Executive Summary

This is a fundraising concept paper for circulation and discussion within the HRCO’s staff,
management, board members, and fund raising committee. It is recalled that HRCO has already
developed HRCO’s Fund Raising Strategy document, and this time HRCO will host a fund
raising event and install a sustainable mechanism to mobilize resources in conformity with
Ethiopian fundraising policy and regulation framework.
For commissioning of this program, HRCO fundraising committee with its management and
concerned staff read, understood and reacted upon HRCO’s Fundraising Strategy Document, and
also made a brief evaluation of fundraising by HRCO in the past years plus conclusions; based
on that the team consulted to prepare a plan for the funding needs for HRCO and set realistic
objectives for this special fundraising event that is granule of this concept paper
Understanding that organizational capacity assessment (OCA) in HRCO has been done recently,
the committee decided to conduct fundraising program, and then target donors, both individuals
and organizations. Thus, this planning document (concept paper) helps as a preliminary guide to
undertake the program
Organizational Background
The Human Rights Council/HRCO is an independent, non-governmental, non-profit
making, non-partisan organization established on October 10, 1991. HRCO is the first and
only domestic non-governmental human rights organization mandated to investigate, monitor,
and report on human rights violations in Ethiopia. HRCO’s vision is that all people in Ethiopia
may enjoy a peaceful democratic system, wherein citizens are sovereign, human rights are
respected and the rule of law prevails. As its mission, HRCO is committed to promote and
defend the rights of people in Ethiopia and stand against inequality, injustice and misuse of
power.
The three fundamental and inseparable objectives of HRCO
are:
To encourage and monitor the respect for human rights in Ethiopia

To promote the rule of law and due process; and

To strive for the establishment of a democratic system

While HRCO has vigilantly maintained these objectives, following the adoption of the CSO
proclamation in 2009 which prohibits national, rights based NGOs from receiving more than
ten percent of their funding from foreign sources. The major threat posed by the
proclamation was the denial of needed and indispensable resources from the international
community; HRCO has been forced to make significant reductions in staff, branch offices
and program activities. In
2008, HRCO employed 58 persons in 3 departments and 8 sub-units. With adequate staff and
a high level of synergy among the different departments, HRCO was able to establish 12
branches in most regions of the country including Arba Minch, Assela, Bahir Dar, Dessie,Dire
Dawa, Gambella, Gonder, Hawassa, Jimma, Jijiga, Mekele and Nekemte. In addition, with
sufficient funding, HRCO employed a holistic and multi-faceted approach to combating
human rights violations in Ethiopia. Among other program activities, HRCO investigated,
monitored and reported on human rights abuses; held human rights seminars for government
officials and citizens; provided legal aid to victims of human rights violations; conducted
rights related research; monitored Ethiopian prison conditions; monitored court proceeding of
 rights related cases; engaged in monitoring and reporting on the electoral process; and
organized voter education programs.

