EMIS Journal Article | Spring 2024
See a Need Fill a Need:
How Projects Serve Masters Programs as Better Capstones Than Theses
Jack Levin & Zoe Swanson
Abstract
With an interest in Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief, the EMIS Executive Action Team designed a replicable project to assist in fundraising for a current disaster scenario, chosen during March. This report includes how the project was developed, the decisions on what potential forms for the project were considered, how the team decided on the following: the sector for which to fundraise, the partner NGO/NPO, and specific fundraising actions, events, and outcomes. Also included is how a future team might replicate this process for a different humanitarian crisis in the year they were to complete the project.
Timeline
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank those who helped us make the EMIS Executive Action Team pilot project possible and provided valuable input from start to finish.
Firstly, the other members of the EMIS Executive Action Team who worked on the project. Project leader Asmaa al-Habbash (EMIS ‘23), and Evitarossi Budiawan (EMIS ‘23) and Denis Kodjo (EMIS ‘24) were instrumental to the project.
Special thanks goes to Taso Lagos for allowing us to create the project, Warren Acuncius who supported us and sponsored the initial project, and Rita Zawaideh with SCM Medical Missions who directed our raised funds as part of the pilot project.
Background
The standard EMIS capstone is Applied Research Client Project, where students work with public, private, and non-profit clients in the greater Seattle area to research real world challenges and propose solutions. Typically the projects and deliverables are predetermined by the client who has recruited EMIS for the consultation project. This amount of hands-on experience in a capstone project provides significantly different learning experiences than the typical research thesis such as the one required for the Master of Arts International Studies degree in the same school.
Creating a client research project on our own added additional challenges, allowing us to practice even more nuanced skills that would normally not be learnable in an academic environment, yet are paramount to the types of executive careers that Masters programs aspire to prepare students for. Studies show that it isn’t the degree itself that interests prospective employers, but rather the skills learned in the course of that degree. A typical bachelor's degree requires a research thesis to graduate; writing a research thesis at a higher level doesn’t demonstrate how the student has learned new skills.
This search for new skills is what led every member of the EMIS Executive Action Team to pursue an Applied Master's Degree. Because of that, we chose to pursue a client project that required more strenuous skill application and the development of new skills, rather than choose one where the bulk of the work was done by the client.
The EMIS Executive Action Team chose to create our own client project to pursue a subject near and dear to our heart which developed at the same time we were required to choose one. We started with the goal of helping with the Turkiye-Syrian Earthquake, and our research pointed us to specifically addressing the Mental Health and Psychosocial Support services in Syria which were already in need because of the Syrian Civil War.
Our experience with this hands-on project proved to be more valuable than the standard research thesis would have been in both our career pursuits and our education goals in the Master’s program. As part a mid-career graduate program, the members of our team had established skills learned in those careers that were shared as we launched the project. Pitching our unique project to the director and the overseeing professor involved unique skills that can’t be learned without having to propose a project; specific research that an essay would normally not require to persuade the overseeing faculty of the feasibility of the project such as compliance with university policies and guidelines as well as the skills required to propose the project itself. Those on the team who had pitched proposals in professional contexts were able to guide those who hadn’t in these new skills which were immediately given practical application. Writing the unique proposal and sending multiple proposals to faculty and organizations to sponsor and oversee the project became necessary.
Project Overview
The goal of the EMIS Executive Action Team was to create a fundraising project that focused on providing international humanitarian aid. Those who want to do similar projects in the future can follow a simple process:
- Identify a target
- Select a recipient
- Develop the fundraiser
The target crisis could be emerging or ongoing. This includes a natural disaster, humanitarian effort, or other complex emergency. Once a target has been identified, limit the project scope to a specific sector and region. For example; if the target crisis is the war in Ukraine, the scope can be aid to orphaned children in a specific refugee camp. The purpose of limiting scope is to make project efforts more focused and impactful.
