Discussion Question 5: What strategies had PPAT used to finance its activities? What suggestions would you make to PPAT in relation to their future funding?

(a) Strategies used for financing:

- In addition to IPPF, PPAT was receiving funds from five other external sources. This would have involved making contact with the funding organisations to establish their interest and the development of project proposals and budgets. It is also significant that each of these external donors had committed funds for at least two years (Exhibit 5 does not tell us when these projects funds were first made available).

- PPAT also received Government funding for the Hill Tribe Area Project, thus indicating that it is providing services to a community that the Government finds difficult to reach effectively.

- Other local sources of cash included sales of contraceptives and IEM materials, income derived from clinic service charges, membership fees and special fund raising events. Significant interest income was also derived from investment of funds.

- Contributions and donations in-kind are impressive (Exhibit 6), although participants might question how PPAT costed these. It also appears that PPAT might have negotiated some long-term agreements with the various contributors, or at least had sufficient confidence that the contributions would continue to be forthcoming over the following three years.

(b) Suggestions regarding future funding:

- All of the external sources of income (excluding IPPF) will be completed by 1995. Given the usual lead time for donors to commit new funds, PPAT needs to start an early search for new sources of programme support. The case indicates that external funding sources for Thailand, may be difficult to locate and this adds to the urgency. PPAT might be advised to search for donors interested in supporting HIV/AIDS projects as opposed to the traditional FP donors. Whatever the strategy chosen by PPAT to identify new external sources of funding, PPAT needs to 'parcel' its planned future activities, such that proposals can be developed for individual potential donors.

- PPAT might review its schedule of fees for clinic services, contraceptives, IEM materials and membership dues to establish whether these could reasonably be raised without affecting the volume of sales or client demands. Alternatively, PPAT might establish different schedules of fees for clinic services, depending on the location of the clinic and its clientele.

- Additional efforts on special fund-raising events might be considered, since income from this source appears minimal.

- PPAT might also consider the potential for charging small fees for the factory worker education programmes or starting new worker education programmes in larger companies in the Bangkok at other major urban areas.