Zsquare4theCure 2017 Report

Zsquare4theCure 2017 Report

Introduction

​Our annual report will allow  our supporters and donors to understand the great work our team have been working behind the scenes. Every year Zsquare4thecure team take on new initiatives at the beginning of the calendar year and these are our focus for the year. In this report , we provide some updates  on how we perform on each our 2017 initiatives and the status of the initiatives at the end of 2017. We use GREEN, YELLOW and RED as indicator to track our successes and plan forward in 2018.

Key Initiatives

1-Hire Social Media Intern – GREEN

We attempt several times to hire a social media interns and staff, we interview several candidates and narrow it to a great candidate that complete all the round of interviews ( per our hiring processes) but she retract her self from the processes. It was very frustrating to not able to find a social media staff. Then we found a tool, a simple apps RIPL very easy to use called  “a marketing  team in your pocket” where you can schedule post , very attractive post suggested from the tools , that cost 10$ a month – 120$ a year , which a great cost. The founder play the role of social media staff using RIPL to post on all social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter)
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2-Meet First Lady of Benin – Pink Ribbon, Red Ribbon project – YELLOW

​The team initially draft the proposal after we engage our partners and contact at Pink Ribbon, Red Ribbon project .We also use our network of friends to secure the first lady of BENIN contact and plan to meet her when I was in Benin in June-July 2018. Unfortunately because of family and personal reasons, the first lady was not available so we halt our connection to engage. This initiative is now in YELLOW  and we plan to continue engaging with the office of the First lady in 2018.
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3-Create more programs to increase NGO Standing etc guide – GREEN

We were very intentional in 2017, to focus on programs that increase our standing as a non for profit. We apply and receive the GOLD GUIDE STAR. We secure our Facebook social media identity as a reliable non for profit. That allows us to participate securely in receiving fundraising on Facebook as legitimate Non for profit all over the world. These are great accomplishments, we very proud of for our small organizations that create a strong foundation for the important work we are working on in the future. This initiative was completed as GREEN  and could continue in 2018  with others defined objectives to become a PLATINUM for GUIDE STAR.
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4 – Do an event for 5 years anniversary – GREEN

Our team wanted to celebrate our 5 years anniversary in a very innovative ways where we engage our supporters and fans all over the world. After several ideas review, we decide to create a mini web live series called Facebook Live for Five series. Essentially we create 5 mins conversations in five series to talk about various topics : see agenda below .Program for Live for 5 !

4/26 History of Zsquare4theCure, Vision and mission

5/3 – 2020 Strategic Plan and Implementation plan

5/10 – Key performance Indicators of Success and our Competitive  Advantage

5/17- Partnership and Stewardship

5/24-About our team, Get inspired , Get involved and Stay Committed .

Every donation receive during our Live for 5 series , will automatically qualify for an entry for Raffle tickets to win amazing prize ( gift card , perfume, etc). The program was well received and we have comments to create similar program in French in the future to engage our supporters all over the world. This initiative was a success with GREEN to report for 2017.
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5-  Have Fundraising event at CPK in April – GREEN

As part our 5 years organization anniversary, we wanted to create a fundraising event where our local supporters can meet and network to raise money for a great cause. We found a great partnership we very excited about with Chiptole . The event was a success where we raise some money for the organization. This is a vey successful for this initiative ending 2017 in GREEN. We would like to continue with this initiative  and expand to 3-4 others restaurants or businesses in 2018.
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6-Finish and Complete apps development – YELLOW

In 2017, there have not been any effort or traction on this project , it remain in RED . Our original intern left the project 60% complete, we had a quality assurance intern prepare to test this project but could not continue because of lack of experience . The good news, now we are looking for others partners and agencies that develop mobile apps in India. We will need funding to complete this project. This initiative remain YELLOW for 2017.
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7-  Sell Cook Book to raise money – YELLOW

The key piece of this initiative is the assumption that the book was ready at the beginning of 2017. The book took time to finish because of some challenges. But we are happy to report that all the recipes are ready , about 100 of them. And the book is with the editor right now being review. We plan to publish it and begin selling late April, early May . This effort will remain YELLOW in 2017 and will definitely continue in 2018.
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8- Create a proposal for Laura Bush Initiative – RED

We started some research with the Laura Bush center , but We did not continue to engage with them. We need to take this opportunity more further and see where it will land us. The great news for us, Laura Bush center is local to our organization so we need to work harder to land a meeting with her assistant to continue this conversation. This initiative will remain at RED for 2017, hoping we make some strides in 2018.
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9 – Partnership program with more giving programs like Ebay – YELLOW

One of the important and life long partnership we have made is with AMAZON SMILE program. It was simple and crucial for us to continue to advertise our program with amazon so all our supporters can add us and allow us to raise money . We have collected on average $2 a month from Amazon .This could increase in the future and we should continue looking for such program .This initiative will remain YELLOW for 2017.
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10- Focus on donor matching – RED

The focus in 2017 was initially to collect all the companies where donor matching occurs and then start engaging our supporters that work in those companies to donate and request matching donation. This effort was halted and must continue in 2018. We need to match companies to donor and flag those donors to educate them on how they can double their donations with more money from their companies. This initiative stay RED in 2017 and this effort will continue in 2018.
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11- Partnership with corporations- YELLOW

We still have a lot to do in terms of partnership with corporations . Our ground work is completed ,documentation and package are ready to engage any potential partners . We also create various partnership levels. This initiative stay YELLOW in 2017 and the efforts in 2018 will focusing on increasing our engagement with various partners.
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12- Hire Video producer and add more video content – RED

There have not been any efforts in producing content . We did a better job at broadcasting our event live on FB for the July 1st event but no major improvement as expected. This initiative will stay RED for 2017.
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13-Get added to each countries embassies – RED

​We started our research with each embassies primary the BENIN embassy. We realize that our embassies request a large fee to apply. Currently our organization does not have the budget to fund this addition to our cost for this initiative. This will remain RED for 2017.