Once a project target has been identified, the team must find a reliable, experienced partner who will receive and/or distribute the funds or other resources raised. This could be an advocacy group, a humanitarian aid organization, or other non-profit service provider. It is important to choose a partner with a proven effectiveness and an established foothold in the target community or region. When researching the recipient, knowledge of tax codes, sanctions, and other relevant international financial laws is paramount. Before agreeing to any particular recipient, ensuring that their financial responsibility is up to date will mitigate risk.
When developing the fundraiser, event planning, organization, and time management skills wereare critical. Teams should be planning 2-6 months out, depending on the project scope and the level of bureaucracy required for event types. For example; fundraisers that involve food require a food permit, which can take at least a month to secure.
Project development
This section will outline the steps for implementing a humanitarian aid project that were identified with the help of the team’s project sponsor. These are the key steps that future EMIS groups should be considering when constructing their own aid projects. The five key steps devised by the EMIS Executive Action Team are: identify a humanitarian issue; focus on an area of impact; select a donor partner; develop a fundraising plan; follow up on the project impact.
Our Target
The team determined that supporting both Syria and Türkiyein their recovery efforts would stretch the project goals and resources too thin. With support from the project sponsor, the team chose one country and specific region affected by the earthquake. The team researched the impact of donations on Syria and Turkiye, the needs in both countries, the proportion of donations to need at the time of the conception of the project, and other factors surrounding the areas in need.
The area in Turkiye affected by the earthquake, south-central Turkiye, is primarily home to Syrian refugees fleeing the civil war. As such, the people affected were already in a high level of need. While the funding reported through UN OCHA shows that 100% of the need in Syria has been met and Turkiye has only met 41% of their need, the overall need met numbers misconstrue the situation. Syria’s need in every sector other than Shelter and NFI is unmet, while Turkiye’s need has been evenly distributed across most of the sectors. The team was advised by our sponsor and by guests brought in by our sponsors that oftentimes need would be reported as fulfilled while sectors went unmet because of this.
In addition, at the time of the conception of this project, donated funds were being blocked by the Syrian government and Turkish backed rebel forces from access to the northwest portion of Syria, the area most heavily impacted, because of the ongoing civil war. During the research portion of this project, the embargo on aid was lifted by the Assad leadership of Syria and aid was able to go through, but the state of aid to the needed proportion of the region was already heavily affected. As a result, it was decided that project efforts would be more impactful in Syria.
Narrowing our Focus to Mental Health
According to UNICEF, “Mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) is essential for improving the well-being of children affected by humanitarian emergencies”. The team’s research into MHPSS focused on the impact of post-disaster intervention strategies for children, which for the purposes of this project includes ages 1-18. Important considerations include having an appropriate setting for mental health intervention, availability of individual versus group intervention, the protective factor of social support from friends and family, and collaboration between service providers and community members.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that pre-disaster, between 76 and 85% of people with mental disorders receive little to no MHPSS treatment. Post-disaster damage to infrastructure and the need to focus resources to recovery efforts complicate the provision of mental health interventions in heavily affected areas.
Failure to address MHPSS issues stalls childhood development. The resulting anxiety, depression and other stress-related problems threaten children’s ability to grow up healthy and happy. If exposed in early childhood, the experience can even hamper a child's brain development. According to the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a branch of the US Department of Health & Human Services, children often show signs of developmental regression following a major disaster. They also often have negative or devolving physiological, emotional, and behavioral reactions. These reactions look slightly different for children of different ages and developmental stages (Table 2).
In 2021, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) published a review of psychosocial support programs for children and adolescents affected by natural disasters over three years of trials. In their review, the NLM addressed the increasing recognition of the importance of disaster recovery support programs for children, but also that these programs can be difficult to develop in a post-disaster environment. “Given the increasing risk of disasters occurring with more frequency, severity and complexity due to climate change, it is imperative to monitor emerging evidence about which programs are likely to provide the most effective support and which program delivery modes are likely to be feasible and appropriate in post-trauma settings.”
