My top insight from UNGA week 2024
Two weeks ago I was in New York City for the United Nations General Assembly. This is one of 4 conferences I am attending between September and October this year (not for nothing that the fall is fondly known as “Conference season”). And conferences are a great place for three things: 1. learning, 2. connecting and building relationships, 3. getting inspired.
What is the United Nations General Assembly (aka “UNGA”)?
For those unfamiliar, the United Nations and private and civil society partners gather at the United Nations headquarters each September to “reinvigorate multilateralism by addressing critical gaps in global governance and reaffirming commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals and the UN Charter”.
So when people say they are going to UNGA, they may be going to the United Nations or they may actually be going to a plethora of side events. Here are some of my favorite side events:
Devex Summit (Free, you just need to snag a spot. Sign up in advance on their website to get notified when registration opens. Here is the recording of this year’s sessions.)
Goals House Global Goals Summit (Free, you just need to snag a spot. Sign up for their newsletter to get notified when the agenda goes live and then you will need to email them for an invite to each session that is of interest to you. Make sure to let them know why you should be in the room for each session.)
The Sidebar provides spaces that help people connect, converse, and collaborate in New York during the UNGA & Climate Week. (Also free, and a great partner if you want to organize a side event.)
The Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting (This is like a world unto itself with all the stages and spaces, and the ticket is not cheap! But if you make a Commitment to Action— this could be your organization’s 10-year impact goal, for example— you can get a free ticket.)
Climate Week with all its associated events!
One of the events I most treasured from the week was the time I spent at the Segal Family Foundation Spotlight Africa space. Segal is an incredible funder supporting social justice in East Africa, it is a true leader in advancing trust-based philanthropy with flexible funding and streamlined reporting. And the foundation invited me to spend some time with its grantees in person at UNGA, advising them on fundraising.
This meant I started UNGA week immersed not in words, but in actions. Powerful actions, driven with so much heart, in Africa by Africans.
Spotlight Africa, UNGA 2024
Two days spent giving fundraising office hours to NGOs from Africa
If you follow this blog, you know I don’t give generic trainings. I want to make sure organizations get advice that is just right for them. So I spent the better part of two days giving office hours to the Segal Family Foundation grantees. These were quick, 30-minute, to-the-point, no B.S. sessions, coaching them on how to raise more money with more ease. And they came with questions on general operating support grants, facility grants for nonprofits, unrestricted grants for nonprofits, and more.
One thing kept coming up again and again with the 12+ grantees I gave office hours to: low hanging fruit.
Low-hanging fruit to get unrestricted funds
My biggest insight from these office hours: You probably have low-hanging fruit to bring in money. And you are probably missing it.
I saw that so many of these organizations had funding within reach, they just hadn’t noticed it was there or hadn’t taken a moment to pause and reach out and harvest it. And the office hours were the perfect space to together find these low-hanging fruits and get clear on how the organizations can harvest them. And the fact that these were largely pre-existing relationships meant that the door was open for them to ask for general operating support grants, facility grants for their nonprofits and unrestricted grants for their nonprofits.
Here are a few examples that I hope can inspire you:
💡Lucy leads an NGO in East Africa that gives a 2nd chance to high school graduates who don't make it to university. Their model ensures that these youth can still earn income WHILE they are getting upskilled. Specifically, the NGO has a small handicraft production area in the office for participants plus has a purchasing relationship with Google and others that buy these handicrafts for client gift boxes. Lucy didn't know about GoogleGive week (a week of employee donations and Google matches). Now, she is going to ask her buyer at Google, who is already a champion of theirs, to nominate them for GoogleGive. This is the perfect way to get general operating support funds and money to buy their much-needed production equipment.
💡Ken leads an NGO in East Africa that trains youth to do REALLY high-quality work in the media industry. The organization is actually legally structured as two entities: a non-profit that receives donations and runs the trainings and 2. a for-profit that does media projects for hire with the trained youth, and donates that income to the non-profit. For these media projects for hire, Ken has a relationship with places like Disney+. And it would be pretty easy for him to ask his contact there for an intro to Disney+'s CSR team which, given the existing business relationship and strong thematic alignment, might be really excited to make a donation to his non-profit. In other words, Ken already has the relationship with Disney, so he can take advantage of his organization’s double structure to activate two different pots of money at Disney.
💡Multiple EDs I talked to realized they were trying to find new funders when they hadn’t yet fully engaged their current funders. Even though their current funders are the most likely contacts to continue giving, give at a higher level, and give with less restrictions (read: general operating support grants). I shared this thought experiment: If you knew you could bring in no more new donors- the only possible donors that exist in the universe are the ones you already have- what would you do differently?
Your next steps
➡️ What low-hanging fruit have you not been harvesting? What 15-minute action can you take today to harvest one piece of it? (And if you can't see your low-hanging fruit, have a conversation with someone who can!)
➡️ If you want help with this and are ready to make it a reality, my Fundraising Diagnostic and Roadmap is an in-depth version of office hours.
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