Practical Answers Fundraising Consultancy

January-March 2010
The Objective of the Consultancy:
The objective of the consultancy is to secure external restricted funds for Practical Actions external knowledge sharing service, Practical Answers. The consultancy will also leave the Practical Answers team with a case for support, and a fundraising strategy and plan which they can implement.

Sub Objectives
(1) Help to conceptualise Practical Answers service and our service offer. Develop a case for support which sells the service to potential donors and partners. Define unique selling points, external positioning and strengths. (2) Devise a fundraising strategy for Practical Answers including a mapping of major multilateral and bilateral donors who may be interested in supporting knowledge sharing activities, and identification of potential programmes. (3) Develop three specific plans for approaches to donors or consortia and take the first steps in implementing each of these. (This may include submitting and application, having initial talks or making a presentation).

Outputs
The specific outputs that we need are:(1) case for support documentation (2) A fundraising strategy document (3) Three plans for specific donors/partners, ideally with funding applications submitted, or first steps of communication taken and documented. (This will depend on funding timetables)

Methodology
Without wishing to be prescriptive, we would expect the consultancy to proceed on the following basis: Phase 1. Conceptualisation should take approx 33% of the time. Most will be based on a desk review of existing written materials about Practical Answers which will be supplied to you, this is likely to be followed by workshop or meetings with key staff in Practical Actions office in Rugby, including the Practical Answers team, several directors and some of the programme teams. It may be necessary /

appropriate to have teleconferences with some of the Practical Answers team from the seven country and regional offices around the world. The output from phase 1 will be a short document/presentation which would encapsulate the Practical Answers service for external audiences. Phase 2. Strategy. Likely to be 33% of the time. Will be almost entirely desk research of potential donors and their fundraising strategies. Will need to build upon the work which has previously been done by Practical Answers team and others in Practical Action. Is likely to look at the funding sources used by similar initiatives. May include some direct contact with potential donors. Will consider options for prioritisation of efforts and make firm proposals on the way forward. The output will be a presentation to key stakeholders in Practical Action of the best way forward with fundraising. Phase 3. Direct approaches. Likely to be 33% of the time. Likely to include the preparation of presentations and standard bid documents and maybe some introductory phonecalls/meetings with potential donors. May even go the point of submission of applications if timing is appropriate, but will certainly leave the Practical Answers team with a very concrete timeline for moving the project forwards.

Skill requirement:
We are looking for an experienced institutional fundraiser (or possibly more than one person). Ideally they will have specific knowledge of the fundraising for knowledge sharing arena, and some personal contacts in multilateral or bilateral donors. They will have at least three years experience of working with institutional donors. They will have experience of developing a fundraising strategy. They will have experience of creating a case for support. And they will have experience of making cold approaches to donors by phone, writing and face to face.

Timetable
21.12.09 14.01.10 15.01.10 w/c 18/01/10 By 10 March 2010 By End of March Consultants invited to Pitch with expression of interest Closing date for receipt of pitches Agreement and appointment of evaluator. Inception meetings Presentation of the draft fundraising strategy. All work completed and signed off, all invoices submitted.

By 20 February 2010 Presentation of the conceptualization of Practical Answers

Format for expressions of Interest

CVs (no more than 4 sides) should be submitted, for all the people who will be carrying out the evaluation. Attention should be drawn to the experience required (set out in skill requirement above). A brief covering note can be included setting out the proposed methodology, and giving a breakdown of the number of days for each phase and the daily rates. Expressions of interest can be submitted electronically to the address below. For more information or to submit your expressions of interest please contact: Rob Cartridge, Head of Knowledge and Communications, Practical Action, Schumacher Centre for Technology and Development Bourton on Dunsmore Rugby Warwickshire CV23 9QZ UK Tel 00 44 (0)1926 634556 Email rob.cartridge@practicalaction.org.uk

Resources available:
The total budget for the work is for 10,000. This needs to include all travel expenses, VAT etc.

Background: About Practical Answers

Practical Answers is the knowledge sharing service of Practical Action. It is based on four decades of experience of sharing knowledge about technologies with some of the poorest people in the world. It has the following characteristics: Global Reach. Our technical information has been recently viewed in virtually every country in the world. 6000 tailored, individual enquiry responses are delivered each year to development practitioners in more than 90 countries. Our online service websites offering materials in English, Spanish, Arabic, Bengali, Sinhala and Tamil has over 39,000 registered users and handles over 30,000 downloads monthly. The users of this information claim to have benefitted more than 600,000 people in the last twelve months. www.practicalanswers.org The service is managed from eight country and regional offices and a series of local information nodes in places as remote as Darfur, Sudan and Faridpur, Bangladesh. Locally Relevant. Local infomediairies (information providers) with a thorough knowledge of local language, circumstance and context deliver tailored responses from each office, ensuring relevance, and also demonstrating that the service is driven by real local demand. The source material is drawn from Practical Actions knowledge bank and experience of appropriate technological responses, collected since 1966, but reflected through a filter of indigenous context and experience Appropriate formats. Sms, multi media objects and a variety of web based and printed materials are just some of the formats used by Practical Answers to find the best way of sharing knowledge with people who need it most. In some countries we have extensive networks of agricultural extension workers that we work with. In others we use the mass media effectively to promote certain technologies. Extensive Content. With more than 300 briefs available on a range of technologies from wind turbines to food processing, Practical Answers has provided real content to networks of telecentres, operated by governments an international institutions. Our enquiries service has been franchised to other NGOs in Latin America. Effectiveness and Real Impact. Our innovative approach and continual learning has led two recent independent evaluators to conclude that they find it hard to imagine another development project with such a great impact for such a small investment. Partnership and Cooperation. Extensive partnerships enable us to draw on greater knowledge banks and increase our dissemination reach. Our existing partners include CBOs, NGOs and multinational donors.