Our Recipient Selection
Having identified a target sector, the team moved to identifying donor recipient partners. Required criteria for the project included partnering with an established humanitarian aid organization that has experience in Syria. The preferred criteria was an organization that had a Seattle headquarters, so as to be a building block for a continued partnership between the Jackson School and the international community in Seattle, and for the organization to have minimal overhead costs so that the majority of funds raised would go directly to Syrians in need of MHPSS services.
In addition, the team sponsor recommended the following criteria: whether the team wanted to work with a large or a small NGO, and how we would confirm if our support had an impact. It was then decided that the ideal donor partner would be a small, local, NGO with a proven track record of positive regional impact. The team could then ensure the impact of their support with a written update from the partner NGO after the conclusion of the fundraiser, delineating where the donated funds had gone and how they had supported project goals.
The recipient partners that were considered but not selected include the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the Syrian Recovery Trust Fund (SRT Fund), Syrian Expatriate Medical Association (SEMA), and Syrian Relief & Development (SRD). Also considered in initially pre-planning discussions were the Syrian Red Cross, Syrian Arab Red Crescent, and the UN.
Salam Cultural Museum Medical Missions (SCM Medical Missions)
SCM Medical Missions was founded in 1990 as a humanitarian and education nonprofit. Their mission is to provide humanitarian aid within the Middle East and North Africa, and to educate about the people there in other regions. They establish care and send medical aid to Jordan, Lebanon, Türkiye, Egypt, Iraq, and Greece. They have recently built a mental health facility in northwest Syria.
Deciding Factors
SCM Medical Missions aligned with all of the team’s primary and secondary criteria for a partner organization, and is therefore the one they decided to partner with. SCM is a small NPO with a proven track record of successful impact in our target region and sector, and had a local headquarters in the Seattle area that made it easy for our team to meet with and interview them.
The team leader had a meeting with the founder of SCM, Rita Zawaydeh to discuss the idea of the project and investigate paths of cooperation between the team and the organization.
SCM has a trauma center in Jordan to help Syrian refugees, they also have another center in Lebanon for the same purposes. They established another center in Idlib after the earthquake to respond to the needs of the survivors of the earthquake in February 2023. The team leader asked about the money to be raised and how to be spent. There were also discussions about the SCM relationship with Syria and whether it was before the US Government issued General License 23 for 180 days. Research showed that the organization was listed as 501 C3, and that 100% of the donations they get go directly to beneficiaries. The team was assured that donations are tax deductible.
The money to be raised should be transferred directly to the bank account of SCM where it would be wired to the trauma center that will make the interventions. Donations could also be deposited directly in the bank account or through a webpage that was created specifically for this project at the website of SCM.
The finance officer was able to verify their tax status and licensing with Charity Watch, a source for tracking Washington state organizations and charities filing system.
Our Fundraising Development
Toy Sale
Because of the nature of fundraisers and nonprofit donations, the word sale in the title is misleading. Items are donation gifts given to people who donate. Having a sliding scale for levels of donation getting better gifts is ideal, but must be consistently applied. On UW campus, there are free access areas that may be fundraised in without reserving a space if there is only one table, no speakers, and no food. Red Square and the Hub Yard are two of these areas, but the full list is found online. Having a free information advocacy handout at the table, such as pins or stickers, increases the amount of interest.
Cafe Popup
Food on UW campus is trickier than anything else. Food permits are only granted to UW Departments, RSOs, or sponsored non-UW groups. Home prepared food is prohibited, it must be prepackaged. A food permit is not required for non-perishable commercially packaged food, such as soda. It can take up to 1 month to get a food permit granted by UW. For events that generate trash, such as coffee cups, trash, recycling, and compost bins may be requested 2 weeks prior to the event to be easily available for an hourly rate. Or you can bring your own. When generating the budget, teams should keep in mind environmentally conscious choices for disposable materials. UW prioritizes recycling and compost, so cups, coffee stirrers, plates, and napkins should be compostable materials. Comparing prices between restaurant supply stores, specialty supply stores, and wholesale stores, such as Costco, is imperative to keep costs down. Teams should also consider asking local businesses to donate materials for tax deductible receipts.
