Select a foundation, grant opportunity, corporate sponsor, state or national agencies,
community groups (Lions club, Rotary, etc.) that can fund your proposed program.
Discuss common barriers or challenges to seeking funding for programs. Discuss ideas for
overcoming these challenges and barriers.
Barriers when seeking Funding
One of the common challenges to finding funding for programs has to be the national
interest against the leave no man behind initiative. It has become increasingly clear, particularly
with institutional donors who prefer the ‘leave no man behind’ initiatives that advocate for
poverty reduction. The main problem with this is the fact that all these have to happen within the
national interest of a nation. This means that the NGO sector, as a significant stakeholder, has to
find a way to navigate the issues (Funds for Ngos, 2019) .
The second issue is the uncertainty around some of the most significant government
funding. Organizations that were exclusively dependent on USAID particularly are finding the
need to diversify and find some other donors, and these comprise some family foundations as
well as private donors.
Borrowers also lack the proper ways of communicating their challenges in ways that can
bring a lot of stakeholders on board. This is due to the critical nature of the story of the various
impacts. NGO’s thus need to develop these stories in ways that can attract funding from the
corporate sector as well as other potential donors.
NGOs also need to find their own Niche’ and ways of connecting to the donors. These
niches will inspire them to meet all the donor requirements, which are becoming broader and
more detailed. These span from the national interests of the government, privatization, to all
BARRIERS WHEN SEEKING FUNDING 2
other elements that are business-driven with a much higher degree of scrutiny from the public as
well as the need to meet the local needs and the localization.
References
Funds for Ngos. (2019, September 13). The Minor Foundation for Major Challenges seeking
LOIs for Grant Program. Retrieved from Funds for Ngos: