tips

Letters in English and Hungarian, infinite number of telephones

The time has come to target possible foreign partners, as the compilation of the programmes in Hungary has been prepared in accordance with the plans. With the help of the English project description we started to look for prospective partners abroad.

Firstly we needed to find replacement for the Slovakian partner, and the retreated Italian partner.

The formula is not too complicated, this is how we did it:

We were given a great opportunity - we have to use it

We knew the most critical point of our project will be to find a media partner. We knew we have to compile a project plan, which can be communicated early, which will have a place at a media participant with national coverage. Therefore we gathered ideas which closely relate to the project objectives, however we took into consideration the needs of a prospective media partner. This is how we found the idea of an on-line quiz, and making the project blog more colourful, and expand it.

Lifebelt for ourselves among the continuos flow of information

Fortunately we have a new team member, Ágó, who has joined the project as a fresh graduate. Soon it occurred to us that the huge pile of information is getting out of control. Who did we write to already? Who asked what from whom? What did they reply? Did they reply at all? Who writes to whom?

The domaine of official correspondence

For the successful implementation of the programmes organised at the venues of the tour the active involvement of the municipalities is essential. Therefore we had to make official contacts with the municipalities of the towns. We knew this step is time-consuming, as on this level we have to face the mechanism of bureaucratic decision-making. First we contacted the municipalities of the venues with extra programmes in Hungary (Győr, Budapest, Pécs).

The messages, brief and specific

We were very happy that after the press conference we were given an opportunity to present our project in many places. It is an interesting experience that based on the press material distributed, the Hungarian Press Agency emphasised the idea of erecting a cyclist statue (The Hungarian Cyclists' Club would erect a cyclist statue). After this, Klub Rádió and Danubius Rádió contacted us.

The real challenge is here - fundraising in the age of the global crisis

The most important task for February and March, besides organising the programme was the creation of a professional sponsorship offer. This meant a long procedure of conciliation, asking for advice, making amendments. We had to match prices to sponsorship levels, invent surfaces for display, the programme and project elements had to be finalised. Already in December we were certain that companies would close their budget for 2009 already in November. The sponsorship offer is adjusted to the sponsorship offers of other projects of the Hungarian Cyclists' Club.

Faces behind the letters - details specified at last

After over three months of intensive work, virtual space and long planning, the real organising team of the project, the project managers of the main foreign partner organisations had a meeting. The meeting took place in the Famulus Hotel in Győr, which, as a sponsor of the project let us use the meeting room and provided for the basic requirements of a successful meeting: coffee, snacks, soft drinks and lunch.

Will we raise interest?

On February 12, 2009, we have reached a notable milestone of our project. We showed ourselves, made our website public, for which we had collected project elements and event ideas in the past few months together with our partners. In accordance with our schedule, in the first half of February we launched the project in the framework of a press conference.

No matter we have a big online, virtual reality, it is still easier to communicate in person.

The invention of programmes to be realised at the Hungarian venues of the tour was a very important step of organisation, as it is a lot easier to communicate with the organisers of venues abroad what we were thinking about in brief.

Two months spent in the huge sea of mailing lists was enough to outline the plans for the programmes, however a personal encounter was necessary so that we can specify the programme packages in details, as well as the role of the individual partners and the tasks they have taken up (definitely not brainstorming anymore).

We should present ourselves briefly and distinctly!

A very important element of the Green Bikes for Peace project is to fill in a huge gap indirectly, namely we are going to collect active and dynamic NGOs ready for cooperation, in a manner that we have managed to display institutions, municipalities and other organisations among partners in a separate category.

Corporate marketing experts expressed sharp criticism at the CSR conference, saying it is very difficult to obtain comprehensible information about NGOs presenting their activities and projects, and even more difficult to find them in English.