Are you interested in social issues? Are you full of energy and ideas for community and social projects but don’t know where to start? Curious to see the back story of a viable and successful project?
If you see yourself in the above questions, you can be one of 30 participants of Impact Accelerator 2022!
LIN had the opportunity to talk and listen to the alumni about the program and the work in the Non-profit industry in general. Let’s discover useful sharings from alumni of Impact Accelerator with us!
Mrs. Nguyen Lang Mong – Leader of PFLAG Saigon
“Impact Accelerator had changed me into a better version.”
As the Leader of the PFLAG Saigon, Mrs. Nguyen Lang Mong participated in the Impact Accelerator in 2018. She joined the program with the aim to understand more about herself and her capability to develop community activities. With a deeper understanding of the current situation of social activities from the program, Mrs. Mong had more resources to accomplish the project and contribute to solving the need of LGBT+ community and their family in Ho Chi Minh City.
Before Impact Accelerator 2018, Mrs. Mong thought that a social project only requires enthusiasm. However, after receiving the training program and discussion with Non-profit experts, she realized that the possibility of a project should be based on three main factors, including:
- Determine the actual needs of the beneficiary
- Have in-depth knowledge and understanding of the problem
- Sincerity and passion for the long-term operation
Moreover, Mrs. Mong also stated that proactiveness is essential in social activities, especially for beginners. Being proactive will create more opportunities to learn and improve your knowledge and skills. Not only that, proactiveness will help you expand your network in the Non-Profit sector and gradually implement community philanthropy.
Thanks to Impact Accelerator, Mrs. Mong had changed into a better version of herself with a better working process and a better understanding of other people.
Mr. Pham Ngoc Hoang Huy – Founder of Books in the city
“Impact Accelerator is the journey of Founder understands Founder and organization understands organization.”
Mr. Pham Ngoc Hoang Huy was also one of the outstanding Impact Accelerators of 2018 with the project named “Books in the city”. For the community, “Books in the city” was a free book lending project and in the meantime, the project created students a professional working environment to help them gain more experience and practical skills.
Connecting with LIN to expand networking with other book groups/organizations, he was introduced to the Impact Accelerator 2018 program. For Mr. Huy, this was an opportunity to learn new things with in-depth and sustainable knowledge in project management and also a training time for the next generation of his organization. He shared: “The resource that I appreciate the most is the sharing from Non-profit experts. That experience brought me much joy and motivation to continue my work. Besides, the access to professional knowledge from theory to reality made me think out of the box.” With the current knowledge and philosophy gained from the program, he had more courage with a clear direction for himself and the organization. Additionally, Mr. Huy also noticed an enhanced relationship among the team through sharing knowledge, skills, and feelings with each other after participating in the program.
With the experience of participating in Impact Accelerator and other programs, along with the years-long of project management, Mr. Huy pointed out 3 main factors that create the possibility of a project:
- Based on actual needs of the community: identify specific needs of the beneficiaries that the project wants to serve by doing market research.
- Team’s passion: A project that could stay in long term will save the community’s resources. To achieve that, the project must have a passion-based starting point to motivate the team through the difficulty.
- Internal & external high-quality resources: Internal resources come from the expertise of the core team, which are accumulated from experience and training courses like Impact Accelerator. Otherwise, external resources come from the stakeholder. Working with enthusiastic and experienced partners will help the organization learn and develop in the future.
According to Mr. Huy, being proactive to learn and seek development opportunities is very necessary. That will be an opportunity to help you approach the good mentors in the non-profit sector. On the path of personal growth, you will be able to break through yourself, but don’t let the high expectation put too much pressure on you.
Ms. Le Ngoc Truc Linh – Co-founder of the Saigon Medicine project
“I was inspired by the program and felt grateful for that.”
As a co-founder of the Saigon Medicine project, Ms. Truc Linh joined Impact Accelerator in 2021. Before working in the non-profit industry, she worked in many different industries, from banking to the airline industry. After that, she found joy and happiness when working in an NGO about children, and she decided to pursue this field. Impact Accelerator came to Linh when she was looking for opportunities to learn and experience more knowledge and skills and expand her network with people in the Non-Profit field.
