Successful Resource Mobilization & Project Management for

Small and Emerging NGOs

Hints based on the Tanzanian Experiences

This is the first edition of the Manual on Resource Mobilization & Project Management
for Small and Emerging NGOs

Publisher CBTO

Dar Es Salaam. Tanzania

January 2022

Physical address Mbezi One Near Examination Council

Printed by Grids solutions Printing Company

Tel: +255 743479171, +255785820560

Website: https//cbtongo.wixsite.com/cbto

Email: cbtongo@yahoo.com or zaajohn@yahoo.com Youtube: cbto ngo.

Preamble
This manual details some important actions which if well undertaken by Tanzanian Non-
governmental Organizations (NGOs) can help them to attain financial self-reliance but I
should from this onset stressed that I do not claim that this manual is a magic bullet to
challenges of resource mobilization faced by NGOs.

This manual has been written by an NGO practitioner who has worked on promoting NGO
Sustainability in Tanzania and tips given in this booklet are based on the author’s
experience of facilitating resource mobilization among Tanzanian NGOs and not
otherwise.

While this manual may be also useful for other forms of civil society organizations and
networks it however focuses primarily on NGOs which are registered under the NGO Act
No.24 of 2002 and more so the small and emerging NGOs operating in the Tanzanian NGO
policy and legislative context.

The author also borrows tips from NGO Management “gurus” among them but not
limited to Allan Fowler, David Bonbright, Richard Holloway, Sarah Gibbs, Piers Campbell,
Fernardo Vincent, John Bennet and Resource Alliance. Other authors whose hints have
been fused in this manual are John Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies, Murray Culshaw,
Roshni Sharma, Kumi Nadoo, CIVICUS World Alliance, Ian Smillie, John Hailey, Micheal
Edwards, John Clark, Bruce Shearer, Leslie Fox, ICNL, Susan Pezzullo, Maria Noriaga,
TANGO, FCS, NaCoNGO, Zanzibar Resource Centre, Rehema Batti, CORHA and many more
local and international experts on resource mobilization for NGOs.

In this manual we also make distinction between often confused notions of resource
mobilization and fundraising base on Richard Holloway 2011’s distinction.

The manual also touches on the many forms of resource mobilization and explains how
undertaking planned actions in the identification, collection, and utilization of both
foreign and local resources for the achievement of organizational mission and goal is
done—and also explains how NGOs can use various resource mobilization strategies with
great emphasis being on the importance of NGOs ensuring accountability to
stakeholders, government, donors, development partners, beneficiaries, peers, and
society as a whole.

The book also gives hints on how NGOs can maintain relationships with resource
providers so as to sustain their means of acquiring resources—hinting that resource
mobilization is a process that involves identifying the resources essential for the
development, implementation and continuation of work of achieving the organization’s
mission (CORHA 2010).

Three sectors of the modern Political

Economy
The book also hints on why it is important to understand the inter-connection among the
three sectors of the modern political economy which are the state, business and third or
citizens sector in resource mobilization—stressing that this is because in this formation
the state has legitimate power of coercion, the business/ market that of exchange and
the NGOs (third sector) fosters private choice or public good. In the sense of this booklet
NGOs mobilize citizens through values that they share with other citizens and through
shared commitment to action with other citizens (Salamon and Anheier 1999).

In essence the author tries to highlight the positive scope of Tanzanian NGOs and their
potential by providing examples and tips which NGOs can use in mobilizing resources from
both local and external sources. The author also gives a gist of how local NGOs can use
foreign resources to build self-reliance and sustainability. The author also emphasizes that
the most key resource for an organization is the human resource because it is the human
resource which mobilizes and manages other resources.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I am grateful to small and emerging NGOs from across the country who have had trust in
me and allowed me to nurture and coach them on various organizational development
themes more so on resource mobilization and management.

I am proud to say that over the last 10 years I have worked with over 100 NGOs and have
seen over 40 NGOs grow from having literally no financial resource to having the capacity
to access both local and international funds. After the nurturing and capacity building
most of these NGOs have been able to access funds from competitive international
funding opportunities.

On my list I have about 10 organizations who at the being of the coaching only had TSH
200,000 but now have annual budgets of between TSH 500,000,000 and TSH 1,
500,000,000 which has been gotten from multiple sources of funders both local and
international.

I would also like to express my gratitude to my Spiritual Father Apostle Josephat Elias
Mwingira for his unfailing tutelage regarding the greatness of the God we serve and that
he has planted talents in all of us which we should use so to show the greatness of God.

