TELLURIDE, Colo. (Apr. 22, 2019) – A team of six resource mobilization professionals from Denver, Colorado Springs, and Telluride will arrive in Gaborone, Botswana on May 2nd to spend a month in training and consultation with 18 HIV-focused civil society organisations (CSOs) throughout Botswana. (In Botswana, nonprofit organizations are called “CSOs”). These professionals, including April Montgomery, VP Programs at the Telluride Foundation, have more than 100 years of combined experience, will lead resource mobilization workshops in Gaborone and Francistown for 100 CSO representatives, and then travel to the CSOs’ sites to spend two days in one-on-one consultation. Their primary objective is to help each CSO develop a resource mobilization plan to raise funds from within Botswana and reduce dependence on declining international HIV donor funding.
The visit is part of a new project, “Giving Starts Here”, funded by the National AIDS and Health Promotion Agency, The Rotary Foundation, and Rotary District 5470 (Colorado, USA), and developed by seven organizations: Botswana Network of AIDS Service Organizations (BONASO), Botswana Business Coalition on AIDS, Peace Corps Botswana, Rotary Club of Gaborone, Project Concern International (PCI), Bakgatla Bolokang Matshelo, and Stepping Stones International. The project’s mission is to ensure sustainable and adequate funding for Botswana’s HIV-focused CSOs to support the Third National Multisectoral HIV and AIDS Response Strategic Framework (NSF III), which calls on CSOs to “play a key role in increasing coverage, efficiency, and sustainability of HIV service delivery in the next five years,” while acknowledging that Botswana must build CSO capacity to “mobilize human, financial, and material resources to support community interventions.”
April Montgomery is currently the VP Programs at the Telluride Foundation where she manages their Community Grants program, nonprofit capacity building trainings, and several initiatives. She has worked for the Foundation for over 13 years and will be taking time off from her job to participate as a training team member in Botswana. “Being able to apply the work I do everyday in another country and culture has always been a professional dream of mine,” said Montgomery. “I’m honoured to be part of this experienced team and to be part of this effort to strengthen organization’s ability to end the HIV and AIDS crisis in Botswana.” Botswana is still one of the countries most affected by HIV in the world, despite the government’s progressive provision of universal free antiretroviral treatment (ART) to any resident with HIV. At 21.9% of the population, Botswana has the third highest HIV prevalence in the world.
Other team members include: Richard Male as Team Leader who co-founded the Community Resource Center, the Colorado Nonprofit Association, and Community Shares of Colorado and currently teaches graduate level courses in grant writing, fundraising and resource development at the University of Colorado at Denver; Scott DuPree, an international nonprofit consultant who worked for 20 years as the Southern African Program Director for the Synergos Institute; Lauren Palumbo, an experienced fundraiser and proposal writer, who is current Director of Family Support Services for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless; Patricia Yeager, current CEO of the Independence Center in Colorado Springs; Barclay Jones who is the Leadership & Equity Officer at the Denver Foundation and previously served as the Assistant Director for the Leadership Residential Academic Program at the University of Colorado Boulder. Amy McBride from Ridgway is currently serving in the Peace Corps in Botswana and has been instrumental in designing this vocational team training program and writing the grants to fund the team.
