Joy of Giving week: Strategise

Shutterstock

The Joy of Giving week started on October 2, and will go on till October 8. In this daily blog series, we will take you through seven habits of effective givers, one habit at a time, to help develop a culture of giving.

By now, you are an integral part of the cause/organisation you have been supporting and would have developed a significant amount of expertise in at least one or two areas of the work being done. You know all the challenges, opportunities, style, culture, values, beliefs of the organisation; you know what will work, what will not, how the team will react to different ideas and approaches.

You have also contributed significantly to the organisation or cause, and chances are that your contribution is significantly appreciated.

So it is time to step up to the plate and take on greater responsibility. Take a board seat if offered by the organisation- ask for it if you feel you deserve it and try to understand why the position is not being offered, if not. Too many people shy away from taking on such responsibility, but the only way to make your giving effective is to go beyond a “support” role to one where you are able to contribute to the vision, mission and strategy of the organisation.

Helping articulate the vision, mission, theory of change and strategy Continue reading up about the cause that your organisation works in. Visit and interact with other organisations or groups working on the same issue across the country- especially those that have greater accomplishments- and learn from them. Read up about global best practices in the area, and the work of the world’s leading organisations in the cause area. If resources permit, visit some of those organisations as well and learn.

Use your learnings to start helping the organisation revisit its vision, mission and theory of change. A theory of change is an articulation of the problem, the “key levers” that can help solve it and how/why your approach will create the desired impact.

Encourage the team and the founders to think big, and to visualise what success will look like. See if the vision, mission or theory of change need to be restated. Help organise a vision/mission exercise with the help of OD experts that you reach out to through your networks. Ensure that there is full alignment of the board, the founding team, leadership and the executive team with the vision, mission and theory of change.

You may encounter some hurdles in this process. Lack of resources to fund such an exercise could be one. Help arrange for the skills, pay for any overheads with your money if you can, or through money that you raise. By this time, your financial contributions to the organisation should be almost entirely used for such activities and not for the programmes or grassroot work- for which it will be much easier to find other donors, who haven’t yet evolved to where you are.

If you encounter disinclination in the leadership or the team towards such an exercise, try to get to the bottom of it. Push, counsel and mentor… understand the insecurities or fears that are holding people back.

Fear of failure often prevents organisations from thinking big- offer to help the team plan, think through the ambitious goals and a pathway to get there, have them play devil’s advocate, offer to bring in people with different skill sets to contribute, help them see  the worst case scenario in trying as compared to their current approach, and organise exposure to other organisations and causes that atrophied because they got cocooned into comfort zones.

If you encounter rigidity of beliefs, or a set way of doing things, help the team overcome these through exposure- organise for them to visit other organisations, read about best practices and create lots of opportunities for reflection. Push for clearer articulation of the theory of change, and setting up ‘means to check’/measure whether it is actually happening. Do all of this in an environment of trust, friendship and collaboration and as a part of the team.

Once a clear vision, mission and theory of change are articulated that has buy in from everyone, help set a 5 year plan with a clearly articulated strategy. Start looking at the resources the organisation needs to accomplish its goals.

One key way to help the organisation get the resources, is to help gradually (over a 1-2 year period) rebuild the Board of the organisation, bringing in people who have the skills and resources needed, who will bring a fresh perspective and who can ask difficult questions, people who will not simply ‘go with the flow’.

This will happen only after the trust levels you have with the team and the founders are really, really high, and executing well on Habits 3-5 will ensure that this has been accomplished. Almost all orgs will need help with board.

Building a good Board
Identify areas where help and resources are needed, help create the right “profile of board members” that the organisation requires at this stage. You may need people who have the ability to bring in money, or the ability to bring deep domain expertise in the work being done. People who can open the right doors for strategic partnerships (with the government, corporates, community groups). People who bring very specific skillsets to take on responsibilities (a treasurer to oversee financial control and accounting, an HR professional to help with the spectrum of HR needs, a techie who can help with all the IT requirements of the organisation).

Map your network to identify potential board members for the organisation. Dig into the lists you built in Habit 5- some of those people could already be supporting the organisation, others can be brought in to chip in. Look for people who are inspired by the vision, aligned to the values and culture of the organisation, and excited to contribute. Even if they don’t have fancy designations. In fact, you’ll probably get better Board members from people who are not already famous- those are invariably stretched supporting multiple causes.

Creating a “board of advisors” who can engage with the NGO is a good pathway to restructuring the Board. Based on the contribution people make and assessing their culture fit over time, some can be inducted into the Board with buy in of the executive team. The incoming board members will also like to be engaged for a while before agreeing to join the Board- that way, THEY know if this is the cause or organisation they want to invest time and resources in.

Convert to action plans, targets, metrics
With the help of others (the now expanded larger team of stakeholders), help the team convert the 5 year plan into an annual plan with targets and metrics that will be used to measure performance- both diagnostically, and to assess efficacy.

Set up evaluation and measurement tools, including an MIS to periodically review the organisation’s performance, and the performance of the team.

By now, you’ve reached a stage where the cause or organisation is your baby, as much as it is anyone else’s. Take ownership, take responsibility and push for greater effectiveness in the work being done on the ground.

Daan Utsav, the Joy of Giving week begins on October 2, till October 8. Over the next week, we’ll delve into each of these habits and help you with tips and methods to become an effective giver.

The author set up GiveIndia in 2000, to create a "giving culture" in India and, in 2009, he, along with several other volunteers, conceptualised and launched DaanUtsav, a festival that aims to bring India together to celebrate giving.

The thoughts and opinions shared here are of the author.