Once a donor partner was selected, the team began brainstorming potential fundraising ideas. The team created a shared document to insert ideas into with a small amount of discussion on each idea in the document. At the next meeting, April 28th, each member of the team pitched fundraising ideas, and then each idea was voted on. After voting was complete and our fundraising projects were selected, the person who pitched the idea drafted a proposal with a proposed timeline with the person intended to be the lead on the project.
From there, sub-teams were assigned to the general tasks required for each fundraiser. Each sub-team created their own plan for their team to be followed throughout the project. The timelines for these plans were intended to supplement the proposal timelines.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, the beginning of the project was pushed from the end of March to mid-April. The team originally intended to set the Pop-Up Cafe Fundraiser for the end of May, but due to beginning preparations late and a longer than anticipated estimated return time on paperwork required for the sale, we switched our first event from the Pop-Up Cafe to the Toy Sale. The Toy Sale was assigned to the end of May, giving one month of preparation, and the Pop-Up Cafe was assigned to mid-August, giving just over two months for preparation.
The unforeseen paperwork complications were discovered by the Community Outreach sub-team. In order to reserve a space for a fundraiser on campus, the team would need to have an EMS login, only available to Registered Student Organization (RSO), UW Departments, and Off-Campus Customers. In addition, after the team found an organization with an EMS login to reserve the space the team would need to apply for a food permit. The estimated return time on food permits was 4 weeks, and due to a concern over timing, the event was pushed.
However, if faculty, staff, or students only had one table without amplified sound, they were not required to reserve space to hold an event on campus grounds. The team determined that holding the Toy Sale with limited tables and no amplified sound in Red Square would be effective for the fundraiser and moved forward with that plan while waiting for the paperwork required for the Pop-Up Cafe.
Once the finance team set up a system for tracking online donations through the partner program offered by SCM and a system for tracking in person cash and check donations, an agreement was reached with SCM on acceptance of deliverable raised funds. The acceptance of all deliverables will reside with SCM Medical Missions. All raised funds will be given to this organization for distribution to support the MHPSS in earthquake-impacted Syria.
Once all project tasks have been completed, the project will enter the handoff/closure stage. During this stage of the project, the vendor will provide their project closure report and fund dispersal report (where the money goes after it leaves our hands) to the team. Following each event, a closure report was completed, outlining the results of the event and what any replicating project should be aware of before starting their own version.
Conclusions
The team members staffing the sale realized that while coming back a second day enabled them to connect with those people who wanted them to come back, they did not have a new audience to fundraise from. The finance team has proposed that to counteract this, we alternate Monday/Wednesday/Friday and Tuesday/Thursday, as these days tend to have different groups of students due to class schedules. The team was also advised to set up a second table in the Quad or Hub yard, as those areas get more traffic than Red Square.
Because the event over-earned its primary goal, the team expects to get fewer donations from future events due to donor fatigue. People who donated large amounts to the first event will likely not donate at our next events, decreasing the earning potential. As such, the finance team has decided to not increase our projected fundraising amounts and will count any more money as a further success instead of moving our measure for success.
What we would have done differently
The Executive Action Team focused primarily on individual donors. Although team members pitched grants, companies, and government funding as forms of fundraising, each was met with its own obstacles. The University offers free LinkedIn Learning Access which has classes on how to write grant applications which proved invaluable.
Recommendations
A specific example is the General License 23 for donors. The team learned about this on the day of the first toy sale, March 30th. While they were able to confirm that their chosen donor recipient, SCM Medical Missions, had the necessary legal protections in place, by that time funds raised by UW had already been received by SCM through online donations. This could have put UW and the Jackson School in legal hot water. Had the team received this guidance sooner, the potential risk would have been mitigated.
In keeping with this idea of avoiding international legal hurdles, the 2023 team recommends that future teams choose partner orgs with whom UW, the Jackson School, or a member of the team has previously collaborated. If the org is overseas, the team should familiarize itself with local laws for delivering aid before hosting any fundraising events.
