once, onboard all your teams forever.
Young people already have computers in their hands, some have hundreds of thousands of followers already. Let's find a way to work with them.
Thank you very much for reading.
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Looking forward to hearing from you.
~ Jeremiah.
