3) Strategy Summary:
The project is about generating books from publishers (thousends are trown away each week in western countries because the stockcosts become to high) and sort those books and have them delivered to people in shelters, asylumseekers centres, homes for battered women, people who have to reside on ships for months and so on. Open to everyone that can help or that has no acces to books for whatever reason or circumstances.

Strategy: making the network international so books in different languages come in. Make use of (mostly subsidized) employment projects. Enable organisations who receive books to set up a distribution point. Make good use of local yearly events.Enable people to work from their own backrounds. Being ready to serve!

4) How the Strategy Works:
We got a bureau for (subsidized) employment projects for target groups (for instance homeless people) to get homeless people to help get books in every shelter.They make the delivery so it makes their own problems seem relative (or recognizable) without a great distance between the targetgroups and those who deliver (it boosts movivation). Not only hands and brains but also distribution (sponsored cars ans gas for deliveries) came through. This enables making a lot of ditribution points. These kind of organistions can be found anywhere and are waiting for well focused easy to set up and easy to promote projects. There are two different types: those who set up projects to let people develop themselves in, and those who seek opportunity to place people in such projects. You need the first type, they can make their own contracts with second type organisations.

Working with yearly events like the bookweek and children for children charity are great periods to raise to donation of particular books such as dictionaries or childrensbooks.

Helping people give, organise that publishers will not find their books on markets and so on, by declarations of donation and by stamping of every book. Make wishlists with concrete questions and make sure people know why and how their support will be used. For instance We need sponored overseas transport for 100 boxes of books each month, and the transport of two people each quarter. Destination sweden en the Uk and the Netherlands. We need your local contacts in the harbours to pick up and send diliveries. We need your support to enable us working with charity- organisations in those countries an to make work-visits to distribute books to people who need them but don't have access to them. Your support will be seen as sponsoring.

Any organisation who receives books is after some time asked if they are interested in setting up a local ditribution point themselves so gfrom their backround they can start helping people they wish to give the joy, comfort, hope, development or relaxation that books can give.

Any project for the promoting of the project itself should be viral or time-extensive!!!! How many initiatives loose themselves in making themselves known? not this one.

Anyone who is involved is invited to come and see or to make delivery themselves, motivation is in the joy of the people who recieve (a break from worries, a book to gain knowledge, a book to inspire, a (picture)book to read to their children).

What's more: someone started it, just from a garagebox, then the storagerooms of friends and family, the neighbours and so on. Then (with the knowledge of practise)after 4 years it was time to create a foundation for it. So do not start a foundation to raise money and do not hire anyone for a project that you still have to practise if you don't want to waste taxpayers money and if you want a firestart. Second, when you start, start just a few projects in the same column and give those long-term perspective. Investing in start-ups is for venturecapitalists and they are very sure to get return on investment. www.borderlinebooks.nl

5) Key Strategy Elements:

iii. Establishing Relationships with Strategic Partnerships:
We make sure that we only ask for what is needed to do the work without doing stuff like advising, knowledgebases, research and promoting. All promotion is made time- extensive or not be engaged in. If you have good strategic and product/service-donating partners: there is less that you would need money for, which boostst the chances for the applicantion for funds for basic realisation.

iv. Engaging and Managing Volunteers:
Do not focus on the problem, do something positive for people. Want to know if you are succeeding? Are the people on the receiving end happy with what you have to offer? Any feedback could help you be more relevant to them. If you don't want to do what is asked, ask yourself why and what you would do; share those thoughts.

6) Increasing Self-sufficiency and Social Impact:
If you want to reach hights, be sure to stay light. This is side-track lesson that can be learned from Ben Zander (Boston orchestra)who says that he in order to succeed professionally as wellas in charity he gets up and thinks How can I serve today, and he continues to think that in every conversation. Setting yourself the one boundarie: will the iniative still be light to travel easy? If the answer is yes, you know what to do.

8) Organization Mission and Vision:
The Kittiwake foundation starts and supports projects that will help people in the margin of society by redistributing products and servieces they need to feel better and/or to pick up on the (positive) elements in their lives. The foundation was founded 1st octobre 2004.

Organization Size:
Fulltime employees: probably 3
Parttime employees: Probably 2
Volunteers: 2004 some 40, end of 2005: probably 500 in three countries. We wish to redistribute at least 50.000 books in 2005.

Looking Forward to the Next Three Years:
It's vision will be formalised but still be carried forward in face to face contact.

Rickert Pos (this form, secretary) and Amina Marix Evans (initiative)
Watermolen 100, 2986 EV Ridderkerk
The Netherlands
Telephone: +31 (0)6 412 87 309
Fax: +31 (0)84 222 95 03
Email: rickert@wensenwerk.nl; borderline.books@xs4all.nl
Web: www.borderlinebooks.nl

  Return