How will you leverage various types of organizations to advance the larger dream behind your project? As a team, for every single type of organization listed below, identify TWO extremely specific scenarios for engagement and partnership. The goal of such engagement might be to acquire resources (funding, space, knowledge, etc), build your brand, establish a history of collaboration, acquire social or political capital, brand association with well-known brands/organizations, increase your reach, etc.

 

Organization types:

Multilateral Organizations

• International Union of Air Pollution Prevention and Environmental Protection Association (IUAPPA)
  • Collaboration with IUAPPA can provide new knowledge on air pollution around the world regarding climate and air pollution policies. We can implement these new ideas in a policy memo for Kazakhstan and propose initiatives to reduce air pollution.
• United Nations
  • We can collaborate with the United Nations to increase our credibility and gain diverse knowledge or opinions from people across the world. We can gain insights on the impact of air pollution and learn how different UN organizations act towards solving this issue.

Government Agencies (Federal, State, Local): In the US or Abroad

• Ministry of Environmental Protection of Kazakhstan
  • We can apply for funding from the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Kazakhstan and gain national recognition of our initiative which will increase our credibility and attract more citizens to respond to our survey and/or use our app.
• Ministry of Transport and Communications
  • We can collaborate with the transportation system in Almaty, Kazakhstan and implement a function where it allows AirVision App to track citizen’s everyday greenhouse gas emissions when they use public transportation. The tracker will be used to increase environmental awareness and consciousness among the Almaty citizens and help them understand the impact of transportation on air pollution.

Nonprofits

• Green Women
  • We can collaborate with the NGO Green Women in Kazakhstan to promote our survey and App. Also, we can gain useful feedback from the members to further improve the app design.
• Coalition for Clean Air
  • We can collaborate with the Coalition for Clean Air and understand how they took action to advocate for cleaner air and incorporate that into our App. The App can further include a section of how Almaty residents can act for clean air in their own way.

Foundations

• Rockefeller Foundation
  • The Rockefeller foundation aims to fund projects that mitigate climate and environmental problems globally. We can apply for funding and help mitigate air pollution-caused environment and health problems in Kazakhstan.
• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
  • We can apply for funding and provide help solving inequalities in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Since air pollution impacts residents in poverty more, we can use that funding to provide assistance to those residents during the winter months when air pollution is the worst.

Academia

• AlmaU and Nazarbayev University
  • Partner with in-country universities to leverage their cultural knowledge. Currently we are working with AlmaU students and teachers to forward our marketing and demographic research. They have more knowledge about what mediums are the best for marketing in Kazakhstan.
  • Partner with in-country universities to leverage their professors and researchers. We have talked with an air quality scientist that worked in Nazarbayev University and may look to work with more researchers there in the future.
• Lehigh University
  • Apply for funding in our university. We could apply for grants from Lehigh if we decided to conduct more of our own research.

Startups

• Beat that pollution
  • This startup created a device that can convert PM2.5 particles into coarser dust using magnetic energy by attaching the device on to the exhaust pipe. We can collaborate with them and potentially sell their product on the App for Kazakhstan residents to purchase and reduce PM2.5 emission in Almaty.
• Nanoclean: A breath of fresh air
  • Similar to the other startup, Nanoclean invented nasofilters, which is an external filter on the nose and prevents breathing in pollutants. We can also collaborate with them and sell nanofilter in our App. It would be a great product as it can reduce mask usage and is inexpensive.

Social Ventures

• Digital Ventures Kz
  • This social venture makes films about the ecosystem and invests in social projects. We could apply for funding from this social venture. We could also try to partner with this group on a film to spread information about what we are doing. 
• AirVision
  • Our team can work with a social venture to gain access to a larger group of people. They have the resources and connections in Kazakhstan. Currently we are working with AirVision to improve their app. We have a mutually beneficial relationship in which we provide them with scientifically backed advice and they provide us with a platform to spread our knowledge. 

Think Tanks

• Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES)
  • We could partner with a think tank that works on environmental research like the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) to gain deeper insight into environmental issues. We could then use this information for the app. 
• Kazakhstan institute for strategic studies
  • We could also partner with a Kazakh think tank Kazakhstan institute for strategic studies to gain a better view into the politics and economics that might inhibit us from achieving our goals in spreading air quality information. They also might be able to help us figure out what sorts of policies would be most accepted by local government.

K-12 System

• Similar to what Save tuba is doing, we could go through the Ministry of Education in Kazakhstan and partner with a collection of private schools that can enable the students to download the app and gain access to information about their health and their city. 
• We can partner with these K-12 schools and add an educational campaign to our project. If we got to travel in-country next summer we could plan to travel to all these schools and present what we are doing and inform them of the air pollution problem and risks to their health.

Corporations

• Our team could partner with construction corporations or mining corporations to simultaneously market our app and provide advice to employees that work in them. Some possible organizations could be Eurasian Resources Group, which works in mining and energy operations, and KELESHEK, TOO, a construction company in Almaty. 
• We could partner with a company like Vacker in Almaty, that builds air purifiers. We could advertise their air purifiers on our app and they could give us a discount code.

Consulting Firms

• ECA Consulting Europe and Central Asia
  • Air Quality in Almaty could benefit from marketing consulting. The finished product of the app is only half the battle of our project. We need to ensure that people are using it. We would pay a fee for advice on how to best market our product. The consulting group could help us come up with advertising material.
• Central Asia International Consulting
  • We could meet with certain consulting firms like Central Asia International Consulting and adopt some of their methods in communication. Our project could function similarly to a consulting firm providing advice to public figures and policy makers on what policies should be implemented to reduce air pollution in Almaty.