¿Dónde están mis pantalones?

Over my year here in Guatemala I’ve watched a lot of NGOs come and go, and many more ideas talked about before the would-be founders head back north.  I’ve listened to stories about how hundreds of thousands of dollars (possibly millions) have been blown and never helped a single person do anything.

I’ve never been the NGO type, perhaps because it’s always made more sense to me to make money and then give it away than to try to just beg for money.  I’ve raised a lot of money in business & politics, I know how difficult it can be.

Anyway, Santiago was telling me recently how many of the wealthy Antigua women handle their charitable giving.  They work in groups (safety in numbers?), evaluating needs, scrutinizing the players, checking all the references and so forth, and then they ‘bundle’ contributions.

I’m familiar with bundling from the US, both in politics and in investing.  In politics, bundling occurs when you are sold on a candidate or a cause and you go to all your friends and acquaintances and raise money.  They make the checks payable to the candidate/cause but give them to you, which you then deliver to the campaign.  In this way, you get influence or leverage with the campaign, and they treat you as a valuable resource.  The contributors get more influence through you than they would on their own.  The campaign gets people working for their cause.  Everyone wins.

With investing, groups of angel investors (wealthy people who like getting in on early investment deals, usually as much for prestige as investment potential), often have a ‘lead investor’ who does the due diligence on a deal and handles all the negotiations.  When he has a deal he likes, he goes to his group of investors, pitches the deal, and acts as kind of a group chairman.  He has his own money in the deal and is vested in looking after everyone’s interests.

I thought of this model as Santiago was explaining how the wealthy women form groups to look after their interests and avoid risks.  They also have a stand-by ready whenever they’re approached for money (that happens alot, BTW), “Oh, I have this group, and we run all our donations through it; would you like to apply?”.

There are hundreds of NGOs around, most of them poorly managed, and all asking for money.  There are a few that have a worthwhile cause, good management and don’t have a house within two blocks of the park, a fleet of Range Rovers and a iPhone for every employee (and family member).  What if we created an NGO whose entire purpose was to perform due diligence and then bundle donations?  Tourists and expats and others who want to do good things could look at our past record of causes, see those which have failed and those which have succeeded, and donate knowing that they’re not just one gringo getting ripped off but have the collective wisdom of all donors?

NGOs would want to be transparent and responsible in order to qualify for consideration and the potential for donations.  Donors would contribute more quickly, give in greater amounts, and do so more often because all the due diligence has been done for them.

What do you think?

Usually that’s the ridiculous, final argument offered by leftists who want you to support their latest effort at abridging civil liberties or raising taxes.  However, over at Semillas de Amor, it really is all about the children.  I’ve been there, seen their facility, seen the kids and the quality of care they’re getting, and heard the horrific stories about governmental interference, incompetence and corruption (and you all know I’m equal opportunity when it comes to my opinion of governments):

From Nancy:

Dear Supporters of Semillas de Amor,

Please read and respond to the post below from Futuro de los Niños, this directly impacts the children of Semillas de Amor and many other Guatemalan children. Please be involved, the children need you.

This is the most urgent cry for your love and support we have ever put out!

Please read this TODAY and put us on your calendar for Tuesday December 1st and Wednesday, December 2nd. We are launching a mass email and phone campaign that could change the future of many of the children waiting to join their permanent families.

We need you to be part of our collective voice to bring children home this Christmas!

Please go to www.futurodelosninos.org or www.guatemala900.org to learn how you can change the lives of hundreds of children!

With Love and Gratitude,

Ellora

Ellora DeCarlo • President & Co-Founder

www.futurodelosninos.org

Dick Rutgers has one of the most-visited blogs in the country.  He’s not catering to the pampered, expat “I have the highest private terrace in Antigua” or “I had to fire another maid today” type of things, Dick is out in the trenches doing real work.  Almost every day there is a new story of some child he rescued from a cage (i.e., the public hospital where handicapped/retarded kids are kept in cages), or a kid that had been living off trash in the gutter, or a kid that had been abandoned because of a deformity.

