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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

So how do nonprofits measure impact and communicate impact through ROI? Well, that’s better known as Return on Investment. And it’s really a hot buzzword in the nonprofit sector right now, but you really need to know what it means.

It’s not necessarily saying that for every $1 somebody donates we can turn it into $10 or $5 or whatever the multiplier is, although that’s one way that you can communicate return on investment.

Essentially, what we’re trying to do when we talk about return on investment is be able to tell someone who’s going to donate their money, how we’re going to use that money to either save taxpayer dollars, increase the amount of work that we can do that then they could potentially donate directly and do or how we’re gonna benefit their specific company.

So return on investment could be a lot of different things. And make sure you’re really clear when someone says to you that they want a return on investment, what they’re asking for.

Are they asking for how far you’re going to stretch the money, how this is going to impact their organization or how much the taxes are that are going towards this particular project? Or are they asking you to talk about a return on investment that might be something that’s just a social benefit.

So make sure you’re really clear about what return on investment means to that particular person and how your organization is communicating it. If you want to learn more about return on investment, that’s one of the areas that Sharity really specializes in.

We can have you actually sit down and look at those outcomes and figure out how you can monetize them so that you can really be telling a story that tells every single person that’s getting ready to donate, how well used their money is going to be if they give it to your organization.

We have a free webinar on the subject, but if you wanna learn more you can contact us on our website at Sharityglobal.com or just comment right here on social media and we’ll be quick to respond.

Take care.