Financial sustainability is one of the core areas that business support and training institutions have to look at. Often, the target group (enterprises, individuals) are not able or willing to pay the full price of the programmes and services provided. Business support institutions therefore have to find additional funding with donors (government, embassies, international organizations, etc.) and sponsors.
Fundraising means selling your programmes or project ideas to “investors”. You will have to
- identify suitable donors and
- convince them that your programmes/projects are exactly in line with their objectives. This mostly means delivering a well thought through project proposal.
In this context, it is important to know the distinction between baseline funding and project funding. Baseline funding means that the donor provides means to support the institution’s existence and its overall activities. The institution is quite free to decide on the allocation and use of the means provided by the donor. Project funding relates to the donation of funds allocated exclusively for specific programmes or services. These resources cannot be used for purposes other than for these programme/service activities.