I read his daily journal and I almost get inspired to give up everything I have and go follow him.  Almost.

Here’s a typical entry by Dick:

…Not that there are ever too many volunteers there for all of the kids, but my friend Daryl Fulp and the groups that he brings along with him when he comes here from the States does a wonderful job when they are here. Many well meaning groups come into the orphanage and most make a gallant effort of entertaining the kids. Granted Darryl and his groups love to entertain them as well but they have learned that there is something that has to go along with the entertainment and that is loving on the kids. I guess puppets and clowns are OK but what these kids need the most is a real person. A person that is willing to hold them , to play with them, to laugh with them, to cry with them. A person that is willing to let each one of these precious children know that he or she is a real person. These children need people that are willing to show them the kind of love that our Heavenly Father gave to us when he sent his only Son here to earth to be a real person that was willing to die for us.

Many of you who come here and meet with me ask about ideas for volunteering, starting your own non-profit, etc. Inevitably people leave disappointed or disenchanted with my no-BS feedback on how difficult it is to run a business/NGO here and why most fail. (BTW, 80% of small businesses in the US fail).

Very briefly, Don Marco’s suggestions for starting a NGO in Guate:

1. Do something that is truly benefiting someone. It can be one person at a time, it doesn’t have to be a lot. You can’t change the world, but you can change lives one at a time.

2. If you’re not a business person, find a shrewd business person to advise you on your ‘business plan’, even if you’re an NGO. If your ideas come out fully intact, you need to find another advisor. Your ‘business plan’ should be dripping in red and resemble Mrs. Campbell’s grammar test from 7th grade.

3. Recruit a strong board of directors, people who are smarter than you, more experienced than you, and have more money than you. Listen to them, get their ‘buy in’ on the plan, and then get them out there working for you (raising money, recruiting people, getting you free press, etc).  If they give you advice and you ignore it and they stay on anyway, you’re both fools.

4. Make sure you have a solid, diversified, realistic financial base. Just a few months ago a family sold everything they owned, moved to Guatemala to save the world, and were gone within a few weeks because their financial plan was so unrealistic. Get your first year funded up front before you commit. Have someone hold it in escrow for you if donors are skeptical.  If you or your advisors can’t raise the money, then it shouldn’t be done.  Even now there is lots of money out there, and people will give it to you if they believe in you.

5. Come visit for a month and volunteer with someone else, even if they’re not doing exactly what you would do, and walk in their shoes for awhile. You might find that it’s not all sunshine and roses. In fact, most work worth doing is going to be tough, and just about anything you can imagine doing here is going to be more difficult than it would be in suburbia, USA.

6. Setup a website and start sharing your ideas and plan with the world. Encourage feedback, and listen when people beat up your plan.  Don’t respond to criticism for at least 24 hours, let it sit and then ask for more feedback and clarifications.  The critiques you’ll get online will be nothing compared to the feedback you’re going to get on the street.

7.  Call your ‘competitors’, visit them, pick their brains, ask them to critique your plan.  They might just talk you out of it, or save your life, or convince you to join them.  Sure, you’re going to do everything better than they did, make none of the mistakes they did, and revolutionize the way NGOs do business while you’re saving the world, but just in case, take notes and think about it.

8.  Assess your own strengths and weaknesses.  Get help from family, ex-family, friends, former supervisors, co-workers and subordinates.  Ask them to be brutal.  If the list of your weaknesses isn’t a lot longer than your strengths, you’re not doing something right.  Then share the results with your board and make sure they help you manage around it.  If you’re like most people you’re strong in one thing and weak in a lot of others.  Deal with the blind spots.

I like brainstorming. Usually you’ll get my best advice if you buy me a few drinks. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, just a cappuccino will do it. Let me know if you have an idea and I’ll beat it up for you.