May 22, 2017
I have the pleasure to announce to our donors and supporters that The Foundation For Tomorrow received accredited status from Molly’s Network, Tanzania’s first rigorous, independent NGO accreditation agency. This accreditation means a lot to us and represents proof of the team’s sincere efforts to make our programs and operations effective and efficient.
Molly’s Network was established in 2011 by Paul Joynson-Hicks. The inspiration to create an accreditation agency was born of the challenges he encountered when he wanted to donate to small, local organizations through the Dar Es Salaam Goat Races (one of Tanzania’s largest fundraising events). He was unable to identify credible small-scale organizations that were not on the standard circuit. With the help of NGO and donor experts, Molly’s Accreditation was born. Molly’s Network accreditation agency was shaped by their thorough research of existing accreditation models—from government endorsed accreditations to non-profit independent accreditation agencies to private sector accreditation agencies. This was further honed with the help of Good Governance Group Foundation (G3F) who worked with them to ensure their assessment process is rigorous, standard, and transparent and that decisions are not prone to bias.
The assessment process involved interviewing our partners, stakeholders, beneficiaries, and staff members and going through our policies and documents. Six areas were considered: Strategy and Purpose, Reputation and Community Buy-in, Legalities and Governance, Financial Accountability, Program Management, Growth and Resource Mobilization.
In order to score highly, an organization under consideration must be able to demonstrate that it is meeting a need that has been identified by the local community. The organization must be able to demonstrate that it has a good public profile and is well known for its work within the local community. TFFT also demonstrated fulfilled legal requirements to be recognized as a legitimate organization and demonstrated rigorous financial processes and controls. As an organization, we showed proof of our project targets and quality results. We also demonstrated our plans for future growth.
The Foundation For Tomorrow garnered an aggregate score of 97.5 from these 6 areas, out of a possible 120. This is a huge accomplishment for us considering that since Molly’s Accreditation started in 2011, 90 organizations have been assessed and to date, only 12 have been awarded the Accredited status! This accreditation status will help us continue to earn public trust, recognition of our work, and hopefully open doors to more partnerships and access to local and international funding. The assessment panel also gave us recommendations for areas to strengthen within our organization. We are taking the recommendations seriously and we are working to implement them.
As we bask in this moment of glory, we would like to thank you for your unrelenting support for The Foundation For Tomorrow. Your support inspires us always to continue doing the right thing even when challenges abound. I also have to compliment the TFFT team for their passion and hard work and our Board of Directors for their guidance.