Help Find ways to raise funds for the Micro-loan start-up

Small business opportunities provide a means for individuals to support themselves, their families as well as orphans that may be in their care.
The community is looking to start a small micro-loan program which will start with 10 guardians. Each guardian would develop their own business plans and would receive a loan up to $100.
Each loan would be paid back with interest and then be available for the next person waiting for a micro-loan. There are currently over 40 guardians in the project.
The guardians will be accountable for their businesses and loans to the group of other members as well as other guardians that are waiting for the next loan. They will meet regularly to provide support to each other, share ideas, discuss issues and provide encouragement.
Initial training on bookkeeping and operating a business will be held as well as sessions to help the guardians formulate their businesses and get them up and running.
A page on Give Meaning was previously established, which we have modified to focus on this project. The budget goal is $1200 (10 loans of $100 plus $200 for the training sessions). A total of $310 has already been raised. We only have $890 more to go!
Ways to help:
1. Visit www.givemeaning.com/project/kabondo and make a financial contribution
2. Twitter about this project and encourage people to visit the Give Meaning site or here
3. Write about this on Social Actions
4. Post this to your Facebook page
5. Email friends and family
6. Give us other ideas!!

Thank you so much for writing up this. I'll link it up to our new micro-financing project. Excellent.
--
lilalia
A couple of other suggestions:
1. Volunteers can post a link to the fundraising page by adding it in the signature of their emails.
2. Volunteers can also consider posting a link to the project in the status update section of their instant messenger, Facebook account, etc. Everywhere people see it, even for a little bit, will help get the word out about the project.
Best wishes!
Jennifer
Thanks Jennifer!
Great ideas.
Barb
You may notice in the news section that chooseAneed has accepted a proposal to help raise funds for goat rearing. We still have the page as well on GiveMeaning (www.givemeaning.com/project/kabondo) so please visit it and direct people to it so we can raise the funds! I had hoped to raise the funds by the end of January, but today is Feb 1. So as a new month, we will set a new target. We only need to raise $890 for the microloan program.
Also, some students from the University of Calgary may be working on this project as well. They are currently choosing between the income generating project and the sanitary pad project. As soon as I have their decision, I will let everyone know!
Barb
Dear All
The links may be of help-
RAISE FUNDS FOR CHARITY
1)
http://www.givemeaning.com/
E mail: info@givemeaning.com
2)
http://www.abcfundraising.com/
Email: info @abcfundraising.com
3)
http://www.FundraisingMom.com
Contact via form on the website
4)
http://www.spinnersfundraising.com/story.php
Email: info@SpinnersFundraising.com
5)
http://servenet.org/Toolkit/FundRaising/tabid/71/Default.aspx
Contact via the website form
6)
http://www.lwr.org/parish/fundraising.asp
e-mail: lwr@lwr.org
Best regards,
Sushmita,
India
Thanks Sushmita.
Some we have tried, such as givemeaning, but others are new to me. We will have to check them out!
Barb
Sushmita,
Thank you very much for these new information. As Barb has already indicated to you, we have tried givemeaning but not the others. It would be interesting to explore new ground. Thank you very much.
Eric
Hi Barb and Eric,
I have stumbled across an interesting site (as you do when surfing the web) :O)
It is a free online shop where anyone who purchases from it generates a commission for your charity. Below are links.
Link to the organizations webpage where I found it
http://www.openarmsprojects.org/shop_for_charity.html
Link to that organisations shop so you can see how it works
http://www.buy.at/OpenArms?CTY=26&LID=06-11-2008
Link to get the free site…..
http://users.buy.at/fundraising/?PURL=fund-raising.at/OpenArms&P36=CJ52H...
Maybe we could set something like this up for the Kabondo website?
Melissa
Dear All
The fund raising link may be of help-
http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.201458/#
Contact details-
http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.696131/#answer11#answer11
Best regards,
Sushmita,
India
Thanks Sushmita!
I have put some of the ideas they have here:
Find creative ideas designed to inspire people of all ages and youth groups.
Ideas for Youth Groups
*
Provide incentive by promising that the teacher or advisor for the group raising the most money will dress up in a cow costume, escort a chicken around for a day or perform "Old McDonald Had a Farm."
*
Prepare a pancake breakfast or soup-and-sandwiches lunch. Sell tickets in advance.
*
Offer to do chores, such as raking leaves or walking someone's dog, with the fees going to Heifer.
*
Collect copper pennies in large, clear containers. Offer a small prize to the person guessing the number in the jar, then contribute the pennies to Heifer -- counted and wrapped, please!
*
Collect favorite family recipes into a cookbook that can be produced and sold.
*
Hold a car wash.
