I do not understand why it is so hard to find an endorser. An endorser is really important to us for getting funding from National Youth Council (NYC) so that we can get resources for our YEP. For the previous 2 trips, the organizers found their endorsers from our university. As quoted from the website (http://www.yep.nyc.sg/beapart/eo), Endorsers can be any “educational Institutions in Singapore, non-profit group or organizations that are registered with the Registry of Societies or affiliated to a registered society, government agency, self-help group, voluntary welfare organisation, NGO that are based in Singapore.” Even though it seem like there are a lot of options, when you start approaching the organizations, you will realize that not many are willing to work with you.
To be fair to the organizations, I think that it is not easy to be an endorser. As an endorser, you are taking full responsibilities for the safety and execution of the project. Safety is a very tricky issue here. Are you willing to be liable if an accident happens overseas? As mentioned by my lawyer friend, “It feels like NYC only provides the money and the rest of the responsibilities fall on the endorser.” Out of the many established organizations that we have approached, all turned us down due to other commitments. For some clubs and societies, they turned us down due to a lack of experience and the fear of taking on so many responsibilities. The rest did not respond.
Some times I wonder if the funding is necessary at all. If we do not need the funding, we would not have to go through the process of looking for an endorser. Also, having a different endorser every year will affect the sustainability of the project. Hence, we came up with plan B and C.
Plan B:
Push back our trip till next June to give us more time to find an endorser
Plan C:
Fund raise ourselves
I hope that we will get some good news soon.
