Project Management with a focus on Donor Relationships and

Outcome Reporting

For Cheshire Ethiopia

2024
Nancy Worsfold
Learning Goals
• Introduction to a basic project management approach
• Leaning into complexity
• Practicing a flexible mindset through group exercises
• Specific focus on identified areas of interest: donor relations and
outcome reporting
Ground Rules
• We are all here to learn, explore and ensure the best possible outcomes for
clients, for the community, for Cheshire Ethiopia and for Catalyst Plus
• There are no wrong ideas! But some ideas need further exploration and
development
• The exercises will only work if everybody engages
• Try to avoid your group being dominated by one voice
• Mix up the groups!
• Be kind to me: introducing myself and my role and yes, the slides do repeat
the framework to focus the learning
• We can adjust as we go along
Five Key Steps of Project
Management

1. Concept
2. Definition and Proposal Development
3. Work Planning
4. Delivery
5. Close Out
First Proviso: a Few Hard Realities

• Your work takes place in a complex, complicated world. None of this is easy
• Your donors have needs, ideas, values and trends which do not always align
with yours
• Donor relations and service provision and project management require
different approaches and different skill sets
• Permanent funding from International donors for a specific organization or
a specific program rarely exists
• This is a general framework for project management, but your thinking
needs to be agile not traditional!
Second Proviso: Is it a project or a
program?

• Are you meeting an ongoing need?

• Is this a current, ongoing program or a new program?
• Does the activity have a beginning, middle and end?
• How do you balance the funders’ requests with the community’s
needs?
• Get creative!
Third Proviso: Overlapping timeframes
Five Key Steps of Project Management

1. Concept
2. Definition and Proposal Development
3. Work Planning
4. Delivery
5. Close Out
Concept
1. Identify the Need
2. Stakeholder Analysis
3. Defining Outcomes
4. Are we the right agency to do this?
Stakeholder Analysis Principles
• Why do an early stakeholder analysis:
• Conflicts of power
• Different agendas and approaches
• Different needs (stated and implied)
• Opposing goals and objectives
Stakeholder Power/Interest Grid
High-Low High-High
I
N
T Low-Low High-Low
E
R
E
S
T
POWER/INFLUENCE
Exercise One: Identify your
stakeholders and place on the
stakeholder grid
The importance of understanding your
stakeholders needs

Their engagement is fundamental to success

You can only engage them successfully if you develop
good communications and understanding
We will first focus on donors as stakeholders
Later we will briefly focus on clients and community
as stakeholders with a focus on inclusion
What do you really know about your donors?
• What are the donors? Governments, Nonprofits, Foundations, Religious Bodies etc.
• Why do they invest in agencies like Cheshire Ethiopia?
• What are their concerns, risks and stressors
• How do their processes work?
• Formal, direct calls for proposals (example: UN Women)
• Direct Relationships (examples: Ottawa Rotary, wells in Kenya or First Unitarian “Fred”)
• Delivery partners – for example International NGOs which contract with local partners
• Delivery partners – contract management and fundraising – Ethiopia Aid Canada
• Other?
• We will explore where the donors’ money comes from and the Donors’ Vision, Mission and Objectives.
• Understanding the focus on deadlines!
• Do we need to come back to this?
Some Fundamentally Important Information

• Where does their money come from?

• https://www.cbmuk.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/A200-Christian-Blind-Mission-UK-annual-report-a
nd-financial-statements-2021-SVLLP-1.pdf

• https://apps.cra-arc.gc.ca/ebci/hacc/srch/pub/dsplyRprtngPrd?q.srchNmFltr=Ethiopia+Aid&q.stts=0007&sel
ectedCharityBn=855016267RR0001&dsrdPg=1
•
Where does the donor’s money come from?

• Governments/Tax-Payers: some key considerations

• General trends and the economy (ex. Gender, recession, local events)
• What is in the news internationally? Donor fatigue.

