5th of September marks the International Day of Charity, established in 2012 by the UN General Assembly to create a common global platform for philanthropic activities and organizations around the world.
For MOAS, this serves as a day to acknowledge and celebrate the charitable mechanisms that form the structure of our organization, the support they provide to the operational teams, and the expansive network of people who prop them up.
As part of our ethos and values, MOAS is an action-focused organization, channelling almost all of our funds, advocacy, PR, and energy toward our teams in the field. However, without the administrative, regulatory, and financial tools and resources at our disposal, the operations that serve our beneficiaries would not be possible.
At MOAS HQ a small, but dedicated team, takes responsibility for the financial management, communications plan and fundraising activities of the organization, as well as supporting operational development and implementation. We are keen to maintain a lean management system, to better improve financial efficacy, but this means that our HQ staff must be diligent and exacting in their day-to-day work. Administrating, regulating, and managing an international entity is no mean feat, and we are grateful to those who nurture and maintain the charitable skeleton of the organization, upon which the rest is built.
Additionally, like many other charities, MOAS relies on our global community of volunteers, consultants, advocates, and amplifiers to help us maximise our impact and extend our internal capacity. Individuals, companies, and partner organizations around the world support MOAS by donating their time, expertise, energy, network, and platforms to help us disseminate our messaging, professionalise our functions, expand our reach and so on. Charities often rely on a spiderweb of connections and contacts to broaden their impact and scope, and engagement from community partners on every level is essential, highly valued, and rarely acknowledged publicly.
The final part of the ‘behind the scenes’ puzzle is perhaps the most important and universal across the sector. This is the role of donors and fundraisers in the facilitation of implementing new operational activities and the expansion or development of existing projects. Whether it’s crowdfunding communities, individual donations, public-private partnerships, institutional grants or Foundation fund management, there is no single funding source that is more important or valuable than another. Community fundraising generates awareness and amplifies advocacy as well as raising donations, individual donors develop relationships with their chosen charities and become de-facto representatives for them in their own spaces, the sustainable and resource-appropriate support that comes from CSR and partnerships is often financial as well as institutional, and agency or Foundation funds can encourage resilience, transparency and accountability within the NGO space.
We at MOAS rely on all these supporting structures and mechanisms to design, implement and develop our operational programs. We have a sprawling global network contributing their time, skills, funds and employees, all of whom contribute in their own way to the achievements and outcomes of the charity in the field. We are all grateful and humbled by the loyalty and support we’ve received over the last 10 years and look forward to not only maintaining this network, but also growing and expanding it, over the years to come.
If you’re interested in supporting MOAS and joining our global family, just email us at [email protected], you can help us amplify our messaging by following us on socials and signing up for our newsletter. To donate visit www.moas.eu/donate.