On 22 October 2014, the LIN Center for Community Development hosted the closing ceremony for the Community Partnership Initiative (CPI) 2014. Nearly sixty representatives were in attendance, including nonprofit, corporate and volunteer members of the seven competing teams, the CPI support team and panel judges.
The theme for CPI 2014 was "Improving nonprofits' financial sustainability". In May 2014, ten nonprofit organizations were matched with a company or a team of volunteers and given just over four months to help their nonprofit partner build or strengthen their existing approach to generating funds for their respective causes. In October, a panel of experts - comprised of both fundraisers and financial management professionals - reviewed the fundraising strategies of each of the seven remaining teams.
The top prize was awarded to the ICS-Mash team!
ICS is a community organization dedicated to promoting and protecting LGBT (lesbian – gay - bisexual - transgender) rights in Vietnam. Mash Agency, a member of The Purpose Group, provides digital and direct marketing services to clients throughout Vietnam. Together, they produced an impressive plan and initial fundraising results for ICS, some of which were successfully implemented to support VietPride 2014. Thanks to support from Irish Aid, ICS was awarded VND 40 million, which they can use to improve financial sustainability and thereby strengthen the support they provide to their beneficiaries.
Ms. Nguyen Duc Thuy Anh, a member of the judging panel and a project advisor shared her thoughts on the winning proposal:
"[ICS] fundraising strategy was professional, from the presentation, slogans, text and implementation strategy. Thoughtful detail was evident in every text, every idea! Though the proposed plan is quite expensive, ICS demonstrated that the organization has the capacity to accomplish what they are proposed."
Highlights from the four-month long initiative were shared through a video clip, an interviews with members of different teams. While LIN undertakes a survey and debrief with CPI participants, we would like to share some early results:
- Over 50 skilled volunteers contributed their time and professional skills to support the work of 10 nonprofit organizations participating in CPI 2014.
- Over 400 volunteer hours were dedicated to this project, valued at over VND 200 million.
- By October, seven of the ten teams made it to the end of the competition, each submitting their own fundraising strategy . All together, the teams came up with 21 creative fundraising ideas to test out (and some have already begun).
- The collaboration between NPOs and Skilled Volunteers will directly benefit more than 500 beneficiaries , including children affected by HIV/AIDs, community members concerned about environmental issues, LGBT and disadvantaged children in Ho Chi Minh City.
During the CPI 2014 Closing Ceremony, team members representing participating nonprofits and skilled volunteers shared their thoughts about the process of cooperation over the previous four months, some even encouraging others to attempt viral fundraising initiatives in the near future.
If you would like to learn more about CPI 2014, please click here.
Are there any HR professionals out there who would like to share their skill sets? CPI 2015 will focus on strengthening the Human Resource management capacity of local nonprofits. If you are interested to form a team or advise LIN on the project, please contact us at: Volunteer@LINvn.org
Links:
![Share on Twitter]()
![Share on Facebook]()