I am also grateful to Tanzania Association of Non-governmental Organization (TANGO) for

exposing me to various capacity building opportunities which have helped me to increase my
capacity in facilitating NGOs in terms of resource mobilization and management.

Most importantly I would like to thank My Wife Aiyana Twalangeti, Son Brady Twalangeti and My
Mother Erica Twalangeti for their unfailing support to my endeavors of building the capacity and
sustainability of Tanzanian small and emerging NGOs.
CONTENTS
Part One Resource Mobilization
Fore thoughts

Strategies and Categories of Resource Mobilization

Individual Philanthropy

Building Grass-root Organizations

Earned Incomes

Access to public funding

Funding from corporations

Funding from foreign Donors/Agencies

Internet Fundraising

Social investments

Non-Financial Resources

Indigenous Foundations
PART TWO PROPOSAL WRITING

What is the Importance of proposals?

What challenges are attendant to proposal writing?
What is a proposal?
How many types of funding?
What are the terms used in proposals?
What is project design?
What are the element of a proposal?
How does one format a proposal?
What are project goals, objectives & activities?
How to does one develop indicators?
What is budget planning?
How does one undertake M&E and Report on projects?
What is due-diligence?
What are the other factors to consider?
What is priority setting for NGO funding in Tanzania?
PART THREE MONITORING & EVALUATION
Introduction and purpose of M&E

What is effective monitoring?

What is evaluation?

Monitoring and Evaluation Framework

What are goal and objective and how are they formulated?

What are activities and how are they formulated?

What are indicators and how are they formulated?

What are M&E Tools?
How does one develop a logical framework?
What is the Theory of change why is it important and how is it developed?
What objective or Result Statements?

What are critical Assumptions?

What performance Indicator Statements?

What are project or proposal measurement methods and data sources?

 About the author
This book has been written by Mr. Zaa Twalangeti a facilitator of effective Civil Society
Organization (CSOs) mostly Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) engagement in the
development and political process of Tanzania, East African Community (EAC) and Southern
African Development Community (SADC) for the last 20 years. Mr. Twalangeti Holds an
Executive Masters of Business Administration in Management of Non-governmental
Organizations.
The author has for the last 15 years worked with hundreds of small and emerging CSOs/NGO,
CSO coalitions and networks at both the national and regional levels (EAC/SADC) orienting
them to organizational development, organizational management and governance and
resource mobilization skills and tactics.
Other areas that the author has facilitated CSOs on have been self-assessment, advocacy,
participatory skills and tactics, policy messaging, mass and political mobilization, relationship
building among CSO, government and development partners and liaison with the above.
The author has also been an integral part in the development of various tools for capacity
building for Tanzanian CSOs, which include organizational self-assessment tools, the
performance standards for CSOs, operational guidelines for NGOs and the Council of NGOs,
the NGO Code of ethics, the NGO Policy and the NGO Act.
Other engagements by the author which are related to the theme of this manual/guide have
been providing technical support to a number of NGOs/CSO in understanding and abiding by
the NGO Code of Conduct, the NGO Act and other regulatory and legislative rules and demands
by government and other CSO regulatory and coordination agencies and bodies in Tanzania
and Internationally set quality standards.
The Author worked for Tanzania Association of Non-governmental Organizations (TANGO) for
20 years in various managerial capacities and is the past Vice President & General Secretary of
the East African Civil Society Organization’s Forum (EACSOF), a member of technical committee
of the SADC Council of NGOs since its inception 15 years ago and a board member of Citizen’s
Platform of the African Union (CCPU), was the Tanzanian CSO representative on the
Consultative Dialogue Forum( CDF) of the EAC for 7 years. He is also a founding member of
Capacity Building Tanzania Organization (CBTO).
Acronyms
AMO Alternative Marketing Organizations

CBO Community Based Organization

CEO Chief Executive Officer

CIVICUS World Alliance for Citizen Participation

CSO Civil Society Organizations

CSR Corporate Social Responsibility

FCS Foundation for Civil Society

GRO Grass-root Organizations

IDRC International Development Resource Centre

IGA Income Generating Activity

MFI Micro-finance Institution

NaCoNGO National Council of Non-governmental Organizations

NGO Non-governmental Organization

PLWAs People Living with AIDS

TANGO Tanzania Association of Non-governmental Organizations

ZRC Zanzibar Resource Centre

Fore thoughts
Tanzanian NGOs have expressed the internal and external challenges outlined below as
the main challenges in accessing resources (NaCoNGO 2017).

