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NGO Support ServicesNew Millennium Challenge Contact the workgroup manager | Join in discussion/suggestion forum | Join the team Date: 02 June 2000This newly proposed project, our first in North America, is in need of founder members, volunteer workers, and idea input from all concerned about its development. In short, and as usual, we need you! Aim Theosis NGO Support Services aims to provide essential management services and skills training to managers, board members and staff of human service community based organizations in South Africa—at a level readily received by the target market, in an applied and practical manner. (NGO = Non Governmental Organization; HSO=Human Services Organization) Objectives First objective is to setup the North American base. This involves incorporating as a non-profit organization, setting up bank accounts, and facilitating other legislative provisions. Adele du Plessis, our Communications Executive, is on an extensive tour of the US (by grace of the US Government) and hopes to make contact with some of our US and Canadian friends and members who would help with this new program. We need to find accommodation for the program and staff to run the initial phase. The first objective should be finalized by end July 2000. Our second objective is to, with your help, have four courses of correspondence study ready by December 2000, and to enroll the first 100 students during January 2001. Once the second objective is met we set out to create 4 new courses every six months and to enroll students for these. We also endeavor to train and employ at least 2 South African tutors in the first year of operation. This document is outlined as follows
The developing world relies on NGOs and private charities to fulfill the welfare needs of its population. Typically one or more individuals from a community may get together and decide to ‘do something’ about a social welfare need they perceive in their community. Many thousands of small NGOs and community based organizations spring up in this way—all trying their utmost, with available resources, to address their aims.
Philanthropists setting up charity initiatives do not necessarily have business experience, or the necessary skills to provide an organization with ongoing executive services. In South Africa, where the literacy rate is higher than most sub-Saharan countries, females aged 35+ run the average township or rural charity. Their typical professional background is that of laborer in the domestic or industry services field and they have an average academic qualification of grade 9 (std 7). * (* According to a March 2000 survey of 87 organizations in 4 provinces) When asked what skill they feel they would like to acquire 80 of respondents answered, ‘fundraising’. When asked what difficulties, besides funding, they experience 65% expressed problems relating to a lack of interpersonal skills, management skills, and community development skills. Only 6% of the organizations surveyed were registered Fundraising Organizations. When asked why they do not register it transpired that most of the philanthropists did not know how to facilitate registration since it involves having a constitution and lodging an application with the Directorate Fundraising. There is also a great need for information dissemination, especially in a form readily accepted by the semi-literate communities. Many respondents did not fully understand the concept of ‘networking’ and ‘partners or alliances’.
South Africa is on the forefront in providing education to the region. Two of the technicons/technical colleges now provide Diploma courses in Child and Youth Care. These institutions and the universities provide 3-year Diploma, BA and Post Graduate degrees in Business Management and Public Relations. Some correspondence colleges provide courses in Management and Public Relations. These courses are only available to students with a grade 12 qualification, and most are only offered as full time attendance courses. The available courses do not serve the needs of the struggling human services organization or group. Existing courses are too academically orientated for easy practical implementation to make the small HSO operate better and alleviate their problems. Most organizations are small community based initiatives and cannot afford to pay the high fees (no government assistance is offered for taking courses); most operators cannot attend full time college courses and still operate their charity; most directors and executives do not qualify to enroll because of a lack of academic qualification; and the courses are not specific to either the non-profit sector or the human services field. Theosis Organization facilitated (started and operated) 11 welfare organizations or projects over the past 10 years, most of them were later handed over to local communities to continue running independently. We were also involved in helping various other NGOs to set-up programs. One of our greatest failings over the years is that of failing to recognize the need for management skills, public relations skills and professionalism in these communities. One gets accustomed to the way most of Africa is run, in its unique haphazard ad hoc manner. Things are changing though, and donors and sponsoring partners expect accountability and professionalism from NGOs. In this changing world of the Southern African countries it is only the NGO with adequate management and executive skills that will survive in the long run. Theosis recognizes the need to provide existing organizations, and would be organizations, with skills training in Human Services Management, Public Relations, and Fundraising.
