Lending Support to a Foundation that Cares for AIDS Orphans in China

Booz Allen creates a fund-raising strategy to help one non-profit broaden its effort to educate children.

In October 2005, the Chi Heng Foundation implemented a new corporate fund-raising strategy that Booz Allen Hamilton had tailored to the organization's needs. The strategy will help the Hong Kong-based non-profit expand its corporate sponsorship base and increase its charitable impact.

Founded in 1998, Chi Heng hopes to create "a harmonious, equal, and healthy society" by funding and operating projects to care for children devastated by AIDS. One of its key initiatives sponsors the educational costs of children who have at least one parent who is HIV positive or has died from the disease. Chi Heng has funded the education of more than 3,000 children from primary school through university, and it also promotes tolerance and AIDS prevention.

After Booz Allen worked with Chi Heng, the Ministry of Health, and the Global Business Coalition on China's Joint Summit on Business and AIDS in March 2005, the firm offered to assist Chi Heng in its fund-raising efforts. Since September 2005, Booz Allen has provided pro bono consulting services to help the foundation in its mission.

Targeting Corporate Donors for Education and Social Services Funding

In the 1990s, many of the poorest Chinese—especially farmers—sold their blood as a means of earning additional income. Many blood donation facilities, however, used unsanitary practices, such as sharing needles. As a result, an estimated 60% of the adults in numerous Chinese villages are now infected with HIV, and the population of orphans in China whose parents have died from AIDS has skyrocketed. The Chi Heng Foundation supports the educational needs of many of these orphans, as well as those of children whose parents are ill with HIV and cannot afford school fees.

But sponsoring the education of AIDS orphans is very expensive. In addition, the foundation wants to extend its services to include psychological care, material assistance, and vocational training for the children. To achieve these goals, Chi Heng needed an integrated fund-raising strategy between private, corporate, and foundation donors.

"Before this project started, Chi Heng had no formal corporate donor strategy," says Booz Allen associate Sascha Breitfuss. "It operated informally, such as approaching organizations through personal contacts. But without a sustainable, well-balanced source of funding from all three channels-private, corporate, and foundation—it was unlikely that Chi Heng could reach its monetary goals."

Because Chi Heng's corporate donation stream was less developed than that of its private or foundation donors, Booz Allen concentrated on that area. Working closely with the organization's founder, Chung To, the firm developed a sophisticated, systematic process that would help Chi Heng improve its donor targeting and fund-raising success.

Identifying a Six-Step Solution

Using both primary and secondary research, Booz Allen created a list of viable target corporations and an overarching framework on how to approach them.

"Booz Allen's strategy helped the team assess, rank, and categorize over 70 multinational and local corporations into groups based on the degree of alignment between their philanthropic programs and Chi Heng's mission," says Breitfuss. The team then developed a simple, six-step strategy that incorporated the complete end-to-end process of attaining and developing new corporate donors:

Identify target corporations. This step includes establishing the adequacy of a corporation's annual funding budget and other research activities.
Develop a value proposition. This step identifies the value proposition with the greatest potential for success.
Determine a gift request. Appropriate donations include cash as well as other gifts, such as employee giving or event support.
Write a proposal. A proposal must be aligned with each corporation's application process and adhere to other guidelines.
Influence the decision. This step includes following up with the corporation.
Manage and grow the relationship. This step includes identifying key stakeholders, building personal relationships, and other activities.

The project was initiated in September and fully implemented by October 2005, when Chi Heng began using Booz Allen's process to assess and approach new corporate donors.

Because the philanthropic programs of most corporations run on a 12-month cycle, final results are still pending. Booz Allen will help Chi Heng assess the outcomes when they become available.

story posted February 22, 2006