The external challenges include:

• Donor priorities

• New demands by donors in terms of stringent organizational systems and

procedures and sophisticated proposal writing

• Donor conditionality and partner country focused priorities

• Political interference

• Donor prejudices

• Competition from “Political or Governmental NGOs”

• Competition from fellow NGOs

• Types of networks that NGOs are members of or issues which the NGO promotes

• International NGOs working directly with the communities

The internal challenges include:

• Limited capacity, accountability and transparency

• Founder syndrome

• Inadequate strategic and operational plans

• Inadequate awareness of funding opportunities

• Governance issues

• Limited communication and branding of the NGOs

Reading from the above stated challenges it is important that before engaging in any
resource mobilization NGOs form resource mobilization teams, understand the resource
mobilization cycle, analyze the external environment, appreciate and analyze the existing
competition and develop a resource mobilization plan (details of how to formulate
resource mobilization plans have been outlined in Barnard & Walker’s 1994 Strategies for
Success Guide which can be accessed through the author.

There is also need to consider issues of internal organizational capacity which should be
coupled with clarity of the leadership’s role in the resource mobilization process. NGOs
should also consider the issues of transparency and accountability and should improve
the quality of financial management and accountability. The NGO should also clearly
explain the relevance and impact of the programs or projects they are seeking resource
for. NGOs should also take time to understand the trends, which include internet
fundraising, developing social enterprise using social-marketing techniques. This manual
focuses on financial resources because this is the key resource that all NGOs need to be
able to function and carry out their work. Depending on the source, financial resources
may be targeted to specific expenses or be used at the NGO discretion (CORHA 2010).

In this manual we advise NGOs to look more for local resources which means “financial
and non-financial contributions from the community for project implementation. The local
sources of funding include individual citizens, local governments, businesses, institutions
or other local and community actors”. This is because local resources not only allow for
the implementation of successful community projects, but also contribute to the long-
term sustainability of initiatives conducted by NGOs because they build lasting
relationships and support from beneficiary communities.

The above stated form of resource mobilization follows what are called resource
mobilization mechanisms which are processes of getting or mobilizing resources from
providers. The kind of resource mobilization mechanisms that an NGO designs depends
on the environment and the capacity of the NGO. Read more from Barnard & Walker’s
1994 Strategies for Success Guide which can be accessed through the author. It is also
important for NGOs to understand what motivate donors and givers to support NGOs.
Among the motivations are that:

Their work is good

They do better work than others

They are honest and responsible

They are attractive and persuasive

They appeal to a particular interest of the donor

They are supported because the NGO is potentially useful and beneficial to the donor.

Their work furthers the mission of the donors

The donors support because they are asked and persuaded to do so.

With the now shrinking funding for NGOs in Tanzania with the Foundation for Civil Society
(FCS) which is the main grant-maker only funding 150 out of 20,000 CSOs annually, the
manual gives tips on how NGOs can be “business-like” and get earned income. Acting
“business-like” means that NGOs should be professional, efficient, hard-working and
competent. This is because producing goods and services for sell or creating income
requires a business-like approach. Therefore NGOs should acquire business skills and
practices. The manual also touches on the concepts of not-profit-making” and “not for
profit-sharing” as is understood in the Tanzania NGO legal framework because NGOs need
to understand the concept of “Profit and Non-profit”, be conscious and have a clear and
good understanding of what it means for NGOs.

To make profit. This is because there is often no clarity on what it means to be non-profit.
In the manual we make clarity by saying that “for ordinary profit-making businesses, the
word ‘profit’ means an excess of income over expenditure which is distributed to private
hands, either the owners of the business or the shareholders but for NGOs, any income is
reinvested or ploughed back into the work of the organization in line with the objectives.
In the NGO sense this is not ‘profit’ because the work is never finished. The income is
always used for work of the NGO, and it is not distributed for private gains (Richard
Holloway 1997). Particularly in the now constricted funding environment Tanzanian small
and emerging NGOs can earn income for the purpose of running programs and this can
be done by undertaking community economic activities, cost recovery and enterprises
that are linked to the mission of the NGO.

However, NGO should consider the following issues before deciding to earn revenue from
earned income, conflict that may exist between the NGO and the business culture and
therefore must separate the business entity from the NGO and the business should be
managed differently. Meaning that the business should have a different planning and
resource allocation and therefore the need for prior deliberations with donors, members
and supporters to explain the importance of the business for the NGOs’ sustainability.

