Pitching to NGOs.

Hooking up with an NGO can be great, and to be honest at the moment most of my work is being funding or enabled by various NGOs, so I have to say I am grateful for their existence. If you can find a few enlightened NGOs to back you up, you can accomplish alot. The grantwriting article will not be of much help to you. Instead, look at the tutorial on Editorial Protocols — several editors from NGOs responded to that one, and they were pretty much in synch with what the magazine editors suggested. It is really no different: you draw up your proposal, find the right people to pitch it to, send them info by email or snail mail, call them to follow up, etc. If I knew more about your project and who you are targetting I might be able to offer more concrete advice.

dude…
always tedious as a mother fucker…
straight..
i have been dealing with ngo’s for the last year or so..
specifically in the last 6 months…and how funny it is to deal with those at the top and get nothing..and then make a few phone calls on the ground and everything is gravy…

this does not include funding…but transportation and support etc…
absurd dealing with people sitting at desks…
it seems the dude before me has much relevant advice..
all i can say…
get a contact on the ground…lay it straight…bang, bang, finish.
..
and thank the internet gods for providing us with every feckin phone number in the world….

“dude”: where did you find the gun toting hamster? btw, I am too old to be a “dude” — just call me amigo mio, hermano, pana, or el gringo bachatero. Your point about contacts on the ground is sound advice: very often once you are on the ground, in the thick of it, you find the right people to help you out. However, you have to be careful about the sort of NGOs you choose to work with. There are several pitfalls.

One other point, images cost money because the photographer has to survive and make a living. Simple as that. And for that reason I will continue to participate in the fraudulent information market, because the alternatives dont pay. I believe in the basic communist formula: from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs. I give my all, and I expect my needs to be met. When the lefty idealistic reform types learn to stick to that formula I will join the revolution.

Jon just read your tutorial. I highly recommend it as compulsory reading for all LSers! Great stuff
and all of it true. So to all you young ‘dudes’ out there start reading and thank the internet gods
for providing us with Jon ‘fecking’ Anderson!

Lisa if there is an internet god it has to be Loki, the norse god of Trickery, Deceit and Fraud. Illusions, shadows in the Platonic cave of unreality.

Jon,

Thanks for your help; I do appreciate it. I failed to mention that one of the organizations I will be trying to pitch to will be USAID. Do you have any specific experience with them (or any other govt agency) that would be relevant for me to know?

Best,
Ian

Jon,

Thanks for your help; I do appreciate it. I failed to mention that one of the organizations I will be trying to pitch to will be USAID. Do you have any specific experience with them (or any other govt agency) that would be relevant for me to know?

Best,
Ian

The biggest thing I’ve learned about trying to hook up with NGO’s and aid agencies, is to keep at it until you find the right contact. I’ve noticed there are a number of people that I’ve spoken to that don’t understand the value of photography, but some of those people have given me a number of leads that have proved quite beneficial. So in a roundabout way, they have really helped me, though I thought at the time it was going no where!.

In regards to ideas on pitching stories, well, very few people I know will do something for nothing. This means you’ll need to be offering something in return for their cooperation/assistance. I don’t know how big your project idea is, but something you could offer might be an exhibit of the final work with partial funding by the NGO you are approaching. While I haven’t done this yet, I like it because it keeps a tight control on your imagery; gives something back to the NGO (pending what your project subject is) and is good publicity for you.

It has been said before, but I think it is worth repeating; NGO’s and aid agencies can be so valuable on the ground by giving you access to areas/regions and the right people to help make things happen on the ground.

YEs I have experience with USAID, but not as one of their shooters, not directly. They are funding several of the NGOs I have worked with here in DR.. They are a massive US govt outfit, so actually they are not technically an Ngo but GO! Actually I would be curious to know more about what you are doing for them. Generally from the viewpoint of the NGOs they fund, they are considered a cumbersome, hugely bureaucratic monster that relies too heavily on paperwork and with impossble standards of substantiation of fieldwork. At one point I helped an NGO with their grant application and I remember very well what a pain the application was. However, they have tons of money. Keep your eye on the fine print with them.