Approved by TI Kyrgyzstan board of directors meeting of 10 February 2009

Updated by the board meeting dated 3 December 2024

 

Transparency International Kyrgyzstan Donation and Fundraising Strategy

 

Introduction

This document is intended to guide the strategic financial planning, donation and fundraising process. Donations and other income enable TI Kyrgyzstan to fight corruption. Secure and diverse funding enables TI Kyrgyzstan to maintain its independence, protect its reputation and operate effectively. In order to ensure accountability and transparency and maintain its integrity as an organization, TI Kyrgyzstan joined TI Donation Policy, Procedure and Guidelines (passed by the TI Annual Membership Meeting, 10 October 2004) described below. The next step analyzes the financial situation of the TI Kyrgyzstan, identifies current income streams and funding needs, that is further detailed on annual basis and is set forth in the Annual Activities Plan and Budget, as well as, potential funding sources. Then it describes a selection of fundraising tools to help meet funding needs over the coming years.

TI Donation Policy, Procedure and Guidelines

The National Chapters and the Secretariat of TI (TI-S) are funded from diverse sources: foundations, governments, the private sector, individuals, membership fees, income from publications, events and other activities and from an endowment fund. Relying on many sources of income helps TI to maintain its independence. Funding may be unrestricted or tied to specific projects.

Generally, the National Chapters and TI-S ('TI Bodies') each raise their own funding. As regards fundraising for the Secretariat, the Donor Relations department leads and coordinates fundraising activities at TI-S. A sub-committee of the TI Board, the Fundraising Task Force, pursues and oversees major fundraising initiatives for the movement. This committee also advises on all matters referred to it under the procedure described below.

TI must not risk jeopardising its reputation for honesty, openness and integrity. Its reputation could be compromised if a TI body received funding from sources that were perceived to be pursuing activities inconsistent with TI's mission.

Policy
It is TI's policy to accept funding from any donor and whether monetary or in kind, provided that acceptance does not:

• impair TI's independence to pursue its mission
• endanger its integrity and reputation.

Scope
This Policy applies to all fundraising for all TI bodies, regardless of types of donor or amounts involved, unless otherwise stated in this document. It is to be applied to all new funding from existing donors and to all new donors in the future. It does not apply to income raised from the sale of publications or from fees for participation in conferences, events and other activities. Appropriate care to protect the reputation of TI should always be taken.

Guidelines
Funding to enable TI bodies to carry out their work should be sought from a wide range of sources. Care should be taken to ensure that project-related funding does not result in undue influence over TI's programme work. Subject to maintaining TI's independence and reputation, TI bodies may accept funding from all kinds of sources.

Each TI body should list all donations over € 1,000 and publicly disclose them, including in the Chapter's Annual Report and on its website, and likewise in the case of TI-S. If there is a significant risk that receiving funds from a particular source would impair TI's independence or if there is a significant risk to TI's reputation from public association with the donor, then funding from that source must not be accepted by a TI body.

Any donation to a TI body must be able to stand up to public scrutiny. TI's independence requires that a donor may be subject to the same criticism by TI as any other organisation or individual in a comparable situation. A donor accused of having been involved in corruption can expect no protection from TI.

TI can receive funding from corporations and donors from the private sector. This does not imply any endorsement of a donating company's policies or record. It is advisable that a potential donating company has made a public commitment to ethical standards (such as the UN Global Compact, the Business Principles etc.), and TI bodies may request that corporate donors sign a commitment to integrity before any donation from that company is accepted. No TI body should accept a donation from a company that is found to have engaged in corruption unless the company can demonstrate that this was a violation of the company's policies, that breach of these policies are being addressed in an appropriate manner, or that its policies have been amended to proscribe a similar violation in future. TI works with companies on the understanding that they are working towards a business environment in which bribery is not accepted.

Procedure
It is the responsibility of the staff and Boards of Directors of TI bodies to ensure that TI's independence and reputation are not jeopardised. The procedure below describes the steps which should be followed when a staff or Board member believes that any TI body has accepted, or is considering accepting, funding from an inappropriate source. Other people associated with TI may also make use of this procedure.

