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| Ms. Keiser and I in her office at Chemonics |
“Chemonics is an international development consulting firm,”
said Kathleen Keiser, the New Business Development Manager for the Middle East.
Chemonics is a for-profit organization that performs international
development work with the stated goal of promoting “social and economic change around
the world.” When the Chemonics
gets a contract from a donor like USAID, theoretically the donor has specific
goals for the contract given, and the organization decides how it want to
achieve those goals. In other
words, the donor has big ideas, and Chemonics makes a plan for execution, then makes the plan happen.
What makes for-profit organizations like
Chemonics different from non-profit organizations is that if the goals are achieved
the way USAID has requested, the donor will pay the organization a fee, which
is the profit. A donor like USAID
pays the organizations for the activities, employees, and expenses done by the
organization. Chemonics gets their funding from USAID only.
As the New Business Development Manager for the Middle East,
Jordan, West Bank, Iraq, and Lebanon, for Chemonics, Ms. Keiser’s job consist
of making sure that the organization’s proposal for upcoming events are well
written. “Whenever USAID release a Request For Proposals (RFP), Chemonics responds
to it,” says Ms. Keiser. She said it
is always a competition to win the funding of a project offered by USAID.
