A couple months ago, I wrote a grant to the Kingdom of Norway. At the time, I hardly anticipated the grant being approved, mostly because they were seeking proposals written in Russian (a task I am still woefully unqualified to complete). Nevertheless, I thought I would throw the dice because hey, I wasn't expecting that European Commission grant to be approved and look how that turned out!
After a bit of back and forth with the grant manager, we decided that I could submit the application in English without a guarantee that the review committee would be proficient enough to understand the ins and outs of the language. Sure, why not, I thought, and with a day to go before the deadline, I wrote my proposal.
Thus far, all of the grants I have submitted have been under the auspices of my NGO, Credo. That is to say, the proposals are projects that Credo will execute. The Norwegian Grant is a completely different basket of eggs, in that the registered NGO on file with the proposal is named ARGO, located in Almaty. In short, I wrote this proposal hoping to get funds for an idea I have been nurturing for over a year, dealing in particular with the shortcomings/misunderstandings/lack of feedback mechanisms regarding international development as a system, and NGOs in Kazakhstan as a product of that system.
Pay dirt.
The grant was approved and $15K has been transferred to ARGO, one of the primary project partners I am working with, in addition to KIMEP, the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics, and Strategic Research (www.kimep.kz). How did I make contacts at these places when I live in Karaganda, a 20 hour train-ride away from Almaty? For starters, the professional network of serious players on the field of development is not that big and Peace Corps already has a lot of contacts dangling out and about for the taking. But mostly, I'm building on a project which was started by a Kaz 20 volunteer and I'm picking up where she left off, so to speak.
To learn more about the basic description of the project need and the rudimentary project components, please click. Obviously, Credo's assistance and expertise in this area is critical in a lot of ways, but I'm treating this project more like a "secondary assignment" than my primary assignments at the office. Soon, you will be able to follow 12 Insights into Development online, view last year's products, and monitor from afar the discussions about development in Kazakhstan. After all, where do you think USAID gets its money?
Well, "From the American People", of course.
After a bit of back and forth with the grant manager, we decided that I could submit the application in English without a guarantee that the review committee would be proficient enough to understand the ins and outs of the language. Sure, why not, I thought, and with a day to go before the deadline, I wrote my proposal.
Thus far, all of the grants I have submitted have been under the auspices of my NGO, Credo. That is to say, the proposals are projects that Credo will execute. The Norwegian Grant is a completely different basket of eggs, in that the registered NGO on file with the proposal is named ARGO, located in Almaty. In short, I wrote this proposal hoping to get funds for an idea I have been nurturing for over a year, dealing in particular with the shortcomings/misunderstandings/lack of feedback mechanisms regarding international development as a system, and NGOs in Kazakhstan as a product of that system.
Pay dirt.
The grant was approved and $15K has been transferred to ARGO, one of the primary project partners I am working with, in addition to KIMEP, the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics, and Strategic Research (www.kimep.kz). How did I make contacts at these places when I live in Karaganda, a 20 hour train-ride away from Almaty? For starters, the professional network of serious players on the field of development is not that big and Peace Corps already has a lot of contacts dangling out and about for the taking. But mostly, I'm building on a project which was started by a Kaz 20 volunteer and I'm picking up where she left off, so to speak.
To learn more about the basic description of the project need and the rudimentary project components, please click. Obviously, Credo's assistance and expertise in this area is critical in a lot of ways, but I'm treating this project more like a "secondary assignment" than my primary assignments at the office. Soon, you will be able to follow 12 Insights into Development online, view last year's products, and monitor from afar the discussions about development in Kazakhstan. After all, where do you think USAID gets its money?
Well, "From the American People", of course.
**Please re-read my posts "Chicken or Egg", "Color Inside the Lines", "Efficiency vs Effectiveness", and "The Round Table Effect" for a theoretical discussion of what prompted me to pursue such a project.
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