The evaluation is very Singapore-focused and will need further input from the Indonesia and Cambodia teams.

Funds available as of 31 December to meet short-term objectives is approximately US$56,000. In order to run WISE in the current state, the organisation will require another US$14,000. Assuming all nine projects will be implemented this year, the remaining amount to be raised as soon as possible for the financial year 2019 is US$94,000. In addition, WISE aims to build sufficient reserves to cover one year of overheads. This is a significant amount of money and is unlikely to be raised through WISE’s existing fundraising methods, which are consulting services, grants and crowdfunding campaigns.

An analysis of similar organisations in Southeast Asia show that those who are not backed by a major foundation, grantor or the government, fundraise through donations. The comparison suggests that there is potential to tap into different sources of donations. However, it might not be useful to read too much into the comparisons because WISE operates on a different model and is much younger than the other organisations.

Consulting services

International development consulting is a vast sector comprising all types of assignments carried out by all types of consultants, from large international firms to individual independent consultants. As a Devex article stated, the project-based nature of development work and the frequent need for specific, short-term technical expertise make this sector ripe for a thriving consultant base.

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Grants

Funding bodies such as foundations and government agencies support non-profit organisations in pursuing their missions, either restricted to a specific program/purpose or unrestricted for general support. The reliance of nonprofit organisations on grants vary, from Clear Cambodia whose main source of funding is charity: water, to World Toilet Organization (WTO) where grants made up 6.7% of total revenue for 2017. Grants can be competitive, therefore it is important to be as prepared as possible when writing grants. GrantsUSA provides an organisational grants-readiness checklist.

Crowdfunding campaigns

Crowdfunding was first used by entrepreneurs to attract small-sized investments to for-profit ventures, primarily via the internet, and is projected to become a $90-96 billion dollar industry by 2025. It is also being touted as a valuable tool for fundraising for charitable nonprofits (Council of Nonprofits). WTO and Mercy Relief (MR) have crowdfunding pages on Give.Asia and Giving.sg respectively, with MR having raised US$17,000 from 97 donors from their ‘15th Year Anniversary Impact Fund’ campaign.