By Marc Serna | Wealth Creation Department
Dear donor,
You might remember from past reports that we have been really struggling to make the girls we assist practice bookkeeping regularly, with very mild succes rates. GlobalGiving applies the values “Listen, Act, Learn and Repeat” to continuously improve and learn. Inspired by this spirit we looked at the problem of bookkeeping, our past actions and the girls we work for, we saw what we could improve and we changed our methods. What were the results?
1) 100% success. ALL newly supported girls are doing bookkeeping. This is unprecedented in our programs.
2) These girls are multiplying your money! and now with the exact data we can tell you with accuracy. On March 21st they received 30,000 francs, some 54 dollars each. By June 21st, if they continue to work at the same rhythm, they will have made at least 122,300 francs, 223 dollars. This is including those who are not doing very well (Renata, for example, had an accident that put her out of business for a month) and ignoring the fact that there are great improvements after the first steps (Many of the girls start somewhat timidly and not making much profit, but after the first month they have a stronger stream of revenue after some basic changes of direction). The highest performing among them are making two to three times this figure.
3) Even when accounting for the costs of training, administration and follow-up, we can say that in 3 months, for every dollar you donated, they multiplied it by more than 3. This money is now making them take better care of their children, more independent of men, and making them grow even more, roughly half of them have already increased their working capital by one third. Do you want to multiply this impact even more? Well... today is GlobalGiving Bonus day! For every 10 dollars you give globalgiving will add 5 to your donation! Check the full conditions at the end of this report.
What did we do different this time?
Full transparency and an incentive: Grantees got 30,000 francs now and will get another 50,000 francs 3 months after if they have been doing the business, following up with us and doing bookkeeping. There was a clear set of rules that everybody understood, and a good prize for complying. The main reason we could do this? Thanks to you we have more secure funds than before! and we could plan with bigger amounts of money, not only for one grant but for the next one.
Longer trainings and more practical excercises. We increased our preliminary training to three days instead of one, with a lot of practical exercises to ensure that everybody will master the practice before starting up.
Immediate and constant follow-up: But the most important thing. We went right away to the field. Before we used to give one month before checking on them. This time it was a week, we checked what they had purchased and worked on their bookkeeping, and we did not stop till all of them were on the right track. Most of them did not get it exactly right the first time, but all of them were fluent at it by the third time, in less than a month.
But does it have an impact on them? Does it matter at all if they keep records? After all some of the best business women we have met were iliterate, and had their own systems to account for their profits. Well, our past research contrasting those who do and those who do not keep records found that on average, those who do are having stronger businesses, and bigger amounts of working capital. But what do the girls have to say?
“I’m grateful to discover how much I gain. If not I will just use my money anyhow” “I see how much I’m profiting and I mind more how I spend it.” “I’m impressed even myself” Esther Mba, she sells second handed clothes to feed a family of 6 and besides her profits she has been saving 7000 francs (13$) a week.
“Before starting the bookkeeping I was not aware of how much money I could actually make. If I had a good day I would just buy some nice things to eat that day. Now that I see that I’m making 18,000 (33$) a week I feel like I need to do something important with that money.” Elekta, sells meat snacks, taking care of her elderly parents and her child without help from anybody.
P.D: Partner’s Reward Bonus Day is here, and thanks to you we are holding the status of SuperStar, which means a 50% matching bonus on any donation, 10 dollars become 15, 100 become 150 and so on up to 1000! Bonus Day starts at 9.00 EDT, 15.00 in most of Europe. You can check the time in your timezone here (http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html ) Please share the good news among your friends, and consider a small donation!
P.D2: We have been publishing personal stories of the girls in our facebook account, you can get them all following the links:
The promising Constance: https://www.facebook.com/reachoutcameroon/photos/a.134830033224170.16566.127548367285670/1215487345158428/?type=3
Claudine and her perseverance: https://www.facebook.com/reachoutcameroon/photos/a.134830033224170.16566.127548367285670/1210408128999683/?type=3
Coliance, Positioning herself as a supplier of smoked fish in her community, https://www.facebook.com/reachoutcameroon/photos/a.134830033224170.16566.127548367285670/1205323672841462/?type=3
Bianca, who wants to go to University
The multitasking Elizabeth https://www.facebook.com/reachoutcameroon/posts/1220407544666408
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