14-  Create an online FB fundraiser – GREEN

We are getting very consistent with our online fundraising campaign schedule. We start our fundraising campaign in April 1st until October for our annual event. Then we resume our second fundraising in End of October to allow our donors to complete their donations for the current year to fund our activities for next year. That fundraising effort continue until February. This year both our online fundraising have been successful. We will provide more details in our metrics session below. This initiative stay GREEN for 2017.
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15-  To Do a breast Cancer Awareness event in Benin- GREEN

This was the flagship event of the year for our organization and it was a huge success for many reasons. We focus on our communication strategies that pay off tremendously. We reach more than 500 women as our goals and about 400 women attended our event . This is the highest attendance record to date for our organization in 5 years after three major campaigns and our second  events in BENIN. This was an enormous success and remain GREEN in 2017.
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16 – Revamp Website – RED

There were no effort to this initiative in 2017 so it remain RED . In 2018, This will become a primary focus.
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17 – Increase SEO for search to increase awareness – RED

No effort on this initiative so it stay RED.
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18 – Create credibility on social media, improve visibility, maximize web search by getting us verified by Facebook, twitter and Instagram – GREEN

​We work very hard in 2017 to become more creditable as a start up non for profit in the space we operate as a trusted organization that donors want to engage with. All the efforts will pay in the future. This initiative remains GREEN in 2017.
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19- Advocacy and networking in Benin – YELLOW

In 2017, We attempt to begin to engage some of the local government and policies makers. We have not hit a good target and obtain result from them. This is on going effort that require strong networking and relationship management in government circles and policy makers. We will continue our efforts in 2018, but in 2017 this initiative stay at YELLOW.
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20 Financial and annual report more visible – YELLOW

We need to do a better job to increase our visibility to our internal work to our donors and supporters. This annual report is our first attempt in 5 years to report on all our initiatives to provide some visibility to our work behind the scenes. In 2017 this initiative remain YELLOW and our plans to improve in 2018 are already underway.

Donation Report

We happy to report that in 2017, we raised $4937 with all our donations from Facebook, Paypal, individual donors, and partnerships program. Here is a break down of our donation by source : ( add a graph here , for picture)

• Facebook -$1062
• Paypal -$170
• Bank Transfer $80
• Partnerships programs- $350
• In kind donation – $3500

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Revenue generated

In 2017, we did not generated any revenue , no service was provided by Zsquare4TheCure, nor did we sale anything to generate revenue.
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Key Performance Indicator report

As part of our 2020 Strategies, we are keeping track of our KPI to see how we are evolving as an organization . The following indicators will help us identify our growth trajectory:
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• Donor Growth : Innitaly it seems we have less donors in 2017 compared to 2016 but our donors increased their donations , and we still have potential to target more donations .
• Fundraising ROI: This is a strong positive because we strive to spend zero money into our donation efforts . All our fundraising does not cost us anything .
• Cost of each Donation : This is another strong advantage that we have as a smaller organization , we have a very minimal cost for each donation . Since we leverage the FaceBook donation platform we reduce the cost applied to each donation . We also leverage the Giving Tuesday challenge and this reduce any fees incurred in receiving donations online .
• Reorcuing gift percentage – 100 % of our current donors are from repeating donors from 2016.
• Average Gift – $50 seems to be the average gift , and the good news most of our repeating donors gave more in the 2nd year ,
• Social Media engagement – There is still some work to do to improve our social media enegagement . Consistency is the key for us .
• Fundraising Participation Rate : 60% participation rate this year compared to last year .

​Project health 

​  – Include a graph here

Out of 20 initiatives proposed in 2017:

• 8 are GREEN
• 6 are YELLOW
• 6 are RED

8 initiatives will continue in 2018.
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Conclusion

We hope this first attempt of our annual report will allow you to understand the work we do behind the scenes. I am very grateful to all our staff volunteers all over the world  without their dedication and hard work, we could not have achieved all these great initiatives. We remain ambitious to our 2020 strategies goals and happy to report that we are in the right directions in term of our donation trajectories , expected revenues growth and donation growth from our partnership and individual contributors . We really need to focus in 2018 on our partnerships and reduce our key initiatives  to 10 initiatives that align with our future growth plan.

As always, you are more than welcome to reach out to me for any questions and clarifications . We love to receive your feedback on our format and what to improve on this report for future implementation.

Thank you

Yours truly in service
​Lisette Z Zounon BIEKRE
​​Founder and CEO – Zsquare4theCure​