Travelers' Philanthropy Handbook - Center for Responsible Travel

13. Cost effectivenessProject execution should prove to be cost effective in relation to the expected effects.14. Internal CapacityAdequate internal capacity and financial and human resources must be identified and madeavailable for successful implementation and management at the individual project level.15. Communications, Marketing and BrandingAny project showing the ability to attract proper and positive third party attention in society,within media, amongst social entrepreneur networks, in nature conservation networks, etc. alsoshows higher levels of sustainability.• Follow the MoneyAs mentioned earlier, good donor management in travelers’ philanthropy is concerned with thecommunications both before and after funds have been given to a project. What does thewebsite communicate about a particular project? Does it attract donors? What comes outthrough media cover and pressreleases? Does it create addedvalue to the project and the potentialdonor? These are importantquestions to answer as youapproach potential donors.A different aspect of donormanagement looks at how projectsprovide good governance structures,through, for example, transparencyin financial reporting and democraticdecision making between partners.An example of BasecampFoundation’s reporting structure isgiven in the next section entitled“Keep the Donors in the Loop ofThings”.Barack Obama visits Basecamp Masai Mara, Kenya.Credit: Basecamp Foundation.What binds the two perspectives close to each other is what we usually refer to as “follow themoney.” This is the link between understanding why people give, how to give, how the supporttrickles down to the project, what degree of transformation it has on community andenvironment, and how this is communicated back to the donor. The next story describes the“follow the money” process in one of Basecamp Masai Mara’s projects in Kenya.Basecamp’s “Mara Bushbuck” project combines the improvement of wildlife habitat and carbonsequestration. For this project, 50 acres of riverbank habitat has been leased from four differentMaasai landowners for a period of 30 years in order to restore a critical piece of eroded habitat.The reason for calling it the “Bushbuck” project is that this particular species requires intactforest/bush vegetation in order to thrive. The idea was simple: if the Bushbuck would return, theproject would have successfully reforested the area. And, if it were reforested at a rateacceptable to the Bushbuck, the number of surviving g trees would be significant and, this would131