1. What is the
total campaign budget?
2. Who has funded the campaign so far?
3. What is the fundraising strategy?
4. What is the long term
vision for the campaign?
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1. What is the
total campaign budget?
The total budget for the "Plant a BioFuel Tree" campaign to plant 1
million trees is $2 million over 4 years.
This equals $2 per tree.
The budget breaks down as follows:
-
"Seed" funding: 36%
First year cost of materials (saplings,
inputs) and labor (stipend
paid to women for pit digging,
tree-planting)
-
On-going cash and bonuses/rewards: 32%
Year 2, 3, and 4 costs of material and
labor for maintaining trees, plus quarterly
rewards/yearly
bonuses
to women based on their performance and tree
health
-
Training and field support: 18%
All training before and after tree-planting,
and
salaries of Environmental Champions & field
workers for 4 years
-
Administration: 14%
Publicity, fundraising, full-time
executive management, legal, audit,
monitoring/evaluation, travel over 4 years
In-kind support
from individuals, companies and other
non-profits is estimated to be worth about 5% of
the budget. Advisors and trustees will
continue to work for the campaign on a voluntary
basis. The campaign will not engage in any
trading activity and therefore will not have any
source of income other than donations.
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2. Who has funded the campaign so far?
All activities to date
(including field trials with 50,000 trees, village
surveys, and planning work) have been funded by the campaign
coordinators who have been working on a voluntary basis
since mid-2007.
The first cash grant for
the campaign was accepted in April 2007 on behalf of the
2008 Skoll World Forum for Social
Entrepreneurship at Oxford University to offset the carbon
emissions of the event. This amount will be used to fund
the first pilot village for the campaign in 2008.
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3. What is the
fundraising strategy?
To raise funds for the first pilot
village ($20,000 by mid-2008)
we are pursuing small-ticket and high-visibility fundraising opportunities
by offering a package to offset
environmental impact of conferences and other
events. We are also accepting donations from
individuals. Donate
here.
To launch
the full campaign starting in mid-2009, we will seek larger grants from high
net worth individuals, foundations, and company CSR funds. We have started dialogue to discuss project design and seek
feedback from target donors in each of these categories. Proposals for funding will be submitted
once the pilot project is underway in 2008.
Finally, the campaign will also seek funding from the following sources:
-
Carbon finance can be raised based on sale of independently verified carbon emissions reductions
generated by the women's groups. This could reach as
much as $0.50/tree for the growers, and would reduce the budget requirement for ongoing payments
in Year 2, 3, and 4.
-
Alignment of government schemes like the National Rural Employment
Guarantee Act and the Integrated Watershed
Management Programs could further reduce the funds
required for tree-planting. This has not be assumed
in the current budget.
Any unutilized funds will
be disbursed to the women groups to plant more trees, so
that the campaign account is wound up after Year 4.
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4.
What is the long term
vision for the campaign?
Over the long term, the campaign team hopes partner closely with established NGOs
with large grassroots networks to replicate this campaign
through a ‘franchise’ type model. The campaign team will provide a
well-developed and tested package of technical and
financial practices for preparing, planting, and
maintaining BioFuel trees sustainably on wasteland.
Partner NGOs will then be responsible for local fundraising to implement this model for the
benefit of their target populations.
