Nonprofit Builder: Where are we at after 3 months?
The Nonprofit Builder project aims to transform the way the non-profit sector learns and improves itself, in particular through the development of organisational capacity — be it strategy, leadership, governance, monitoring and evaluation, culture, project management, technology, security or fundraising. We spent 3 months discussing our ideas with as many stakeholders as possible about the best way to do this, including capacity builders, non-profit organisations, donors and researchers. We have heard from them that the most useful things for them would be:
1. The ability to identify, learn about and connect with a wide range of capacity builders, trainers, consultants and coaches who specialise in all aspects of organisational development. The main services we see as relevant to address this would be 1) a directory of capacity builders and coaches with profiles of them, descriptions and reviews of their previous interventions, and the ability to connect with them and their previous clients to understand their specialisations and preferences better and 2) a personalised matching of relevant capacity builders with organisations by the non-profit builder team. Organisations and donors would appreciate this as they often rely on a limited number of such experts who they learn about through word of mouth, and have little way of knowing the quality of their work or their specialisations. Consultants would also appreciate this as it would ensure they could connect with peers who could join or support them in their work, or who they could “hand over” organisations to when they discover needs which require other expertise than their own (for example a leadership coach could need an expert in strategic planning or governance to support his clients after they have worked on their leadership skills).
2. The ability to clearly define the development needs of non-profit organisations. The main services we see as relevant to address this would be a simple and effective process for reflecting upon and identifying these needs. Building on the experience of the Ford BUILD programme, and McConnel Foundations’ Innoweave programme, we believe a multi-stage process with progressively in-depth steps would be most appropriate. This could start with a free, simple online questionnaire which would allow a large number of organisations to begin their reflection. A second step could be a live webinar or a face-to-face workshop with a coach or consultant, where teams from a number of different organisations could follow a more in-depth and interactive discussion to define their needs. Thirdly, the organisation could define a concrete project for organisational development in a clearly defined format which contains the information donors require and in collaboration with consultants they identify on the database. Donors (especially those with little experience or capacity for OD investment) and organisations would appreciate this as it would ensure that their time and effort is spent on the most crucial and highest leverage issues that will help them develop, taking a holistic and long-term vision of their development. Consultants would appreciate this as it would ensure that organisations approach them to work on well thought through and clearly defined needs with a long-term vision, rather than short term, partial, quick-wins which don’t fundamentally change the level of capacity of the organisation to reach its goals.
3. The ability to make organisational development support cheaper for organisations and worthwhile for suppliers (capacity builders, coaches, trainers). The services we see as relevant for addressing this is a subsidy system where organisations submit clearly defined and fully costed projects, with relevant input from consultants, to donors who are on the platform, and donors can decide to fully or partially cover the costs, and thereafter receive updates about progress from the organisation and/ or the consultants involved. Organisations would appreciate that in-depth, top quality support is available for their own development at rates they can afford and knowing that their donors approve of this investment of their time and energy. Donors would appreciate receiving very clear, thought through requests for support, with the ability to follow progress on these through a simple system, and be able to show their boards and colleagues that such OD investment is worthwhile. Consultants would appreciate that they could charge reasonable rates which fully cover their costs and needs, rather than having to reduce rates or the services they can offer for the limited budgets organisations often have.
4. The ability to clearly demonstrate the results of investing time and money into efforts to develop organisations — essentially to show the impact of these efforts. The services we imagine to fill this need would be an easy to use impact measurement system (possibly supported by resources and trainings) to define specific objectives for organisational development efforts, define progress and success indicators that will show whether these objectives are being reached, and regularly monitor these indicators, analysing the change that is happening due to these efforts and adapting them depending on the findings. Organisations and Donors were particularly interested in this, as it could justify to their donors, colleagues and grantees the investments they make in OD, as well as guide them as to where investing makes sense and where not. Consultants also were interested in efforts to develop such systems, as many have ad-hoc systems for this, but often find it difficult to systematically report on the result of their work, nor really learn from this.
5. The ability to discuss and develop capacity building and organisational development as a field. The services we see as relevant for addressing this are a number of online and offline forums, events, collections of resources and connections to other groups and sites who are developing this field of expertise (for example those publishing reports such as Dan referred to in this post). Consultants in particular expressed a desire for this, as they are fully dedicated to this field, and this would also allow them to expand their own capacities and skills. Donors who have been working in the field for some time would appreciate having a space for other donors and other colleagues within their organisations to understand the results of investing in organisational capacity, and the wide variety of methods, experts, organisations and theories for such capacity development. Organisations would also be able to benefit from this, as a central place to find resources and support on OD efforts.
Though these discussions enabled us to clearly identify the key needs and possible services or tools to fill these needs, they also leave many key questions unanswered:
- How do we ensure the reliability and credibility of the services provided by consultants on the database?
- How to integrate consultants with potential but no track record, such as new consultants, or consultants from the private sector?
- How do we ensure that organisations identify their most fundamental/ high leverage organisational issues, so that their organisational development (OD) efforts bring lasting change?
- How do we show the value of investing (time & money) into OD efforts (i.e. show the impact it has)?
- How do we keep a spirit of openness, trust and honesty in the Builder community, to ensure we are all learning?
- What business model and structure would ensure the Builder is a sustainable initiative?
We believe that the best way to find answers to these questions is to continue using the collective intelligence of the brilliant and motivated people we have spoken to so far and others who join along the way. We thus aim to create a small community around the Builder concept, and more importantly around the idea of transforming the way the non-profit sector learns. We imagine this community to start small; to have a spirit of trust, honesty and openness; and to enable every member to get and give value without a heavy effort needing to be put in.
The experience of ImagineNation, which is exactly such an eco-system of stakeholders but focusing on disruptive innovation, is instructive for building communities around a specific subject. Also, the experience of McConnell Foundation’s Innoweave programme, which offers a very similar set of services to those described above, but focuses principally on organisations within Canada, shows that such a model is both needed and sustainable. Leaders of both initiatives have agreed to support the non-profit builder in successfully setting up a sustainable eco-system around organisational development on a global scale.
We will spend the next months bringing together this community on and off-line. We will continue to develop with all those who are interested funky new answers to these questions. And we are convinced that with this community around us, within the next 6 months, we will have clarity on what the Builder will look like and how it can be a sustainable force for transforming the way we, in the non-profit sector, learn and develop our organisations.
Are you interested in joining this motley crew of innovators, dreamers and doers? Get in touch with mike at nonprofitbuilder.org
