Progressio supporters have their say!

Progressio’s first ever ‘Have Your Say’ supporter day on Saturday 17 September went down a treat – as did the home-baked cakes made and enjoyed by staff and supporters over afternoon tea and the chance to mingle and deepen our understanding of what it means to be part of the Progressio community. 

So what did we discover?

Whether you’re a campaigner or you support us financially, whether you’re a development worker on the ground in Somaliland or a policy maker who reads and values our reports here in UK, we’re all part of something truly impressive that wouldn’t work if we weren’t all in it together. We’re a community that challenges poverty through people power. 

And so, as communities do, we shared and celebrated the progress we’ve made so far and sat down together to discuss what we can do to keep on making a difference.  There were three workshops to take part in:

Putting the fun in fundraising

Our fundraising team led a session looking at the challenges of funding Progressio’s invaluable work and how we can go about getting hold of ‘free-money’ when times are tight! It costs charities around about £180 to sign up a supporter, we learnt. That’s money we could save simply by introducing a friend to Progressio – and so the term ‘friend-raising’ was coined.

In addition, the fundraising team announced a new initiative that Progressio is part of. This week we celebrated Remember a Charity Week and were reminded of the possibility of leaving a gift in our Wills and the potential difference that could make to peoples’ lives. 

From the ground

We were privileged to have our new Country Representative Suad Abdi with us to host a workshop exploring Somaliland’s secret recipe for stability in a turbulent neighbourhood.  We learnt about the building blocks for stability and the part Progressio has played and will continue to play in supporting civil society in Somaliland. 

Over in the Campaigning workshop, our Campaigns Officer Daniel Hale was all ears as supporters put their suggestions and ideas forward for the upcoming campaign on water. And there were over 50 attendees at the plenary as the day came to an end to witness Daniel’s promise to carry out the actions preferred by workshop participants over the next two years.

There’s still time to have your say!

So once all the cake was eaten (Tim Aldred’s Chocolate Orange Cake won the prize for being the first one to run out and therefore the best), we rounded off the day with a rallying speech from Christine Allen, Executive Director, encouraging us all to go out and ‘fun’draise, ‘friend’raise and ‘awareness’raise for Progressio.

So a big thanks to those 50 who made it to London for the event and thanks also to those 60 of you who sent your apologies and were there in spirit, we hope you can make it next time!

Why not tell us what you thought of the day using the comments box below?

The supporters’ workshops were preceded by Progressio’s AGM.  You can find out more about the impact of Progessio’s work in our Annual Review.

Photo: Progressio supporter Liam Hilton has his say with Executive Director Christine Allen in London. ©Layton Thompson/Progressio