The World Heart Federation

The World Heart Federation (WHF), based in Geneva, is a non-governmental organisation dedicated to the prevention and control of heart disease and stroke around the world, focusing in particular on low and middle income countries. In 2002, Janet Voûte, the CEO, approached Brakeley for fundraising and development advice. The timing was critical: a new board had just been appointed, new management and staff were in place, and there was increasing global awareness of the impending epidemic of cardio-vascular disease, which is the major health challenge of the 21st century.

Producing a case for support was a key part of the Brakeley consultancy. The initial document was debated at length both internally and externally, and over a period of two years evolved considerably. It proved crucial, serving as a catalyst for advancing the thinking of the WHF. Once a final version had been agreed, it was used as a springboard for writing a number of user-friendly documents. These included a fundraising brochure, an annual report, and project one-pages: requests for funds for specific projects throughout the world, summarised on a single page.

Writing the case statement was just one part of WHF’s fundraising and development strategy but it is significant that the organisation is now five times bigger than when it first embarked on that process. The WHF has also honed its corporate fundraising and successfully broken into foundation funding.

 

“The process of writing the case for support was vitally important as the interviews and subsequent analysis and discussions of the material produced involved a critical look at the past and a creative look at the future. I realised that every organisation has to have a case statement, but a case statement is not usable as an end product. However no other end products such as brochures and so on, can be written until you have the case statement straight.

The process of creating the case statement forces consensus. Everyone must be agreed on “what we are, what we have done, what we are going to do”. In our case, the extended case writing process highlighted where we needed to concentrate our efforts and ultimately resulted in a portfolio of concrete programmes that would deliver results, and more compelling communication tools.”

Janet Voûte, Chief Executive Officer