A Note from Warren, The CI's Executive Director:

 

I'd like to take a little of your time to encourage your programme, project, office, or organisation to give strong consideration to becoming a Communication Initiative Associate. The details appear below. Being an Associate does involve money! But please bear with me as I briefly explain why we have initiated the Associates programme [1].

 

The Communication Initiative is positioned as a support process to your work. It is a social enterprise that is presently funded by agreements with the Partner organisations - for the list of CI Partners click here. [2] Related to the larger international agencies that are partners, those agreements are most often with a headquarters section or department. There are 26 Partner agencies. They share the load of financially supporting The CI.

 

The Communication Initiative process is experiencing rapidly increasing demand. When comparing the most recent 12-month portal usage compared to the previous 12 months, overall use is up over 40% - to 2,687,828 individual user sessions from 1,771,011. The network is also growing rapidly. Over the past 12 months, 7,214 people who are active across the full spectrum of development action and thinking have joined The CI network, raising the network to a membership of over 75,000. We are severely stressed by the demands from the communication and media development community for the knowledge, ideas, and contacts they seek to improve their development efforts. There is much other demand data I could quote.

 

Our present situation is that a very small number of agencies provide the financial support necessary for a process that is utilised by thousands of organisations. It would be great to share that load in response to the growing demand. We are not proposing Associates "subscriptions" at the high revenue levels provided by the Partners (though please do let me know if you are interested in a partner relationship). The levels as outlined below are comparatively small. We are also not asking for a gift or donation. We are just asking for a small voluntary subscription to this social enterprise, as a contribution to support its value to making progress with your important work.

 

We want to avoid - at all costs - charging for access or restricting some parts of the portal site - for example, to those who have paid. In many ways, we would rather close the process than go that route. But keeping our site open does depend on increasing our revenue to meet the growing demand. And that requires a more diversified revenue base - diversification that more closely matches access and added value.

 

I am very aware that, given the present financial stresses, this is not a great time to make this approach. But I very much hope that, in recognition of our added value to your work, you will give this full consideration from your publications, research, subscriptions, meetings, or other relevant budget line.

 

The suggested payment levels for CI Associates are:

 

Suggested Annual Contribution Levels:

 

USD 5,000 per office – For Country, Regional, and HQ offices of major international development organisations

USD 2,500 per office - For Country, Regional, and HQ offices for medium-sized international NGOs

USD 2,000 per department - University Departments – OECD Countries

USD 750 per department - University Departments – All other Countries

USD 100 - Small, Local NGOs/CBOs USD 100 to 200 – Individual

 

OR...enter your own Associates payment level.

 

You can sign up as an Associate by clicking here. [1]

 

Please let me know if you have any questions.

 

 

We wish to thank the following organisations that have signed on as CI Associates - our tremendous thanks to them.

 

 

Thank you for your consideration of the above - and much support to you in your very important work!

 

 

Warren

 

Warren Feek

Executive Director

The Communication Initiative

 

 

CURRENT CI ASSOCIATES

 

 

Applied Sciences Branch, Division of Reproductive Health, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - United States [3]

 

Bright Media - South Africa [4]

 

Centre for AIDS Development, Research and Evaluation (CADRE) - South Africa [5]

 

Commonwealth of Learning - Canada [6]

 

Communication and Development Studies, Ohio University - United States [7]

 

Communication and Information Sector of UNESCO (UNESCO-CI) - France/International [8]

 

Connecting Cultures - Canada [9]

 

Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea - Cameroon [10]

 

Health Communication Resources Inc. - Australia [11]

 

Healthy Aboriginal Network - Canada [12]

 

id21 - United Kingdom [13]

 

Institute of Development Studies - United Kingdom [14]

 

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) - Canada [15]

 

Joanne Edgar - Communication Consultant

 

Media Project Southern Africa of the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation - Namibia [16]

 

Search for Common Ground - International [17]

 

Strategies for Hope Trust - United Kingdom [18]

 

Theatre for a Change - Malawi [19]

 

UNICEF Office - Sao Tome and Principe [20]

 

Women's Arts Institute Africa (wAi Africa) - Ghana [21]

 

For the full list of CI Associates, click here. [22]

 

 

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CI Associates is a level of financial support for the work of The CI that was launched in 2008. It seeks to share the revenue load across a broader group of agencies whose staff and partner organisations benefit from utilising The CI process. The suggested Associate payment levels are significantly lower than the present and continuing investment by The CI Partners.

 

 

Become a CI Associate - click here.  [1]

 

 

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The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.

 

 

Please send material for The Drum Beat to the Editor - Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com [23]

 

 

To reproduce any portion of The Drum Beat, click here [24] for our policy.

 

 

To subscribe, click here. [25]