Nearly 10 months since we wrapped up 2 programs that brought 30 organisations we journeyed with, I experience a medley of emotions. Humbled at their eagerness to learn, which only reinforces the fact that any delivery mechanism of learning has to be pertinent and easily applied. Amazement at how much persistence they carry with them as the struggles and challenges, while daunting, fade away as one hears of the change they are driving.
The realisation that their footprint might be small, but the impact is mighty and the tagline of “one life at a time, every life matters” is the adage.
Organisation Development with smaller, grassroots organisations requires different perspectives while aiming to support them.
Here’s what we learnt :
- The Captain of the ship – the founders, their vision – what is driving them?
- The extent of support the founders have -be it finance/operations support
- The degree of access to stable internet connectivity- is the most essential of things.
- What’s the one thing the organisation needs besides funding?
- Visibility to the cause and organisation above everything else – they often don’t have great stories to tell for all the great work that’s done.
- Easing the data gathering exercise that draws insights into their work.
- The importance of the well-being of the founders, who are veritably one woman/man armies, many a time.
- Hyper-local / local connections to the land (geography) are the first step in building a potential funding network.
- Peer-driven learning exchanges – because most of the time, it’s relatable and an organisation that almost mirrors your own.
- Leadership is about making the leap to being a better everyday manager.
High on intent to drive change, we learnt that our groups of 30 (our own Super 30 !) carried home-grown wisdom. And a thorough understanding of the land and the community. The constant navigation and addressing of challenges that threatened these organisations and the continuity of those missions have built resilience in the founders and these organisations.
While most grassroots organisations are founder driven, we focused our OD – CB impetus around:
Communication -multi-pronged with a focus on building visibility using online and local media, along with websites as the first port of call and telling your story.
We looked at ways and methods to shine the light on these organisations that often go unnoticed. We worked with them as they laced the passion in their voices about their causes and work, weaving in crucial parts such as numbers and context and what was the envisioned change they were striving towards in their pitches.
Enabling organisation development for organisations with small operational budgets, few team members, distanced geographies and virtual delivery of capacity strengthening programs (which can be seen as non-immersive) requires innovative design. The program design must incorporate crucial modules of support (zeroing in on one or two specific areas only), programs that allow for more handholding support that includes advisory, a hands-on approach to consulting and solutions that are almost tailored to each organisation.
For us, that’s what we found to be the best fit for our capacity-strengthening approach in both of these programs. Our engagement with these 30 organisations and their warrior leaders continues as we hope to journey with them in their routes to mission fulfilment and hopefully work alongside the little nuggets of experience we draw and share with them.
Vijaya Balaji, Founder of Social Lens and CEO at toolbox INDIA and works towards strengthening social purpose organisations in their Organisation Development. Social Lens Consulting is mission-driven to facilitate initiatives aimed at strengthening the capacity of the organisations such as the Forbes Foundation Fellowship, and the Value Circle program at toolbox INDIA Foundation. The Forbes Foundation Fellowship is a program for non-profit organisations to build their internal capacity through virtual-cohort-based learning. And the Value circle is an accelerator program aimed at resource-constrained non-profit organizations to build and strengthen sustainable capacity for driving social investments.