The NGOs should also explain this to the public so that they understand why the NGO is
undertaking business venture. The NGO should also ascertain its legal status to see
whether it allows the NGOs to do business or get revenue from earned sources. Tanzanian
NGOs are lucky because the NGOs Act 24. Of 2002 allows NGOs to make profit but does
not allow profit-sharing or distribution.
Introduction

Strategies and Categories of

Resource Mobilization
In order to get revenue from the four sources outlined above NGOs can use about 11
conventionally agreed upon strategies. The strategies are further divided into three
groups which are: a. capturing existing wealth from public and private donors, b.
generating new wealth through market-based approaches and, c. capitalizing on non-
financial resources. The 11 strategies include: 1. Foundation Funding, 2. Individual
Philanthropy, 3. Building Grassroots citizens Organizations, 4. Public Resource from
Government, 5. Resource from development assistance, 6. Engaging corporations, 7.
Income earned through trade and exchange, 8. Conversion of debt, 9. Building indigenous
foundation which support NGOs, 10. Establishing microcredit programs, and 11. Tapping
into social investment in Markets (CIVICUS 1997). A brief on each of these strategies has
been given in subsequent chapters.

This manual also touches on the key strategies for resource mobilization. The author
would also like to emphasize the fact that most of the resource mobilizing mechanism
outlined above need an organization to have an understanding of the concept of proposal
or concept note writing.

However experience in the recent past shows that having a good proposal in place is not
the only pre-requisite for accessing funds from various givers or donors the organization
also needs to have sound management, governance and accountability systems in place
(the demand has been exacerbated by the new NGO Regulations 2018 which emphasizes
that NGOs should report to government all aspects of its finances especially grants and
donations so as to comply with the government’s demand for accountability and
transparency).

It should be understood that the assurance of good and effective systems are needed to
avoid a common situation in contemporary Tanzania in which NGOs spend much time to
develop proposals which meet the requirements of donors but after the proposal is
selected as an innovative idea by the giver or donor often the organization’s effort
amount to nothing because a number of NGOs fail the due-diligence test because they
lack the systems needed for effective project implementation.

Therefore in this manual the author outlines the various systems, manual and guidelines
which organizations should strive to put in place and follow if they are to attract donors.
The author gives this caution because he has proven case studies of NGOs which have
failed to access grants at the due-diligence stage and how that they have been distressed
by such actions.
Chapter 1
What is individual philanthropy funding?
This is about the individual giving person’s own funds as an expression of solidarity or
support to a common good. This is bed rocked on the strong link of the NGO work to the
aspirations of the community and is based on the felt needs of the people, because this
is most easy way by which individuals can support the work of an NGO.

This kind of philanthropy has it etymology which is “ love of other people” and it is purest
form individual philanthropy which means interest of one giving a “person’s” own
resources as an expression of solidarity with fellow humans, even strangers—and that a
true philanthropist expects nothing in return for their giving (Kelley and Garcia 1997).

By this strategy NGOs are assured to generate funds only when they have support from
communities (which include individuals). Apart from the support this form of funding
fosters participation, NGO independence and autonomy—in that the funds are people
donated in appreciation of the NGOs work therefore have less conditionality and the
accountability and decision-making is to the beneficiary communities.

Most have said this is an alternative way of funding but in essence this is supposed to be
the main and ideal means of NGO funding because NGOs are citizen’s own formations for
organizing for the common good therefore the citizens themselves should be ready to
support their formations.

NGOs should strive for this strategy because it increases legitimacy of NGOs to
government and the private partners especially in regard to implementation of public
policy issues and dispels the government’s wide held notion that most NGOs in Tanzania
carry a foreign agenda because they are foreign funded (TANGO 2018). Read more in
Anthony Davies’s 1997 “Managing for A Change” book which can be accessed through the
author.
NGOs need to master the change management skills so as to create awareness to the
citizens of why it is important for them to support the cause of NGOs so as to make the
people owners of their own development.

As such for NGOs to succeed they should understand that people want to be part of
something important and of social value. NGOs should also study what motivates
different people to give so that they can be able to turn the good motives into gifts.
Further NGOs should learn how to appreciate those who give so that the giver can feel
that they are appreciated Individual giving must be broad based and encourage many
people to give to the common good, in this form of giving we discourage the globally
common practice of one wealth person giving to the NGOs because they often end up
controlling the NGO. While this is not bad but it is more beneficial when all are open to
donate or give to causes that make a compelling case for support based more on results
than on who funded them, works in them, or directs them (Kelley and Garcia-Robles
1997).

