[Chapter-delegates] A thanks to our Bengaluru and Kenya chapters

[Nazar Nicholas]

Dear Chris,

Happy New Year 2025(belated),

I hear you loud and clear. Crowd -in more funding to support Chapters to
deliver a significant and high impact project locally has been
long overdue! Now this has got a captain in Sally as CEO and the
Lieutenants like you Chris. I thank the current ISOC leadership for moving
away from the philosophy of having ISOC Chapters as mere local digital
clubs instead of actual organization!

I will submit that each active chapter needs an intentional one BIG grant
and the impact will reverberate many years in the future. Although you have
called it
“an ambitious strategy to crowd-in funding from other donors to increase
the support funding…”. This should be,“must be” a premium strategy of ISOC
going forward if high local impact is anything to go by.

I will state why I think it should be a premium strategy. Internet Society
is a big and reputable name worldwide and from this reputation comes a a
huge latent strength and ability to bring donors,philanthropists and
philanthropic organisations on the table to negotiate for donations based
on the actual work  done locally by the network of chapters

I prophesy that with your new signature work of bringing donors with local
chapters that have done an actual ongoing project that donors can see its
impact NOT a conference or event will surely bring in more funding for
local projects more than previously imagined.

I wish you the best of energy in this new noble work.

Dr. Nazar Nicholas


On Mon, Jan 20, 2025 at 10:48 Christopher Locke via Chapter-delegates <
chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

> Hi everyone.
>
>
>
> I just wanted to send a quick ‘kudos’ email of thanks out to Alphonce and
> the Kenya Chapter team and Adarsh & Rajan at the Bengaluru chapters for
> meeting with me and others on my recent trips.  We are beginning an
> ambitious strategy to crowd-in funding from other donors to increase the
> support we can give in grant funding over the next five years, and in both
> cases I was well supported by the local chapters in these meetings.
>
>
>
> In Nairobi Alphonce and his team joined me and ISOC staff at a lunch with
> the local Mastercard Foundation team, where we discussed how our work on
> community connectivity and training provides essential support to bringing
> people into a safe, secure and reliable internet.  In Bengaluru Adarsh &
> Rajan joined me at a dinner with local ISOC staff and an august group
> including Reeta Roy (President of the Mastercard Foundation), James Mwangi
> (CEO of Equity Bank Kenya) and Patrick Awuah (Founder & Principle at Ashesi
> University Ghana).  Adarsh & Rajan presented and chatted to the group about
> their work and how ISOC chapters support training and connectivity, and how
> global efforts such as the Rural SIG support the goals of foundations such
> as the Mastercard Foundation and Equity Bank.
>
>
>
> There is a power in getting our chapters and community into these meetings
> with potential partners and donors.  The real power of what we do comes
> from partners hearing this first hand from our community.  It’s been
> fantastic to get the support of Aphonce, Adarsh and their teams as we do
> this, and it’s something we will continue to do as we build our co-funding
> coalitions.  I will talk more about this on the future Chapter Advisory
> calls and am very happy to do other calls dedicated to explaining our
> approach and how Chapters can support and get involved on other calls if
> desired.  We’re still in the development stage but I hope in 2025 working
> together we can create partnerships that will support a lot of our work
> over the next five years.
>
>
>
> I’ll be in Ethiopia this week at the Internet Development Conference
> meeting more Chapters, as Sally and I will continue to do as we travel, not
> just drawing you into meetings for your support, but also listening to you
> to understand how we can work better together.  2025 is shaping up to be an
> exciting and productive year for us all, and I want to thank those Chapters
> who have already taken the time to meet and work with us, and I look
> forward to doing more of this throughout the year.
>
>
>
> Best, Chris.
>
>
>
> *Chris Locke,* EVP & MD of Internet Society Foundation
> locke at isocfoundation.org | Time zone: UTC -0 | Pronouns: he/him/his
>
>
>
> Donate today. <https://bit.ly/3nUsQmJ> Help protect the Internet for
> everyone.
>
>
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