About the Members Network
What is the Teach A Man To Fish Members' Network?
- An international community of schools, education organizations and individuals working in education committed to sustainable approaches to tackling poverty. Read more about some of our Members.
- A forum for practitioners and organisations to share ideas and innovations, and to foster South-South relations in this field. Members enjoy priority registration for our flagship event, the annual 'Education That Pays For Itself' international conference.
- Membership is free and offers a chance to take part in online forums, search for and get in touch with other members working in your field / region, and receive a dedicated monthly members' newsletter 'The Line' as well as the main Teach A Man To Fish quarterly e-bulletin.
Increasing the sustainability and impact of your education work will never be easy – but at least with the Teach A Man To Fish Network you won’t have to walk this road alone - Join the Network now!
How Teach A Man To Fish may help Members of the Network?
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Platform for publicity
Time and time again we see that the most successful organizations are the ones with the most connections. Networking is the one way to build these connections. Another is through publicizing your successes.
With a mailing list thousands strong, Teach A Man to Fish offers an ideal platform for your work to reach a wider audience. From policy makers to private sector leaders and funders, this outreach can provide a powerful opportunity to build support for your work amongst the people who might be able to play an important part in helping you achieve your goals. We’re always on the lookout for stories of success in combining skills and entrepreneurship education with income generation. If you can provide this kind of inspirational example for others to follow, we’ll happily offer our platform to publicize your work.
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Project planning support
Part of success in attracting finance depends on your ability to create the viable business plan that will form the heart of any proposal. We hope that our resources will give you the best possible start for creating this plan on your own. Sometime however it’s nice to receive a helping hand – particularly for large-scale initiatives, where donors’ requirements are far more demanding.
Teach A Man To Fish’s team of technical advisors specialize in providing this kind of assistance. Though we can’t yet offer this as a free service, by investing in your project in the planning stages you can be confident that your success in attracting larger-scale funding will improve dramatically.
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Making market linkages
One way of financing your plans is to search for outside assistance, scouring the founding market for leads and writing up those killer proposals. An alternative approach is to focus on how you can use the resources you already have to start generating income to fund your future growth.
Many items you could produce at your school might sell for a higher price in overseas markets. In keeping with the principles of self-reliance, Teach A Man To Fish aims to support Member institutions in making market linkages where the profits generated go on to fund new educational work.
If you have a non-perishable product which could be marketed overseas to support your school’s development, this could represent a real and sustainable source of finance for your work. We welcome your suggestions in this new area for us.
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Finance Assistance
Joining and actively participating in the Teach A Man To Fish Members' Network can be a first step towards future partnership. Although Teach A Man To Fish is not a traditional grant-making organisation, we do assist our Partners who want to establish Financially Sustainable Schools in seeking funding from donor institutions from the North.
Replication Partners will typically be well-established non-profit organizations with experience in running enterprise-focused programs (eg. microfinance, entrepreneurship training etc.), a strong existing funding base and a history of achieving demonstrable social impact.
For Replication Partners, we can identify and liaise with potential donors, assist in proposal writing, provide technical assistance on the ground, and help with monitoring and evaluation activities. Alongside this, we can also offer on-going capacity building and inclusion in the Teach A Man To Fish School Accreditation Program. Through this assistance, we aim to promote genuine self-sufficiency, helping you to develop your capacity to attract and manage future finance independently.
