Having the capacity to successfully defend human dignity implies a mix a various factors. Its all about having holistically thought through your final goal, the strategy and knowledge what needs to be done to accomplish the goal, and the resources you need to support you in your endeavors. Regardless whether you are young organization, a small organization, or an informal group of people, you have to have a certain number of elements in place to make sure that your work is achieving maximal impact.
The most fundamental requirement to effectively defend human rights is a clear vision how the world should look like, a clear understanding what prevents the world from this state (= the problems that needs to be solved) and what needs to be done to solve these problems (= your mission). Everyone should be able to understand your goals.
Effectively defending human rights needs cooperation and allyship. You will only be able to excel and achieve maximum impact in what you do when you apply strategic priorities to your work. These priorities need to be broad enough to last for several years, and precise enough to guide your activities.
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People tend to underestimate the real cost of defending human rights. Once you have defined what needs to be done to implement your mission (= your activities), take your time to work on a budget, and define how you will finance your work.
Accessing human rights funding is highly competitive, and most organizations and movements turn to the same but few traditional human rights funders. However, to ensure a minimum of financial freedom, it is vital to count on a diverse range of income types, such as individual donors at varying levels, foundations, and government or other institutional contributors. At Phoenix Initiative, we regularly publish open calls for proposals on social media (in English) and on our website (accessible in many language thanks to machine translation) to alleviate the financial bottleneck. We also share experiences and lessons learned of how others have succeeded in their fundraising endeavors.
A number of financial practices are vital to ensure that you can safely pursue your work to defend human rights. The below is the ideal practice to thrive for:
o Yearly financial controls, (and if necessary audits) are conducted and reports are made available upon request.
o Financial statements are prepared quarterly, following a consistent format.
o Solid fiscal management processes are in place.
o Good practices include careful cash monitoring, regular budgets monitored with monthly cash flow statements and a board finance committee.
o Efforts are in place to establish and maintain a reserve fund, ideally equal to 3 to 6 months of operating expenses.
However, having such elements in place depend highly on the individual situation and organizational complexity of those who defend human dignity. In our resource section, we propose ways and solutions how to ensure sound financial management practices that shall fit your context, and not solely the above ideal practice.
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