• Private individuals/Gifts: some key considerations

• Generosity, guilt, hope, shared humanity
• Marketing: newness, shifting focus, trends

• Corporations and business: some key considerations

• Corporate social responsibly and Marketing

• For-profit development firms (ex. Robin Darcy of Alinea

International)
Exercise Two: Researching potential
donors’ vision, mission, objectives and
values as compared to Cheshire
Ethiopia
Exercise Two: Report back and
insights
Exercise Three: Researching potential
new donors thinking outside of the
box and yes this is a competition!
Group One: Education Lens

Group Two: Sports and Play Inclusion Lens

Group Three: Motherhood/Gender Lens

Group Four: Safety Lens

Report Back and Brainstorm
Five Key Steps of Project Management

1. Concept
2. Definition and Proposal Development
3. Work Planning
4. Delivery
5. Close Out
Concept
1. Identify the Need
2. Stakeholder Analysis
3. Defining Outcomes
4. Are we the right agency to do this?
The client and the community

• Crossover of the steps: Identifying Need and they are your

Fundament Stakeholders
• How do we understand what the clients wants and needs?
• How do we understand what the community wants and needs?
• How can you interweave inclusion throughout the work?
• Consider reviewing ideas of gender mainstreaming and applying the
concepts to disability
• To examine inclusion fully requires another several days! Or a PhD.
Exercise Four: Inclusive
concept development
Five Key Steps of Project Management

1. Concept
2. Definition and Proposal Development
3. Work Planning
4. Delivery
5. Close Out
Concept
1. Identify the Need
2. Stakeholder Analysis
3. Defining Outcomes
4. Are we the right agency to do this?
Outputs vs Outcomes
• A project output refers to any unique and verifiable product, service, or a result that
is required to be produced from a service, a phase, or a project.

• Project outcome refers to the end result or consequence of a process or project.

Outcomes can include outputs and artifacts, but have a broader intent by focusing
on the benefits and value that the project was undertaken to deliver.
Fundamentally: What changed?
Exercise Five: List the data points that you
collect in one of the programs you manage.
Note: let’s make sure that you choose
different programs
Exercise Five: Report back on data
points
Exercise Six: Creativity Break with 30
circles
Exercise Seven: Describe the changes
created by your program. Define and
describe the outcomes.
Think and write like a poet!
Report back and capture of OUTCOMES
for later discussion of designing outcome
measures
Concept
1. Identify the Need
2. Stakeholder Analysis
3. Defining Outcomes
4. Are we the right agency to do this?
 Partnerships, eligibility, competitive edge
Five Key Steps of Project Management

1. Concept
2. Definition and Proposal Development
3. Work Planning
4. Delivery
5. Close Out
Definition and Proposal
Development
1. Determine specific goals and outputs which align
with your outcome
2. Refine budget
3. Define a general timeline
4. Clarify core team members
5. Identify potential partners
Understanding Types of Partnership
Individualized Services
Networking and sharing information
Client referral
Case collaboration
Joint service delivery

Community Outreach
Networking and sharing information
Substantive discussions
Long term coalition building
Joint advocacy
Exercise Eight: Imagining a
new partnership
Group One: With an international NGO

Group Two: With an Organization for Persons with Disabilities

Group Three: With a University

Group Four: With another Local Agency

Report back on dream
partnerships
General Proposal Development: Think about
your reader!

• Start strong and clear and consider an appeal to emotions

• Understand that funding competitions are competitions
• Ask about rating systems and consider what information each specific
question is seeking
• Clarity, clarity clarity
• Seek multiple readers
Exercise Nine: Developing a
Marketing Mindset
Five Key Steps of Project Management
1. Concept
2. Definition and Proposal Development
3. Work Planning
4. Delivery
5. Close Out
Work Planning
1. Develop a clear team and governance structure
2. Detailed budgeting
3. Identify and plan for risks
4. Finalizing your data capture model to measure
outcomes
5. Develop a communications plan
6. Create a clear schedule and timeline
Clarify the Team and Governance Structure
• Too often when planning a project we forget to build from a clear structure.
• Clarify responsibilities: who does what?
• Clarify the chain of authority: who approves what? Do the staff have the
appropriate level of authority and decision-making for efficiency?
• Note: This part of project management likely is not part of a proposal, but it is key
to successful delivery!