“12. Question: Why is World Vision so successful at fund raising?

Answer: The real secret of our fundraising is the notion of child sponsorship. We allow people to see the face of that one child – we make that child real to them. It is very difficult to raise money for poverty eradication – much easier to raise money to help a specific child. It makes it personal.

Of course we also have fiendishly clever and committed marketing people who really care about their cause. We also represent an amazingly compelling selling proposition: Where else can you spend your money and know that you may have saved a life, or changed the world for the better?”

(Link to the Original Site)

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/05/ten_or_so_quest/comments/page/2/

Looking at how this works in practice you might be interested to see this UNICEF review of the organization’s experience with child participation and the lessons learned. You will see that this looks at the creation of meaningful participation – not of using children as a means to deliver messages crafted by external agencies.

http://bit.ly/QnNeq

Of course children and youth have opinions and rights and concerns and everything else, including the right to influence the families and the societies in which they live.

But we should always be wary when an organization – especially a powerful international organization working in a poor community – urges children to act a certain way, or adopt a set of beliefs, or urge their parents to do or not do something.

Most of the time this is harmless or even positive – like children learning about the consequences of smoking and getting their parents to stop, or about the importance of recycling. But its a a slippery slope, with Pavlik Morozov and Stephen of Cloyes at the bottom.

We should be especially wary when that organization is World Vision, which in my experience frequently has a hard time distinguishing between evangelism and development.

I manage a cafepress store – similarly, we use it as a fundraising tool.

As a cafepress store manager, you select the items you want your logo on. I personally find it extremely distasteful to choose to include your logo on a thong when fundraising for a cause as serious as what is happening in Darfur.

No cafepress store owner *has* to include thongs – it’s a choice.

The important part of this for governments, aid egencies etc. is to support children’s participation in an ethical manner – not to manipulate their views or use them as window dressing.

Here is a link to a guide that was developed to promote good ethical practice in this area – World Vision are one of te organizations that contributed to and use this guide.

http://www.unicef.org/adolescence/cypguide/files/Child_and_Youth_Participation_Guide(1).pdf

“Across Asia children are involved in children’s clubs, learning about health issues, talking to their peers about how to avoid HIV infection, warning classmates to watch out for the traffickers who trawl their villages, encouraging local government officials to improve their schools, training parents how to grow healthier food and be more hygienic at home, and even advocating against the alcohol salesmen who turn their dads into violent beasts at home.”

Interesting you say that. As I was walking (yes, with my feet b/c we don’t have $ for vehicles) a World Vision Land Cruiser passed by. I started to wonder to myself… if an NGO (or ‘implimentor’) got a grant for say $200k. They spend around $100k on 2 vehicles. They spend another $60k on hiring two nationals. That leaves $40k for the actual project, that’s 20%. But still haven’t purchased a lot of other stuff yet.

Just an extreme example off the top of my head to how I see money spent in Africa by Aid organizations.

… oh, crap, my blackberry is buzzing… will get back to you with more later…

I have always been curious as to what %age of World Vision’s income and others like them actually ends up in the developing world