A borderless approach
Bernard Ross explains why internationalism, integration and innovation underpin INGO success
Is there a secret formula for success as a charity and especially as an INGO? Probably not. Or at least if there is such a formula it’s not a secret, but more likely
a case of applying common sense. But, progressive and successful charities worldwide seem to be following a formula made up of the 3 ‘I’s: internationalism, integration and innovation. It is these three characteristics that constitute the not-so-secret secret.
In this article I explore why they are important for success, how they are working for a number of progressive charities, and how they might work for you.
Internationalism
- Intellectual property. Many charities are simply good at things – processes, ideas and services. Such ability is a kind of competence or intellectual property. This competence gives them the potential to share or even sell these abilities internationally –so leveraging more social good. One great example is EcoLogic a small US/Guatemala-based charity that works on sustainability [2]. They have huge expertise in ethically trading carbon credits as a source of funds, especially for development projects in developing nations. They are currently looking to share that ethical expertise with other non-profit organisations so helping them become more sustainable. The RNLI likewise offers its expertise in running rescue services to other nations, creating a form of social capital. What expertise do you have that you could share or exchange?
- Fundraising. Let’s take an even more obvious process like fundraising. So most charities – even in the integrated market of the EU – raise money and work entirely within their own country. This has to change. It just doesn’t make sense to simply work in your own nation when companies, nations and even individuals are international. There are opportunities to raise funds in other countries that UK charities could and should take advantage of. And some do. SightSavers International have appointed a specialist fundraiser to work in the Gulf and raise funds there for its important disability initiatives. Likewise Cancer Research UK, even if it struggles to work in complete harmony with other cancer research organisations worldwide, does have a team dedicated to raising funds from expat Britons such as those who live on the Costa Brava. It’s a start… but with almost one million Brits living in France post Peter Mayle’s oeuvre, why isn’t some enterprising charity targeting them? You can even be international at home! How many charities provide Christmas cards? – Lots! But how many produce cards linked to the great celebration of Islam, the Jewish Calendar or the Hindu faith? Haven’t charities noticed that non-Christians have festivals and are philanthropic too? Certainly, there’s room to inject more diversity in fundraising.Even in a downbeat economy there are
significant opportunities if you can work globally. UK charities need to think and work more internationally.
Integration
ironically, even more of a challenge, since silo working rather than integration is the norm.
- Join forces. You should look for opportunities to work together with similar organisations and the logic of that that may mean mergers. The recent merger of Help the Aged and Age Concern had a long and difficult birth. But it did happen – even if they can’t quite yet agree on a new name. And the new organisation promises to be a powerful force for good for older people in the same way the Imperial Cancer Research Fund/Cancer Research Campaign merger created Cancer Research UK – now a powerful – if UK-centric force for good. How long do we need to wait before many other big-name charities grasp the nettle and merge?
- Try comperation: my spell checker didn’t like the word comperation, but it’s a hot topic in business. This mix of cooperation and competition suggests that competitors can cooperate to mutual benefit. Tesco and Asda now share delivery trucks to reduce costs and avoid empty loads. So why can’t charities comperate more? One great example is the NSPCC and RSPCA comperating on a joint fundraising mailing to donors which avoided the classic ‘help a child’ or ‘help an animal’ conflict. Instead they acknowledged that many donors cared about both animals and children. And they sensibly agreed to comperate in a joint direct mail appeal to offer donors the chance to help both charities at once. Donors loved it.
- Work together internally. Even if you can’t consider the big ticket issues such as mergers or comperation you should look for ways to work more closely together and get out of the functional silos that so often hold organisations back. Charities should make more use of internal job swaps, secondments and even joint projects. Is it possible? The Alzheimer’s Society recently won the coveted IoF Fundraising Charity of the Year Award – and part of the reason it has been so successful is in part a radical re-structure last year designed specifically to create an organisational approach that was based around the supporter journey – not around fundraising techniques. But most charity structures reflect old-fashioned product or specialist services orientation rather than integration. How about yours? Integration makes economic sense. And it makes sense to supporters, donors and even service users. There is a moral imperative to look for opportunities.
Innovation
You probably don’t have as big an investment budget as Oxfam, or as attractive a brand as the Red Cross, or as loyal a supporter base as the Dogs Trust. And you probably see and hear evidence all around that beneficiary needs actually are growing. Finally you also know that ‘business as usual’ won’t help you survive and thrive in a radically changed financial and social environment.
The implication is that internationalisation and integration aren’t quite enough to succeed… you also need the final element, innovation.
As with the previous two characteristics, commercial companies are already there. Marketing guru Philip Kotler calls innovation ‘the only sustainable competitive advantage’[3] and may companies from Amazon to Apple and Intel to Innocent Drinks agree.
But charities are catching up. And so important is innovation that Increasingly charities are institutionalising it with almost every major UK charity now having their own specialist unit – Amnesty International, Save the Children, Macmillan Cancer Support, Scope and Christian Aid… and the inevitable Cancer Research UK. For these charities, the commitment to innovation is designed to help in a number of ways – to grow fundraising income and address increased and changing beneficiary needs.
In Figure 1 below we illustrate a tool we call the innovation radar. It allows you to seek innovation in 12 key areas – you score your organisation on a scale of 1 to 5 in terms of potential.
The innovation radar is useful in that helps charities to visualise more clearly their innovation strengths and areas to improve. Although we won’t be exploring this tool in more detail in this article, you can focus your innovation upon four simple areas. These are: product, process, people, and place. You need to consider how effectively you could innovate in each area. The table (Figure 2) below is designed to help.
Innovation is the final characteristic, and perhaps the most important of the three.
If you want to know how good you are compared to other UK/international charities you can try =mc’s online benchmarking survey at www.managementcentre.co.uk/ivc.
By identifying your strengths and weaknesses in innovation, you will know what areas need working on.
[1] www.thomaslfriedman.com/bookshelf/the-world-is-flat
[2] www.ecologic.org
[3] Marketing Insights From A-Z: 80 Concepts Every Manager Needs To Know by Philip Kotler, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2003.
Author: Bernard Ross
Bernard Ross is a director of the Management Centre (=mc),specialising in strategic thinking, organisational change and personal effectiveness.
He works internationally in Europe, USA, Africa and South America.
There are no comments on this article. Be the first to comment.