Individual philanthropy has a special niche in that it deals with large numbers of potential
and actual donors, it encourages several (or many active solicitors), if the NGOs uses well
the initially small contribution it compels the givers to a long-term commitment, the
proposal or call for support are less complex than that of grant-makers/foundations and
can be done by even unprofessional fundraisers and is based on the common
understanding that it feels good to join others in society for the common-good.

Like any strategy it has some pros and cons especially for Tanzania where there is no
culture of giving to such common good issue as resolving health, water and education
problems therefore there is need to have a parallel strategy of creating awareness on the
philanthropic notion so that communities can use the same motivation that they use to
contribute to weddings and funerals to support common good causes such as education
and water.
Individual philanthropy

Who Do You Give to? NGOs are interested in accessing contributions from individuals to
help their organizations, but if NGO staff, Board and volunteers have never solicited
funding from individuals, be warned that it involves interesting new psychological
dynamics and a variety of learned skills.

Therefore in order to understand something about the dynamics and skills involved in
individual giving, it is useful for those who are soliciting gifts to reverse roles, consider
themselves as givers, and examine what happens when they are asked to give.

A useful exercise is to ask people you know who work for the individual giver or leave in
the community to which you expect support to tell you about all the approaches that they
have received formally and informally from people and NGOs for donations over the last
six months. They should say what was the organization, (or person) and what they were
asking for. From this exercise you will get a picture of the ways in which individual
philanthropic giving is carried out in your community or sector, and what the giver’s
motivations are (Norton 1997).

This may give some interesting ideas. Following that exercise it is both interesting and
useful to discuss the ways in which philanthropy is culturally understood in your
community. It is likely to be a combination of religious principles and kin, clan or tribal
affiliations. Probably people in your community will feel that it is legitimate both to be
asked to give the disadvantaged (particularly the disabled, and the victims of natural
disasters) and for extended family members. How much farther traditions of giving
extend beyond that and may probably be cultural specific to different communities
(Holloway 1997).

Possibly people in your community do not have a well-developed tradition of giving

money, but are much more comfortable with giving food, shelter or in-kind. An interesting
local variant in Tanzania is that people give to weddings, festivals and burial than they
give to other noble development causes.

NGOs should be careful in stating the case to the giver, such careful thought is even more
important for countries like Tanzania which has evolved from a centrally planned
economy, in which the State was considered to be the agency which looks after the needy
beyond the extended family, and as a result the communities and individual think that
this is a function of the government and foreign donors who help the State to do so
(Holloway 1997).

It was earlier said that NGOs especially capacity building organization should also
undertake advocacy to the communities and explain the benefits of individual
philanthropy and break the mentality in which the government and donor have blocked
both the need and the opportunity for people to give to other people because culturally
the main giver has been the government and donor money has also gone through the
government which has made the people not to see the need to give. NGOs also need to
nurture and sustain those who have given in order to persuade them to give again—and
this can be done by sending them a simple and understandable message to remind them
of the need to give. Since the most needed resource in an NGO is the human resources
therefore solicitations for individual philanthropy can equally well result in people being
prepared to give your NGO personal time, their sweat, goods and materials, or their good
advice.

NGOs should develop skills needed in knowing how to identify likely potential donors,
knowing how to ask them for their donations in ways that unlock their desire to help,
knowing how to organize the solicitation process, knowing how to present their request
for funds in a persuasive way and knowing how to get both one time and long term
commitment from individual givers or donors. I know that most readers are perplexed at
this new approaches because most emerging and small-NGO are always asking if there is
a call for proposals and as you may be aware NGOs which are used to writing project
proposals to foreign donors may find it bizarre to solicit funds from the man or woman
on street, or the man or woman on the footpath. In order for NGOs to be successful they
need to developed skills on how to package fund-raising information. Asking the following
question can be helpful: What sort of people are likely to support our Mission? This entails
thinking whether there is a particular group of people within the public who are likely to
be enthusiastic about an organization. These are likely to be people who are concerned
or affected by the issue or problem which the NGO works on.

You can also think of who will be interested to support our Mission? Here you need to
think of the kind of people who are likely to be enthusiastic about your Mission, but have
not yet been made aware of what can be done, and of what you are doing.

End-note: In essence this entails public education and social mobilization of who you want
to approach for donations. There is need for a careful thinking and assessment of who
within society is most likely to value NGO’s work. There is also need to understand the
portions of the society who seem to be keener to support your cause. It is should be
understood that fund-raising should not be directed only towards the rich people in your
community because in most cases the poor proportionately give more than the rich -
usually because they can identify with the problems you are describing better than the
rich can.