However, following the adoption of the CSO proclamation, the council has been forced to
drastically reduce its staff and disband many of its branch offices. Currently, HRCO is
operating with a total of not more than 25 staff members at its head office and six branches.
HRCO has also been forced to discontinue five departments and units. In addition, HRCO has
had to drastically reduce the scope of its program activities.
Despite these and other reductions, HRCO still enjoys the service of dedicated employees and
a membership constituency of all sections of the society. With this impetus HRCO was able to
survive through the unsuitable environment created after the adoption of the CSO
proclamation in 2009.
Added to this was the introduction by the proclamation of the 70/30 principle for program and
administrative expenses for NGOs.
Significance and Justification for the Fundraising Program
As a human rights organization, HRCO plays a key role in defending and promoting human
rights and contribute to advancement of acceptance of the idea that every person has inalienable
rights by virtue of the fact that they are human. Since its inception HRCO has been playing a
crucial role in the creation of the atmosphere and context to stimulate action in the field of
human rights by governments and contributed paramount results in drawing the attention of
world public opinion to human rights issues in Ethiopia.
Accordingly, HRCO is continuously demonstrating its relentless effort that helps to safeguard
human rights against government infringement through techniques such as systematic
investigations, human rights monitoring, free legal aid and support services to victims of human
rights violations, hosting of press conferences, release of special reports and press releases, and
these techniques have been proven successful for the past 24 years.
Notwithstanding the aforesaid efforts and achievements, HRCO needs enough money to survive.
It has to meet its project costs and develop its programmes for the future, pay the wages and
salaries of its staff plus all its administrative overheads, accomplish its programmatic pillars,
keep its equipment and vehicles in a good state of repair, and pay for any new equipment that it
needs. The list is endless. And the stark truth is that if the money is not raised, the organisation
will not be able to carry out its work. And if the work is not done, all those pressing needs will
remain unmet.
Nowadays, there is a lot of competition for donor money/resources and in many cases the
survival of an organization depends on how well it can compete with other organizations to raise
funds and on how creative it is in finding other ways to make money.
Unfortunately, the coming of Charities and Societies Proclamation No 621/2009, the Council of
Ministers Regulation No. 168/2009 on Charities and Societies has put a formidable challenge on
fundraising prospects of HRCO and other like-minded organizations.
In the midst of this tense challenge, HRCO was discharging its overarching objectives with
limited resources, including the fundraising activity that instituted the organization until to date.
Currently, HRCO has been relying almost on one source for all its funding, the European Union
Civil Society (EU-CSF II) Fund. However, HRCO realized that it needs to find other sources in
order to survive, and equally try to diversify by finding additional supporters by developing a
whole new source of financial support such as individual donations or membership fees.
If HRCO is to meet the challenges of the future, it needs to expand the work, improve the quality
of service, extend its activities into other areas, carry out research, add campaigning and
advocacy to basic service delivery, and continue to innovate. All this requires more money –
money that HRCO will need to raise.
Equally, fundraising is not just about the amount of money to raise; it is also about the numbers
of supporters HRCO can attract to its cause. Each supporter is important to HRCO. They can be
persuaded to give again and to give even more generously. They might like to volunteer or might
be able to persuade friends and contacts to support HRCO. Their numbers are an indication of
the level of support that HRCO is attracting, and this can add strength to HRCO’s lobbying and
campaigning work.
The goal of this fundraising program/plan is to provide enough resources so that we can forward
HRCO’s mission. Money is the fuel for the organisation’s work and fundraising is the drill that
makes the gas flow.
Purpose of the Fundraising Program
The purpose of the fundraising program is to undertake HRCO Fundraising event at a national
level that will further help establish a long-term fund-raising mechanism: HRCO maps this
program as a funnel, with a wide top and narrow bottom or shoot. The wide top represents
reaching a large number of potential donors, and the narrow bottom is the actual number of
donors that will result from that outreach. Through this event HRCO turns the opportunities for
new donor identification and solicitation.
Objectives of the Fundraising Program
As per the purpose stated above the program have the following core objective:
1. To conduct direct contacts and establish enduring links that will bolster HRCO’s national
constituency
2. To organize a fundraising program event at national level
3. To review and update, and cultivate HRCO’s visibility and social networking scale
among its members, founders, supporters and sympathizers.
Selected Strategy for the Fundraising Program
HRCO fundraising committee in series of consultation with the management and relevant staff
opted two concurrent and parallel strategies as a course of actions to undertake this fundraising
program. These are herewith:
1. Pledge Strategy:
Voluntary contributions through search and welcoming of new members, review contact of
HRCO’s friends, and former sponsors.
HRCO initiates the pledge program through chronicling and making known HRCO’s activities
and achievements. This will be done by writing up and circulating the HRCO’s mission
statement, aims and objectives, accounts of its successes and failures, case studies, lessons learnt
etc. This kind of information can be distributed among intended organisations and individuals,
and by networking with people and organizations.
