Aliza In The Field

Behind on the blogging, so I am condensing posts! We held two workshops in Spain, one each in Madrid and Barcelona. Both were smaller than the ones we’ve been holding in Morocco, mostly because Europe in August is a virtual ghost town. As we have been told time and again these past two weeks, todo el mundo está en vacaciones. However, the organizations that did show up were happy to speak with us about their Twitter accounts, fundraising strategies, and expanding their networks on- and off-line.

It has also been interesting for us to witness the transition to Europe. In Morocco, the organizations identified with the other African projects on the site and did not doubt that they could be successful. But in Europe, we have gotten many queries as to why Americans would bother donating to projects in Western Europe when they could donate instead to AIDS orphans in Africa or educating girls in India. The answer to that is, of course, that a good project is a good project, no matter where it is; hungry and needy people in the developed world are not less deserving than hungry people in Africa. There are so many organizations in Spain with fantastic projects, and many of them would undoubtedly benefit from GlobalGiving. Hopefully the next team to visit Europe will get to meet even more of them as partners instead of prospects.

Aliza is in Morocco, Spain and France as a part of GlobalGiving’s In The Field program. Follow along at alizainthefield.tumblr.com or on Twitter @alizaapp.