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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 should I do if a board member starts stepping out of line?

Ask Me Anything Summary

So our last ask me anything question is about board of directors and it comes from one of our followers who wants to know, what do I do if my board of directors starts to step out of line and starts speaking directly to operation staff. Well, it happens all the time and every board is different. In fact, boards follow life cycles.

Some boards are very grassroots and boards are very involved and engaged in the operations. They may actually even be helping in operations. Some board of directors are a little bit more sophisticated and they have very clear lines and boundaries. A healthy board is one where the board of directors is responsible for the fiduciary health of the organization and the strategic direction.

That means the executive director ceo is recognized as the person that they have hired and empowered to run the operations in the organization. So if your board member is getting involved directly with a staff member, it might be time to step back and ask the question, do you have the right policies in place to delineate what those boundaries are? And have you been training, you’re bored enough? Then make sure that that redirection comes from a pier, ideally, the board chair would be the person that would talk to that board member about boundaries.

If that doesn’t work, you might need to have a larger intervention and that might be an opportunity to bring in a mediator. But it’s important that if a board member is getting deeply involved in your operations, that there is a boundary and that you have set that clearly. The executive director is charged with running the operations, but also where the buck stops, they answer directly to the board.

So if you have any questions, you need any help with the board problem, feel free to reach out to us, ask us a question and one of our experts, I’m sure we’ll be able to answer whatever dilemma that you’re facing. You can reach us at admin@sharityglobal.com or you can reach me personally at carol.wick@sharityglobal.com or just dm us here on social media.
Have a great day.