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Powering Nonprofit Success Through Participatory Processes:

Did you know that organizations prioritizing participatory processes and deliberately decreasing barriers see a significant increase in program effectiveness? This Fall, I’m excited to delve into how this framework powers real-world success through our three-part webinar series, Insights for Impact!

On September 18th, Dr. Inderjit Vicky Basra, President and CEO of the Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center, and Jessica Raymond, former Chief of Staff of the YWCA, joined Sharity Global Expert Anne Miskey to offer real-world examples of ways participatory processes elevated their organizations’ mission and impact. Dr. Basra emphasized the importance of including direct and indirect experts in decision-making conversations. She noted, “…layered communication makes the change.” When those in the community who experience the challenges your organization strives to address work alongside those with academic or professional experience in key areas, your organization can begin to affect systemic change. Jessica added, “When we talk about advocating for people and engaging their voices…here is the mic! You sit at this table, you tell me what you need from us, you make the decision…”

Key takeaways from the conversation included:

  • Write equity into your policies and procedures.
  • Avoid “tokenizing” the community you serve. Ensure that if you ask something of your community members, such as asking them to share their stories, you are developing and strengthening a mutually beneficial relationship with them.
  • Identify ways your organization may connect direct experts, those with lived experience, with donors, elected officials, and other community leaders and influencers.
  • Engaging all voices allows you to review and evaluate the impact of your programming with an open mind and heart.
  • Give credit to all the experts helping you execute your mission. Whenever possible, compensate and recognize direct experts, those with lived experiences, for their work on behalf of your organization, just as you would an indirect expert with academic or professional experience. 

Dr. Basra summed up the importance of engaging all voices when she described the success her organization has had with connecting survivor mentors with the recently rescued. “[Survivor’s] concepts around hope look very different because they’re sitting across from somebody, that at some point, was in the same space that they are in…Their survivor-mentor becomes a beacon of hope!” Anne added, “The little ways you can connect your donors in real ways to people” will bring about transformation.

Watch The Full Video Now

 

What questions should I ask and qualities to look for when bringing new people onto my team?

Ask Me Anything Summary

What questions should I ask and qualities to look for when bringing new people onto my team? so the question this week is what things should I look for when bringing a new team member onto my team?

Most nonprofits have really tight teams, and the culture is really important. but if you haven’t documented that culture, you may actually be hiring somebody that inadvertently doesn’t fit with your team. and it’s going to become a real problem really quick.

So my first recommendation would be if you know you’re going to be hiring, make sure you sit down and have a conversation about what is important to us as a team in terms of our culture and, more importantly, document the behaviors that come along with those attributes so that you can watch for them in the interview.

And we even have a process at sharity where we actually have a grid, and we circle it during the interview. so there’s some really fabulous tools that nonprofits can use so that they don’t make the wrong hiring decisions.

But it’s really important that you are prepared for that interview and you’ve documented your culture. that would be my first and most important recommendation when you’re hiring.

If you have any comments or questions or you have something you want to hear from us about, ask me anything. just put a comment in the comment box or you can direct message us.

Or you can reach me at ‘carol.wick@sharityglobal.com‘. Have a great day.