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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.

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In light of legislative efforts to monitor and limit what those receiving governmental funding can say or teach, it will be critically important for nonprofits to accurately measure and represent their actual outcomes when discussing their community impacts and seeking donors. Remember, too many nonprofit organizations use output data (i.e., the number of people served) as proof of their effectiveness, when major donors would rather hear about outcomes data (i.e., how the services are impacting the long-term lives of clients and the community).

We have to be able to tangibly prove our efforts are working with hard data. If we cannot demonstrate our methods are effective, then all information is up for debate and interpretation by anyone who wants to call it into question. For some nonprofits, the trick will be doing this in states where the services rendered may clash with new laws. What happens when the government limits a nonprofit’s abilities to provide core services?

We have to be very clear why we do what we do and how it is making a difference in our communities. We have to justify our work with hard data that shows outcomes, and it is of paramount importance to understand how this impacts the “asks” we are making of our donors. Most philanthropists say they will not invest large sums of money unless they know the outcomes. When we change the way we talk about success and highlight our overall impact, or outcomes, we are more in line with what donors are looking for, and therefore, will be more successful when asking for funds.

There are many different ways we can communicate our impact and outcomes. Are we just serving people and counting the services we provide, or are we measuring whether or not our programs are doing anything for people? Are we actually talking about how we transform lives, communities, or companies? When we talk outputs, we talk about services rendered and the numbers participating. When we talk outcomes, we talk about what happened because of the services provided. For instance, if someone in a shelter was permanently housed through the shelter’s programs, that’s an outcome, meaning the act of sheltering someone resulted in a positive impact and a positive outcome for that person. This is how their life was transformed by the services we provide.

Look, we all survived COVID, and we will survive these changes too ⎼ we just have to be prepared. If you want to explore more ways to measure your nonprofit’s true outcomes, contact Sharity Global today. We are ready to walk this new frontier with you and help you navigate it.