*
Using Read to Feed materials from Heifer, children can collect pledges from friends and relatives, who agree to pay a quarter or a dollar (or more) for each book the child reads during the four weeks of the program.
*
Do at least one activity that involves children explaining hunger issues to friends and family and asking them to support Heifer. This is an excellent way to teach children facts and values -- and raise money from adults at the same time.
*
Paint a Heifer mural in a hallway or on a classroom wall. A talented person (or team) draws the outlines, then children or adults can fill in the colors. You'll have a constant reminder while your campaign is going on and a keepsake after it's over.
*
Decorate a holiday tree with animal ornaments made by youth group members, and sell them as a fundraiser.
Ideas for All Ages
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Ask friends and family to remember your birthday, anniversary or other special event by contributing an animal to Heifer in your name. Our Gift Catalog makes it easy for them and for you to help families around the world.
*
Hold a walk-a-thon, bike race or dance marathon. Collect pledges for each mile or hour. See how one man vowed to bike-ride cross country for Heifer.
*
Organize a team of volunteers to do house and yard projects, such as painting a room or cleaning gutters. The person receiving the service contributes the amount it would have cost to Heifer.
*
Make small, handmade gifts or holiday cards and sell them. Or hold a raffle for larger, more expensive hand-made items, such as a quilt or dollhouse.
*
Have an International Potluck Dinner and charge admission. Make each group responsible for food and decorations appropriate to the Heifer country or region assigned to them.
*
Put on an international, intergenerational talent show.
*
Arrange a hunger-facts quiz in a popular game-show format. Raise money by having people pay to enter the contest or pledge in support of their favorite contestant.
Hello Everyone,
My apologizes for being away for some time. Some personal matters came up, but I am still here!
Just wanted to give an update on fundraising for the microloan project:
We have raised $800 of the $1200 minimum goal and still would like to make one last push for the last $400. This last bit will enable all 10 women to receive their loans plus receive some training. We still have the Give Meaning page up, so if we can do everything we can to make one last campaign such as:
1. Email the give meaning link to friends, family and anyone else that may wish to help www.givemeaning.com/project/kabondo
2. Twitter about this
3. Post on your facebook page
4. Talk about the project on social actions or other networking sites
5. Make a personal contribution. I know many of you already have done this and it is much appreciated!!!
Anything else you can think of. This is such a small amount, but makes such a huge difference. It is tangible, it is real, it is possible!
Thanks,
Barb
Hi Barb
Nice to see you back!
Do you still hope to raise all the money via online donation? I see you have also raised a little via Choose A Need - any chance of combining the two to get things moving?
I think, if you don't raise any more in the next month or so, start with what you have. Even if only five or six families can benefit initially, this is far better than waiting for ages to start things going. Not sure how loan repayment will work e.g. weekly, monthly etc but you will then be able to start making other loans as the money comes back in.
If you are thinking of applying for funding, a good place to start may be the Kitchen Table Charities Trust http://www.kitchentablecharities.org
From experience with two other villages (Kayole-Soweto and Matopeni) the process is straightforward and you will get a decision in two or three months. I think that Kabondo's various projects would meet their criteria as their site says they have funded other micro credit projects.
More info on how to apply at http://www.kitchentablecharities.org/grant.htm
Has anyone in Kabondo tried Ken's farming techiques e.g. drip irrigation? These are things they can do for little or no cost, so may not need any outside money at all to get started.
Mary
Hi Mary,
We are going to give one last push for the funding online, but I agree, after that it will be time to take the funds raised and start working! I am not sure about the Choose A Need program - meaning whether or not funds could be combined... we'd have to look into that some more.
As for Kitchen Table Charities, I'll take a look and see what can be done.
I gave Eric a book that uses Ken's ideas (it's one of the books Ken recommended on his website) but I am not sure if anyone has actually tried his techniques. Eric - any comments on this?
Barb
Hi Everyone,
Just an update:
Still working on getting the funds from GiveMeaning. We have some paperwork to complete and the funds will be sent through a Canadian Charity as well as monitored by them. While this is a bit more work, it is also good for KPAO, since once this is successfully completed it shows other organizations that we have the capacity and means to work with NGOs.
Eric - I just need the info on KPAO (contact and banking info) so the agency agreement and wire transfer can be completed.
I will let everyone know once the funds are ready to be sent.
Thanks!
Barb
Hi Barb
I apologise that it has taken me so long to complete this, but I finally finished compiling the table of organizations that we could potentially approach re: funding Kabondo's sanitary towel project. Could I email it directly to you to look over? For some reason I can't quite figure out how to post a document to the Nabuur site....:-)
Thanks so much
Kirsti