Development Communications Network in collaboration with her sister organization Youth Empowerment Foundation trained their staff members in a two-days retreat. The retreat which was residential held on Thursday, 7th Feb and Friday 8th Feb 2019 at R & A City Hotels, Ikeja.
The objectives of the retreat were properly apportioned into seven areas: Having an annual work plan and complete budget for the organization, Learn new fundraising strategy, Skills for proposal writing documentation and M&E (Evidence-based), strategic plan for organisations, How to pitch the brand, Enhance work ethics and level of professionalism, new media innovations for visibility and branding/ documentation.
The retreat talked on the need for personal branding and for organization’s use as an identity, signature, package and visibility of an organization which speaks a lot about who you are. Branding is also an asset that creates value and defines what the organization stands for.
The retreat went on to address the issue of writing good proposals and how to diversify funding base that is, to plan for financial stability of the organization so as to stop relying on donor funds for sustainability.
Also, the need to monitor and evaluate your work activities in an organization was explained as a session on having in-depth knowledge of the social media tools and how to go about using the tools for marketing and visibility was taken.
Interestingly, before the end of the retreat, the participants were taught on how to take savvy speaking pictures, understanding the dimensions of how it works, how to capture great images. Also, the basis of the exposure, aperture, shutter speed and ISO settings of a camera and lots more.
More importantly, the session on work and account ethics was addressed as it explains personal work assessment, attitudes of staff towards work, mapping out individual and organization work plan and so on
The retreat ended with lots of refreshment and a time of bonding between colleagues outside of the work arena.