We need to provide a series of short and practical courses on very specific topics. These need to be presented in a language level, and tuition method, suitable to be readily assimilated by the target market. The most important skills areas we need to address: Human Service Organization Management, Fundraising, and Business Accounting. The most important short courses, or modules of courses, we need to provide should impart the following skills:
Training must be provided as distance education courses. The correspondence course method will work well in most instances. Teleconferencing in South Africa is yet too expensive to be a worthwhile option and Internet based courses can potentially serve about 40% of the organizations surveyed. Theosis’ South African contingent is overextended and cannot presently increase its capacity to accommodate another project, especially not one of this nature. We do however understand that this project can, almost in its entirety, function from a North American base. North America offers many advantages that we could utilize effectively for a program of this nature. Some of the advantages are listed below:
You can subscribe right now to become part of the team that will initiate, setup and start running the new project. If you do not want to be involved in the mechanics of setting up and running the project, but you want to assist in other ways you can subscribe as a team member and state your desired area of involvement. Here are some suggestions:
Listed below is the step-by-step analysis of how the program will start and be set-up to run:
Theosis executives will remain closely involved with this new project for at least the first 18 months. New volunteers will be trained, orientated and assisted to successfully hurdle the stumbling blocks on the way. A brief forecasted expense budget for the first phase of the program follows. Costs are shown in US$ and reflects estimates for first six months.
*Accommodation cost can be deferred or decreased depending on future developments. Cost is estimated at outright lease of office space. 8. Estimated running cost of program We estimate that the program, if sufficiently served by volunteers and strategic partners, will run at the cost of two full time staff members, program accommodation and material costs. The estimated monthly running cost thus amounts to $8 500, if leased accommodation will be used.
We anticipate that with the readiness of the South African contingent to provide backup, information and initial course ideas and training of North American staff the first phase can produce at least three to four of the course modules we need most. We thus anticipate starting tutoring the first students after six to eight months, after which time further courses will be researched and developed. We anticipate that no less than 100 students will enroll in the first instance. Should we have prepared volunteer tutors well, and in advance, then tutoring will not add a significant burden to the costs. Income from students will be negligible since we will charge material cost + 15% only. Our experience is that few things, especially study courses and seminars, should be given for free. Theosis Education Trust is also open to granting bursaries to qualifying applicants. We hope to maintain the cost benefit ration of spending less than $10 000 per 100 students, or $100 per student per month. In time, as South African students qualify, we can anticipate that people from the local community can tutor courses and this will lower costs even further.
Working from the profile of respondents to the recent survey the typical student will be a female philanthropist who is currently involved in running a human services organization as a voluntary community action. She has between 7 and 10 years of formal schooling behind her, has some children of her own, is dynamic and respected in her community and remains intent to make a difference despite the hardships. Reflecting on our own experience we know very well that projects are usually started and run, for the first few years at least, at great personal sacrifice on behalf of the founders and volunteers. It is normal to hear the stories how people worked 16 hours per day for no remuneration, usually accommodating children, battered women, throwaway babies and other needy people in their own homes. These philanthropists go about healing, fundraising, looking for food and clothing and begging for resources to help the people they care about. This is how Theosis started 10 years ago, and this is still how most community initiatives start in the developing world. These are the people we will be assisting—helping them acquire skills that will make their efforts count in the long run, and make their organizations grow and prosper to continue delivering services to those in need of human intervention to end or alleviate their misery.
If the first hundred students represent, say, eighty organizations and each organization delivers services to (according to the govt. surveys) fifteen to sixty people in need, then our effort will reach about 200 people who will benefit from the initial impact. And of course this is the beginning. After this the numbers of beneficiaries escalate and may soon run into the thousands. We hope, and budget, for at least 200 students to qualify in any of the various courses we present each year.
After presenting this project’s proposal to the Executive Committee we immediately gained the alliance of Theosis Educational Trust and Church of the East to help us into the initial setting-up phase. During the initial phase we should seek alliances with educational institutions, individuals in educational institutions, chambers of commerce and the business sector.
From the South African grassroots perspective we have secured the commitment of, two Social Workers, three Youth Care Workers (one rural and one in an urban project), one 18-year-old survivor from the streets of Hillbrow, one project manager and one fundraising manager—all Theosis in the Theosis family.
The executive assigned to direct top-level aspects of the project is our Executive Director, Jean du Plessis. He has intimate experience of starting and running no less than 9 community welfare projects in Southern Africa, and as co-founder member of Theosis Organization is well qualified to head up this new endeavor.
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