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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

How do I identify the right donors for my organization? identifying the right donors is like the biggest mystery for many nonprofits, and sadly, a lot of times the donors that they need are actually in their inner circle.

So the first thing you need to think about donors is that it’s like concentric circles. start with your center circle, that’s your board of directors, your staff.

If your board of directors isn’t giving 100%, you aren’t telling your story right. because if you haven’t convinced your inner circle to give, you shouldn’t be looking outside that network. once you’ve got your donors that are in your inner circle, the people that are closest to your plan, then you start to spread out.

It’s really helpful to understand how much potential there is in that group of individuals that’s already connected to your organization. and that’s where wealth screen can come in extremely handy.

So that you have an idea actually of how much to go and ask those people for and how to start this to segment your donor list for different types of asks. so it’s really not that complicated to find the right donors, because they’re probably already giving to you.

You just haven’t segmented and started targeting them with the right types of asks. and many times most nonprofits have just never even asked in the first place. so start inside and then work your way out. if you need some help with wealth screening or understanding donor segmentation, we’ve got sharity experts who can really help your organization clarify who they need to start asking and what kind of strategy they need to approach them.

Just feel free to reach out to us at ‘sharityglobal.com’ or message us here and we’ll hook you up with the right expert.