Country: Nicaragua

Organization: Central American Women's Fund

3) Strategy Summary:
The volunteer fundraising training program involves young women (ages 15-30) from different sectors in fundraising activities among their friends, family, neighbors, colleagues and employers. In addition to the concrete financial benefits, the model also strengthens the skills and capacity of hundreds of women and involves them in a network of activities geared toward promotion of women s human rights.

The program gathers 30 to 40 women and involves them in a three-day training that includes general information about Central America, analysis of the condition and needs of young women in the region and in Nicaragua, the achievements of the women movement, an explanation of the work of the Fund, and an intensive fundraising.

4) How the Strategy Works:
The first workshop that the volunteers will attend is designed to offer them important facts about the situation of young women in Central America, raise their awareness of the current issues involving the defense and promotion of young women s human rights, the work that is being done by grass roots groups particularly in Nicaragua, and the real difference that their work as volunteers will make to those young women, themselves and the community at large. Also, and this being the most intensive part of the program, we will expose them to fundraising tools and strategies so that they develop their own fundraising abilities, allowing them to see the differences between social change giving from main stream charity giving. These young volunteers will then further develop their skills through field work during the first three month fundraising period. They will have continuous support from the staff and at the end of the three months will convene again to make a SWOT analysis of the whole program and be able to recognize all of them as wave makers, especially those young women who brought involved more people with the Fund as donors and/or volunteers. They are the ones who will evaluate the program as a whole and their advise and recommendations will be taken fully into account when redesigning it.

We not only intend to develop this new volunteer and donor base and have it grow exponentially. But, we definitely want these volunteers to empower themselves, implement and share their new knowledge and experience in their own surroundings. With their new skills, the young women will go on to do important work in their communities. They will make waves of change and thus, there will be ripple effects through out their communities.

Also, since one of our main areas of work is that of capacity building, we will encourage our grantees to become part of the program so that they can themselves, at some point, actively and strategically fundraise with individual donors, too, so that the groups become increasingly self sustainable and not entirely dependent on institutions or international cooperation agencies to fund their own work.

5) Key Strategy Elements:

ii. Generating Financial and Nonfinancial Resources:
Ola Joven s first cycle is expected to obtain financial contributions from new individual donors amounting to at least U$4,000 in the first cycle, and U$8,000 in the second, for a first year minimum total of U$12,000. Also, there is the possibility that the Fund will be able to graduate small individual gifts to medium or even larger ones from cycle to cycle or on an annual basis.

iv. Engaging and Managing Volunteers:
The idea of engaging young women specifically as fundraising volunteers is innovative, especially in Central America, where many young people are seen as irresponsible, not active enough, and unable to affect change. We disagree with this assumption and believe that this program could become one way for these young women to empower themselves and others through their own work. Through careful follow-up of the volunteers and a participatory evaluation, we will ensure that both staff and volunteers share their experiences and opinions, and have a say on what the program should be like to improve both the learning experience and the financial outcomes.

6) Increasing Self-sufficiency and Social Impact:
The overall goal of our fundraising strategy is to strengthen the financial sustainability of the Central American Women's Fund to provide a sustainable resource for women s groups within the region. The overall financial strategy includes a multi-year effort to build an endowment fund that will cover our core operating expenses over the long run, and the development of the volunteer fundraising program to raise support for grantmaking. Thus, the funds from the Ola Joven program will go directly to the grantmaking of the Fund. The long- term goal of this plan is to reduce dependency on foundations and international donor agencies and build an individual donor base. We plan to expand to several new countries in Central America, make larger grants every year, supporting previous grantees while welcoming new ones. With the volunteer program and the growing volunteer and individual donor base, we will ensure the visibility of the Fund and the young women s groups work.

8) Organization Mission and Vision:
The Central American Women s Fund envisions a Central America without poverty or violence, with social and economic justice, and with forms of democracy that enable women and men, as well as young people and adults, to participate equally at all levels of society. Toward this end, the Fund mobilizes resources to provide grants and training to women's organizations, particularly to young women s groups, that are defending or promoting women s human rights in Central America. The Fund contributes to the sustainability of women s organizations that are working to address women s rights issues such as the increased access to health care and education, greater economic autonomy, freedom from gender-based violence, the ability to exercise sexual and reproductive rights and greater access to political participation.

Looking Forward to the Next Three Years:
We expect to have had at least 4-6 Ola Joven cycles in Nicaragua, 2-4 in Honduras, 1-2 in El Salvador and have approximately 120-240 volunteers or more involved in fundraising for the Central American Women's Fund and a donor base of at least 4800 individual donors

Contact Information:
Nadia  Alvarado
Central American Women's Fund
De la Rotonda El Gýegýense, 4 cuadras abajo, 1 cuadra al norte
Nicaragua
Tel: 011-505-2544982
Fax: 011-505-2544982
Email: nadia@fcmujeres.org
Website: www.fcmujeres.org