Digital Literacy United Kingdom Project #12781

The GlobalGiving UK Innovation fund

by GlobalGiving UK

Project Report | Jan 3, 2014
It was a long process, but we made it.

By Zdravka Mihaljevic Srsen | GlobalGiving UK Projects Coordinator

Youth Star Cambodia. Volunteer teaching.

Thank you for supporting GlobalGiving UK Innovation fund and helping us to pilot new training and support projects for our partner NGOs, maximising their impact in their local communities.

You’ve helped us achieve the most successful Gateway Challenge to date (fundraising challenge for organisations new to GlobalGiving UK) and helped us add value to the work of so many overseas partner organisations through our Impact Assessment programme.

It was a long process, but we made it. Our Gateway Challenge was great success. After carefully selecting and thoroughly vetting applicant organisations this August and September, throughout the month of October we held a series of training sessions for the selected organisation in a range of topics (writing a great project page, pitching a project, social media and emails as fundraising tools, mapping supporter networks, preparing an online fundraising campaign). This training programme prepared the 25 selected organisations for the fundraising challenge ahead: raising £2,000 from 50 donors over the course of 5 weeks (ending 23rd December 2013). It was not easy, but these amazing organisations did it. Over 1500 people donated, raising over £75,000: http://www.globalgiving.co.uk/leaderboards/gateway-challenge-november-december-2013

Youth Star Cambodia from Phnom Penh Cambodia managed to raise over £10,000, also winning our £1,500 bonus prize. This will greatly help them recruit and coach Cambodian graduates to volunteer in underserved areas of Cambodia, setting up youth clubs and implementing campaigns to address community development issues and social issues, such as domestic violence and alcohol abuse. They would never have been able to raise this amount had it not been for the challenge, pushing them to connect to people they never thought would support their cause.

And remember our Impact Assessment Programme? We have sent six GlobalGiving UK volunteers to visit our overseas charities in Zimbabwe, India, Ghana, South Africa and Morocco and support thier work and impact measurement. This programme also helps us see exactly what impact your donations are making in the local communities. Listen to what our wonderful volunteer Chido Dziva Chikwari, travelling through Zimbabwe and helping our partner charities build their capacity, has to say about the work of Zimkids, Zimbabwe: “What I loved the most about Zimkids was the spirit of what I would like to call Family. The centre is literally Built by Orphans, Run by Orphans, For Orphans”. You can read her blog posts here and see how much fun the children at the centre are having: http://myheartsimpressions.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/a-picture-diary-of-my-week-with-zimkids.html

Neither our Gateway Challenge nor our Impact Assessment Programme would have been possible without your belief in these projects and your wish to make a difference! Thank you for all your support.

On that note the whole team at GlobalGiving UK, staffers and our wonderful volunteers, thank you and wish you a wonderful 2014!

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Sep 25, 2013
Never a dull moment in the GlobalGiving UK London office (Project Report 20 September 2013)

By Zdravka Mihaljevic Srsen | Project Coordinator

There is never a dull moment in our GlobalGiving UK London office. If you could have a look at it now, what you would find are groups of volunteers delivering vital work for GlobalGiving UK, writing press releases, blog posts, grant applications, expanding our social media reach, reaching out to prospective partner corporates and new charities in need of support, and setting up story-telling events to allow all friends of GlobalGiving UK to get to know our partner charities (we hosted a beautiful Blankets and Wine event in Regent’s Park in London beginning of August). And that is not all. Six GlobalGiving UK volunteers are visiting our overseas charities in Zimbabwe, India, Ghana, South Africa and Morocco and thus are playing a key role in supporting impact measurement for our project partners and ourselves, allowing you to find out exactly what impact your donations are making in their local communities.

Furthermore, GlobalGiving UK is always looking for great new charities to partner with. We have been working hard on making sure everything is in place for our Gateway Challenge (18th November to 23rd December), a fundraising challenge that offers a chance for prospective partner charities to expand donor networks through GlobalGiving UK, receive 4 weeks of structured free training and support, and win bonus prizes of up to £4000. The deadline for applications is just a week away, so the team is very busy reaching out to new partner charities and looking at all the received applications, making sure their due diligence is thoroughly checked before they can start fundraising through GlobalGiving.co.uk. Kathryn Garnett, past Gateway Challenge participants and project leader of African Steps, a charity working to improve and sustain the provision of healthcare on Likoma Island in Malawi, said: “We thought the challenge was fantastic as it allowed us to raise a large amount of money in a short time, but also it has raised our profile enormously and increased our supporter base beyond our hopes.”

Without your dedication and support GlobalGiving UK would never be able to grow and help charities like this one in over 80 countries around the world significantly improve or even save lives in their local communities. Thank you for enabling GlobalGiving UK to make positive change happen.

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Jun 21, 2013
Volunteer Induction Day

By Paul McWilliams | Volunteer Induction Day

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