This article is written by a staff member of an organization who managed to benefit from the Shanghai government procurement program. The goal of this article is to provide social organizations with tips on how to obtain funding from the government.
The author says that organizations contracting with the government have to accept the fact that it is not a contract in which both parties are equal and that the government has the upper hand. Moreover, the government is not looking for the best project when buying social organizations’ services but for the organization that can meet its requirements. These requirements are to provide for people’s basic needs in an innovative way. Therefore, a few characteristics an organization must have are to offer scarce services (implement a project no one else is implementing in a given community), be able to provide service in emergency situations…
In order to be able to establish contacts in the government, one must be able to build trust with them. A few ways to do that is to have staff who has interned or worked for the government and have a clear understanding of the government’s structure and of the role of each department in order to network wit the right one.
Finally, the more professional and standardized the organization, the better.
