Funding Visioned

I sat in on a training last week that was funded by APHIA II which is directly funded by USAID. This training was on health issues for peer educators but we spent a good 3 hours of the day discussing data collection. Essentially for reporting purposes, the donor agencies need to know how many people were reached by certain efforts and to what extent they were reached(level of information distributed). Additionally, this week in talking with members of my org. about projects not dealing with peer educators(where the funding is coming in), it seems that they cannot get anything off the ground. Again, its not because the ideas aren’t there, they say they have all of these ideas but the decision making structure being as it is in our office, decisions are made collectively and people can not get a sit down with decision makers because they are too focused on these peer education sessions and reporting for donors.

It seems the focus of the org is shifting. It seems that my org has become tunnel visioned- focusing on those issues that bring them funding. I understand that every org as it grows necessitates funding but I am wondering if it is good for the org and does it really have the communities best interests and needs in sight? (I myself have no opinion as this is a public blog and I am an employee of the US government.). Is it possible that this small grassroots org is being co-opted by national and international agencies? If so, what does this mean for my org and the community? It’s an interesting moment for VYF.