The cost of a life

I’m in the process of writing a cost report to account for where every penny I raise will be going – now that’s an interesting challenge.

Babies are expensive and abandoned babies are even more expensive. Formula Milk alone will cost up to £20,000 a year. Medical bills are high because most of the babies will need specialised medical care, and we will also be running a social work department as we want to resettle every child into a loving family. We are providing short-term, life-saving intervention, which will ultimately be less expensive than paying for them to live in an institution and be an orphan for the rest of their lives.

I’m estimating the project will cost around £1 million over 5 years, but only time will tell if I’m right and that’s a scary prospect.

My first ever pitch

Today Chris explained all I needed to know about finance. Ultimately the lesson Chris was teaching me was Finance can make or break an organisation so finding a Financial Director (FD) went to the top of my to-do list.

Within 2 hours I was pitching my idea to Jerry Davison, MD of the Mill Consultancy. Jerry is an incredibly experienced FD, after working for PWC, Deloitte, he ran StageCoach for 6 years in Malawi and now runs his own Consultancy company. Jerry’s involvement was critical to the success of the project and I had one shot to win him over.

I am very passionate and I can talk for hours (and hours) about my project but suddenly my nerves got the better of me and halfway through, I felt I had to stop and tell him how badly I thought it was going. He told me how much he loved Africa which immediately put me at ease. At the end of my second attempt, he told me he thought it was a brilliant idea and he came on board immediately. I couldn’t believe it – this was my first ever (intentional) pitch and it worked.

I cannot tell you how relieved I am. Once I have put together my cost report Jerry will write our 5 year financials, profit and loss, cash flow and balance sheets. I cannot begin to describe my relief. In the words of Anneka Rice…Jerry, you are a STAR!

Jerry in Malawi