Our Takeaway
It was through these proposals that the Executive Action Team connected with Warren Acuncius as our sponsor and direct contact for guidance on the project. Our initial conversation with him included discussing the boundaries of what help he could and could not provide. Though Warren works for USAID, he specified that he could not help us in the context of his position within USAID, but could provide us with his knowledge from that position. Normally, students working on research thesis judge the context of their research by the position of the author, segregated contextualization of a source are rarely something that needs to be addressed in research writing that in a professional environment would need to be clarified. Whether someone is explaining something as part of their professional capacity, as friendly advice, or as experienced guidance is important when referencing that information. Because research thesis require sources to be of a certain caliber, they are all assumed to be of the same quality and context: professional or academic education, and are treated accordingly.
When initially pitching the project, the only finalized details that the team had was that we would be fundraising to support people affected by the earthquake. Discussing with Warren we learned that we needed to narrow it down. A research thesis often requires narrowing the scope of the project - were we to write a research thesis on the effects of the Earthquake in Turkiye and Syria we would have been asked by our thesis advisor to narrow our topic down. However the way we would have needed to narrow it down for a research paper would have been very different from narrowing it down in this project. Warren guided us through the way that international disaster relief organizations categorize sectors of humanitarian aid: Agriculture; Economic Recovery and Market Systems; Food Assistance; Health; Humanitarian Coordination, Information Management, and Assessments; Logistics; Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning; Multipurpose Cash Assistance; Natural and Technological Hazards; Nutrition; Protection, Shelter and Settlements; Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene. Within our team we knew that we wanted to help an underfunded sector. With Warren’s suggestions we were able to look at UNOCHA’s need allocation site. While the funding reported through UN OCHA showed that 100% of the need in Syria had been met and Turkiye had only met 41% of their need, the overall need met numbers misconstrued the situation, which we were advised is common and leads to need being reported as fulfilled while sectors’ needs go unmet. Syria’s need in every sector other than Shelter and NFI is unmet, while Turkiye’s need has been evenly distributed across most of the sectors. The level of data analytics that this research required and navigation of international financial aid databases is a specific skill set that would not have been necessary to employ with a research thesis unless it was about the specific topic of aid distribution. The interdisciplinary skills of learning about this problem and learning how to manage the information is something that would often be overlooked in a purely academic research project.
Another aspect that could have easily been overlooked unless it was specifically part of the topic was the external factors included in the receipt of funds. At the time of the conception of the project, donated funds were being blocked by the Syrian government and Turkish backed rebel forces from access to the northwest portion of Syria, the area most heavily impacted, because of the ongoing civil war. During the research portion, the embargo on aid was lifted by the Assad leadership of Syria and aid was able to go through, but the state of aid to the needed proportion of the region was already heavily affected. The analysis of the effect this had on the aid would only have been analyzed in a research project on that topic, not on the effects of the earthquake as the external factors would normally be seen as outside of the scope of that topic. However when dealing with real application of facts, the external factors had to be accounted for and the consideration of aid distribution adjusted accordingly.
An essay can focus on multiple regions at once, focusing on general effects over the whole; however a fundraiser or research for a specific program in a region needs to be focused as tightly as possible. This focus was a skill that none of us had developed before as it is only performed in the international financial field, whether those finances are business sector, humanitarian aid sectors, or governmental sectors. Warren reminded us that a few hundred dollars raised to help the entire population of Syria would be much less effective than if it was a few hundred dollars raised to help one specific town, or even one specific person.
Our next step was to focus on the cost/benefit analysis between sectors we wanted to assist. We learned that security was one of the most underfunded sectors, specifically Gender Based Violence (GBV) within that sector was a priority for our team. We also learned that because Mental Health and Psychosocial Services (MHPSS) is considered a need in the recovery stage of a disaster usually and is spread across multiple sectors, it is usually also underfunded. One member of the team analyzed the impacts and current aid status towards the areas we wanted to support and presented the research to the team, a professional skill that is rarely learned in an academic setting, much less in an applied method. Ultimately the team decided to focus on MHPSS.
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