Dear friends of LIN,
2022 has been a difficult year for us at LIN and Narrow the Gap program. Due to the decision to close down LIN Center, Narrow the Gap has not been successful in carrying out the cycle to its full. Changes were made to the design in the later phases of the 2022 cycle to ensure the program is closed down properly and consistently with the organization as a whole.
Major activities in the implementation of Narrow the Gap 2022:
Although the outcomes were not everything we expected to have when we began planning for 2022 in the first place, we are glad that our stakeholders including the community leaders, Grant Allocation Members and other NPOs have participated in and followed through with the program until the end. We are hopeful seeing their spirits and commitments with their initiatives were all positive and high. We are hopeful to see not only the NPO community but also the corporate leaders are in to share their responsibility and contribution to be able to see their projects to a completion.
With gratitude,
Dear friends of LIN,
It is that time of the cycle where the LIN team sit down and take a closer look at what we have achieved, or even failed to achieve during the entire time implementing a new grant cycle, and share updates with you as our donors and supporters.
Firstly, it is important to acknowledge the first half of 2022 has witnessed several unfavorable changes in the macro-environment for NPOs in general in Vietnam in terms of getting access to adequate resources for our project works. As a long-standing NPO in southern Vietnam, LIN Center felt this first hand. Given reduced resources, a number of project outputs are being delivered lower than usually seen in previous years. However, the past few months were dedicated toward the following works:
- Outreach to corporates about Narrow the Gap concept and proposal for 2022
- Call for proposals from NPOs
- Having a Grant Allocation Committee (GAC) set up to evaluate NPO proposals
- Presenting NPO proposals and improving them with GAC feedback
- Finalizing NPOs to be selected for grants
- Connecting corporates with NPO grantees for cross-sector partnership agreements
The LIN team is glad to announce 2 of NPO proposals were selected for grants in 2022. The total amount of grants is approximately 6,300USD to go into supporting a sign language dictionary website and enhancing access to computers for a remote primary school for Khmer children in An Giang province.
Despite multiple environmental challenges, it is truly a great encouragement to see corporate and individual donors respond to LIN's call for actions. This, of course, goes to include every and each of donors of LIN on GlobalGiving platform. Without your help, it is impossible to stay the course. For this, we are grateful.
Thank you, and all the best.
Dear friends of LIN,
Narrow the Gap 2022 has officially been kicked off since last April, and we are delighted to share with you some updates of the program design and progress. The program is built centered around 3 pillars including nonprofit management capacity strengthening, community resource mobilization and enhanced community engagement. This year, the program takes on the symbol of "nút giao", figuratively translated as "crossed paths", implying a place where people have every opportunity to expand their network, by meeting and connecting with others from difference backgrounds and industries. LIN uses the symbol of a crossed path to communicate a message that when all walk their paths separately, it gets difficult to maximize impacts, but when synergized, we are enabled to multiply the outcome of our efforts to achieve sustainable development goals.
While preliminary works for the implementation of a new cycle of Narrow the Gap in 2022 have been underway during the past months, the LIN team is excited to finally be able to hit the roads to visit our nonprofit community on the ground in May. From 18 to 20 May, the LIN staff successfully conducted a site visit trip to Lam Dong and Dong Nai provinces and Cu Chi district in Ho Chi Minh city. We have reached out to the leaders of 3 community initiatives on their ideas to alleviate the living conditions of their fellow villagers.
- Oh Mi Koho Coffee Project in Di Linh district, Lam Dong province: The project will contribute to SDG 8 through providing fruit-drying equipment and tools for local ethnic families to make dry products, generating some incomes.
- IEM Gõh Churu Project in Don Duong district, Lam Dong province: The project will contribute to SDG 6 through installing a water well system and water piping system to local ethnic households of Bó Ka Bang village.
- VAVA Cu Chi Project in Ho Chi Minh city: The project will contribute to SDG 4 through opening free classes for children affected by Dioxin/ Orange agent in wartorn zones of Cu Chi.
These 3 projects are illustrative among dozens of other initiative applications which LIN has been receiving during the past few months. After a long period of time being affected by Covid-19 and lockdown, we are happy to see our nonprofit community taking steps to recovering and continuing to come up with ideas for the growth of their fellow men, women and children.
The trip has helped LIN create more crossed paths with new communities and new nonprofit groups and learn about their struggles as well as initiatives to change the status-quo. We believe in the weeks and months to come there will be more crossed paths as we present to our stakeholders what we have seen on the ground, the potentials, enthusiasm for positive change and the challenges. And in our quest to ensure no one gets left behind, LIN hopes to see more "nút giao" created for greater and real impacts to take place.
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Dear friends and supporters,
In 2021, the Narrow The Gap Community Fund continued to disburse 900 million VND to 9 projects selected by our Grant Allocation Committee (GAC) and nominated the other 12 initiatives for community fundraising. However, what we hope to build for our community has grown greater.
Attempting to help our nonprofit partners operate more sustainably and independently, we decided to provide them with a new capacity training course starting from 2021. After a lot of effort and preparation, the LIN team had finally managed to deliver the first phase of the Fundraising Capacity Strengthening Program.
Last December, phase 1 welcomed 20 representatives from 17 organizations to the online training course and ended with a ceremony where the participating organizations gained 132 million VND from the incubator funds for their community development initiatives.
The training course gave participants an introduction to project researching and planning, donor management, sponsorship negotiation, and fundraising on digital platforms. After 4.5 days of learning and practicing, participating organizations finalized their proposals and pitched to gain incubator funds.
At the ceremony, phase 1 closed with a remarkable moment as LIN invited partners and participating organizations to sign the "Statement of Ethical Principles in Fundraising in Vietnam." LIN aims to upgrade the program and grant more funds to more community development initiatives in 2022.
Besides our valued corporate donors and grants, your contribution throughout the year has moved us further in our mission to mobilize resources from the community and allocate the resources effectively to meet community needs. We are honored to have you as a part of the LIN team!
In the year of the Tiger, may our heads spark with creativity and our hearts be full of kindness and joy!
With gratitude,
Lam Ngoc Thao
Executive Director
Dear friends and supporters,
As I am writing to you, Narrow The Gap Community Program 2021 has received its final result. There has been so much great news that I can't wait to share with you all.
Last August 9, our Grant Allocation Committee members (GAC) had finally selected the final 9 projects to be granted the Narrow The Gap Community Fund in 2021 (3 projects to receive 150 million VND/project, and 6 projects to receive 75 million VND/project).We also worked together with the GAC to select the other 12 initiatives to be nominated for community fundraising. Despite all struggles of the social distancing, we managed to keep all stakeholders well in touch and took one step at a time to complete this year's program!
Next step, we have invited our sponsors to join a media campaign running from September to the end of October to further raising awareness about the philanthropy field of LIN's Narrow The Gap Community Program. The campaign is one of our attempts to mobilize all forces in the community to help the nonprofits implement their initiatives for the locals in need.
Thanks to your contribution last quarter, we have provided the project participants with our best facilitation during their proposal submission, held a successful Presentation Day on Zoom last August 7-8, and promoted a meaningful raising awareness campaign on Facebook.
Without your donation, the project participants wouldn't be able to sustain the assistance for their communities, especially during such a hard time. Let's stay tuned for their reports about how the grants impact their communities in the next six months.
Meanwhile, you can visit the NTG website to learn about the 9 grantees, read about the 12 nominees, and enjoy our philanthropy awareness videos on our Facebook page.
Faithfully,
Lam Ngoc Thao
Executive Director
Links:
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