Cultivating For Success

Strategies, Action Points, Protocol. Our office is swimming in a sea of NGO development strategies to effectuate goals. It's a very exciting time to be engaged in humanitarian effort internationally, seeing the fruits of our labors come into their season. Cultivation is everything.



Recently, I was provided a copy of a letter of invitation to the President of the country of Honduras to attend our NGO conference in September. It was pretty exciting to see this letter, noting that we'll have the Ambassador of the US in attendance as well as the Director of USAID, each presenting to the hundreds of participants and NGO's represented there. The picture here is of US Ambassador Hugo Llorens and myself attending the 2008 Conference on Honduras. This year is our 10th year to sponsor this event and it goes without saying, cultivation is everything.



You can't develop a comprehensive strategy for success without careful planning. Look at the success records of some of the most recognizable international humanitarian service orgs on the planet: CARE, Médecins Sans Frontières, Ameri Cares, Mercy Corps, Global Aid Network. It happened through the careful and intentional planning that included contingency plans when the trajectory encountered obstacles. These obstacles didn't derail their plans, it added a new dimension to the existing strategies. And all along, they cultivated the mission objectives, never losing sight of the goal.

As we press onward we offer encouragement knowing that collaboration builds capacity which broadens the footprint of successful humanitarian response. We're excited to be in the midst of incredible things happening internationally.

Brian Crowe
Executive Director, Special Missions Foundation