1. If any staff or Board member of a TI body is concerned that there is a threat to TI's independence or reputation from donations already received, or about to be accepted, the person(s) should draw this to the attention of the manager or Chair of the Board of that particular TI body.
2. If necessary, the manager or Chair of the Board of the body will consult with the Fundraising Task Force of the TI Board and seek their advice on whether to accept funding from a specific donor.
3. If any TI body proposes to accept more than €100,000 (or an amount greater than 20% of its overall budget) from any private company in a year, this should be brought to the attention of the TI Board Fundraising Task Force for their advice.
4. All communications with the Fundraising Task Force of the TI Board should be made through a TI Board member or the Chief Executive of TI-S.

The Fundraising Task Force will report to the TI Board all guidance given under this procedure.

Diversification of Income

Unlike many associations, where membership dues remain the primary source of income, TI Kyrgyzstan does not collect membership fees from individual members who are board directors and staff members. Traditional revenue sources such as foreign donor funding directly to TI Kyrgyzstan and through TI Secretariat are harder to find and to register under the laws of Kyrgyzstan, thus underlining the need to have a strategy to seek funds from other sources, such as fees from the private sector for services. 

 

Challenges and Mitigation Measures

Several key challenges that impact partnership and fundraising strategy and measures to mitigate them are included below.

 

Challenge	Mitigation measure
Difficult economic conditions	New donor identification and solicitation
Tightened legal requirements	Thorough analysis of the new laws by the lawyers and advice to TI Kyrgyzstan managerial  and financial staff
Difficult operating environment	Consultations with respective public agencies and seeking their support for projects at the stage of proposal preparation
Pressure from sponsors in terms of areas  of the projects	To  adjust donor requirements to the needs of the country
Corporations and increasingly foundations want project-specific proposals, rather than fund general expends, such as rent, support and admin staff, etc.	We try as best we can to tailor our programs to meet both the requirements of our organization and donors.

 

Fundraising tools

Face-to-face meetings with potential donors and/or clients are often necessary to produce a good impression on the potential donors. Major funding foundations’ websites shall be regularly checked for announcement. TI Kyrgyzstan will do its best to establish contacts and participate in meetings of business associations, such as International Business Council, Amcham, Kyrgyzstan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, etc., present their projects in order to build the reputation, demonstrate skills in order to be invited to participate in tenders for services. TI Kyrgyzstan will also do its best to convince businesses that their internal anti-corruption policies and tools need to be reviewed and be brought in line with the anticipated new law on whistle blower protection.

 

Project proposal preparation

Identification of the project/program that is of great importance both for TI Kyrgyzstan and the donor increases funding opportunity. Generally, concept paper of 2 pages (letter of inquiry) is required at a first round of application process. It is to make sure that interests of both do overlap before requesting full proposal in detail. It is the responsibility of the ED to prepare concept paper and to organize managerial staff into preparing a full project proposal. In case of need, TI Kyrgyzstan will seek assistance from the TI Secretariat in editing project proposal. The projects must be realistic and aimed to tackle one particular problem within a specified time frame and limited budget. Secondly, it is vital to design new projects in a way that main outputs of the present project would turn into inputs in next projects. Thirdly, a new project shall allow the organization to build new networks strengthening each member’s capacity and ensure community participation. The projects shall have flexible design that allows to quickly responding to changing operating environment (political, legal, and societal). Each project proposal shall have risk evaluation component and risk mitigation plan. The project is required to possess consistent monitoring and evaluation plan with benchmarks and clear indicators to measure success. A profound and unbiased approach to depict M&E should not allow achievement of major outputs to overweigh measuring outcomes, and should lead to sustainable processes among all stakeholders, including citizens, NGOs and the government.

 

Exit strategy

TI Kyrgyzstan designs adequate project exit strategy in order to provide sustainability of its work. Project exit strategy is a specific plan through which the project will continue realization of its goals and sustainability of outcomes upon withdrawal from a place or people, or end of funding. The principle TI Kyrgyzstan applies to its exit strategy is to move to the next stage of a project using the experience acquired during the first stage, while another option would be termination of support under a specific project.

 

Board roles

The board should closely be engaged with the Executive Director and raising and managing funds in order to provide transparency of activities and procedures. Thus, the board shall be aware of any project proposal preparation stage so that board members can provide their invaluable comments. Board members also shall be informed of the results (both success and failure) of every tender process TI Kyrgyzstan submitted a proposal to. Further review of management of funds by the board would contribute to the achievements of the organization. Therefore, budgets for all programs and their implementation shall be presented to the board on quarterly basis.