2. Hosting of Special event that involves organizing a dinner program/event for the particulars
that HRCO arranges. On this event merchandise sales of articles, invitation of various amateurs,
artists, musicians, penning contest and bid on selected items could be scheduled as per its
priority of essence. HRCO believes that one of the best ways to raise money and awareness is to
host a fundraising event open to the general public. They can be very high-end or more laid back,
but the goal is to create an enjoyable event where everyone has fun.
Expected Results
HRCO expects the following results post the commissioning of this fundraising program.
1. Networking & Visibility enhanced
HRCO becomes more visible in its pillar programmatic field at national level that further
strengthens the organizational corridor to access and meet professional networks, new people,
come to be more known, and keep learning about new opportunities such as training, and get
introduced to potential supporters.
2. Credibility and Trust cultivated
This fundraising will review, develop and cultivate HRCO’s relationship over time with a
potential or current donor through building of credibility and trust that upholds to gain consistent
support.
3. A Mobilized new donors and volunteers from the various sections of community, and
channeling current volunteers into higher levels of commitment and giving
4. A Maintained database of potential supporters to call on for assistance, and developing
relationships with various individuals and organizations
5. An organized event to motivate support by drawing attention to the need addressed by the
HRCO
Preparatory Processes done So Far
Cognizant of accepting the mind-set that will help HRCO succeed but equally acknowledging
that there are no quick fixes, and no magic shortcuts to accomplish things overnight in the midst
of unsuitable national CSO policy climate, HRCO Fundraising Committee has undertaken series
of meetings with the director of HRCO and respective department staff to review how far the
planning has advanced forward. Subsequent to this, the then organized line sub-committees
under the supervision of HRCO Fundraising Committee outlined a plan for organising and
implementing the proposed event, and consequently discussed and agreed on the priorities of the
plan in terms of its purpose and needs.
A number of groups of sub-committees formed/devolved within the HRCO Fundraising
committee to develop the idea into a concept paper, and variants of ideas were compiled into a
draft project proposal for the right array and effectiveness of this event.
The process is stipulated in such a way that develops an initial 'prospect' list of some
funders/contributors/’donors (both individuals and organizations) who are assumed to have
general interests in the subject area and pillar objectives of HRCO with due emphasis on search
of local contributors to strengthen growth of local roots and local constituency and then ensure
institutional sustainability.
 A preliminary program design has been made that answers the key and essential questions
addressing what? Where? Why? How? When? How much? The design, among many, describes
why the event is needed, the goal, the objectives, its duration, and schedule of activities, and job
descriptions for responsible leads.
HROC will update its former supporters and contacts including individuals, organizations, and
creating new contacts throughout diverse sources such as foreign embassies, local business and
development organizations, individuals, and other institutions.
Sub-committee will be instituted and organizational rules and procedure to guide the
commissioning of fundraising through this strategy will be articulated that most suits the
Agency’s regulation. Members of the sub-committee in charge will then be well oriented and
continuously discharge their responsibilities both in separate or unison
Proposed Projected Receipts:
As per the fundraising strategies outlined a priori, HRCO proposed to harvest the funds from two
sources: the fundraising program event and the pledge. The fundraising program event is a
dinner program and is a one shot event. From this dinner program we planned to collect an
estimable amount of -----ETB, and the pledge strategy is a continual process and HRCO expects
some----------ETB to be collected from August1/ 2016 to December 30/2016.
As a whole, HRCO planned to raise --------ETB from this national fundraising program.
The proposed sources from fundraising through pledge strategy is shown below
S/N Source Proposed amount of collection
1 Pledge/contact strategy
1.1 Non-member but Supporting Individuals
1.2 Membership individuals
1.3 Private organisations
1.4 Local development or other NGOs
1.5 International NGOs
1.6 Foreign Embassies
1.7 Others /sympathizers
2 Fundraising event program at national level/hosting an event
2.1 Music and drama, amateurs
 2.2 Penning contestation
2.3 Sales of merchandise and souvenir items
2.4 Special bids on selected items or foods or others

Program Cost
It is true that front money is needed to pay bills before revenue comes in.
Therefore, the following cost/expenditure heads will be expected as a commitment on behalf of
HRCO for the right array of this dinner program.

S/N Cost-heads Description Unit Total Remark

cost cost
1 Mea/dinner charges
2 Speaker honoraria Payment for speaker on the event

3 Print expense Leaflets or pamphlet to be distributed to the

participants
4 Travel for special Special guests and some HRCO founders might be
guests invited out of Addis Ababa

5 High-touching mail Mailing may be sent in a special way to pay attention

expense and promptness

6 Room charges

Disaster Planning
HRCO believes that contingency plans should be made in case of every emergency What if not
enough tickets are sold? What if the main speaker or entertainment cancels at the last minute?
What if a tight breaks out? What if someone gets drunk and wants to drive home?
What if... and so on
Therefore, the Fundraising Committee at HRCO should be equipped to withstand the
unfavorable and unintended disaster situations that might come to the forefront post the event,
and should sustain it as a learning phenomena rather than demise.
Timeframe
The fundraising event will start on---- and last on---------.