Linh shared that although she was very energetic, enthusiastic, and always wanted to do something for the community, she didn’t know where to start or what to do before joining Impact Accelerator. Meanwhile, converting from an idea to an actual project needs a lot of different factors. In addition to knowledge, people who run a project need to understand the real needs and characteristics of the community. After participating in Impact Accelerator 2021, she has gained more knowledge and a more precise orientation to embark on the project, from which she has drawn 03 key factors that make the project possible, including: :
- Know how to use resources
- Meet the needs of society and the community needs
- Know your inner strength
According to Ms. Linh, to do a successful project, the initiative to learn skills and knowledge to build and implement the project plays a core role. For those new to the Non-Profit industry, energy and ambition are there, but that is not enough. In addition, due to work in the Non-Profit sector, there will be direct impacts on people, so proactive learning is indispensable to turn ideas into projects. People can actively learn from many different sources: training programs, field trips, or those who have more experience.
At the same time, having a community is an essential factor in the working process in particular and the maintenance of energy and passion in general. Linh shared: “If I don’t get energy from the community, it’s hard to do anything. This industry has a lot of difficulties; sometimes, I am skeptical. When I’m in a community, I feel more confident, more stable, I am not alone, and I receive a lot of help.” According to her observation, the community spirit is reflected in the collaboration of non-profit organizations (especially when the COVID pandemic occurs), which is also a sign of the philanthropy ecosystem development in Vietnam.
Mr. Tran Trung Hiep – Manager of Nang Moi Sign Language Interpreting Services (NMSLIS)
“Program syllabus covers almost every necessary thing for beginner in Non-profit sector.”
Nang Moi Sign Language Interpreting Services is a group of support solutions for the Deaf/Hard of Hearing community founded by Deaf people and interpreters. Mr. Tran Trung Hiep, the participant of Impact Accelerator 2021, is one of the founders. Although he has only been active in the community for nearly 04 years, he has encountered many problems and unmet needs of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing community. Therefore, he and his teammates, both the Hearing and the Deaf, built Nang Moi Sign Language Interpreting Services with the hope to narrow the distance and promote association between the two communities.
To support the community effectively, learning and developing yourself in terms of knowledge and social skills is essential; more importantly, to connect with individuals with the same interest in the community, he joined Impact Accelerator. At the very first step, Mentoring activity with teachers who are experienced in the non-profit sector helped him answer almost all questions for his community project.
Mr. Hiep also shared with LIN about 03 key factors to make a project possible:
- The availability of resources: individuals directly implementing and accompanying individuals/organizations, especially in terms of human factors. The financial aspect comes second.
- Support from the beneficiary community.
- Technical support from sponsors or Grant programs: usually, the project organization is only strong in planning and implementing solutions, while other things such as communication, fundraising, and reporting belong to another specialty, equally important.
According to Mr. Hiep, the initiative to learn new knowledge and new skills are a must for all organizations, especially new ones. However, understanding what to learn, learning from whom, and how to apply the knowledge are not easy for new organizations. “This is why Impact Accelerator is so essential to new NPOs… The program covers nearly everything a novice in the nonprofit industry would need to function. The project still had problems, and our team learned from those problems right away. Impact Accelerator is a necessary program so that new NPOs can anticipate and avoid these problems. “- Mr. Hiep shared.
He also shared that Impact Accelerator is one of the few programs that create a comfortable atmosphere and practice for learners to speak their genuine opinions and practice listening to opposing opinions. According to his observations, he believes that the philanthropy ecosystem in Vietnam is diverse, young, yet fragile. In Vietnam, people are paying more and more attention to social issues. However, organizations still have many challenges, such as financial resources, public and transparent reporting skills, and how to use resources.
Don’t miss this year’s opportunity because you could be the next one to make changes for society! “Enhance your strength, Empower change” to implement your project ideas by registering for LIN to participate in Impact Accelerator 2022!
Program information:
Registration deadline: May 5th 2022
Program Manual: https://bit.ly/LINIA22
Application form: https://forms.gle/U5wRqCpVeqoZSTQG6
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