Photo courtesy of the Grameen Foundation
In this special series, we’ll take a brief look at various different fearless inspirations from the past week or so. Whether it’s a fearless young changemaker who is taking risks, a new publication that expresses bold and innovative ideas, or an organization that is promoting change and that is not afraid to fail forward—we want to shine a spotlight on them and their work in the hope that it will spark a new movement to Be Fearless.
As Jean Case, CEO of the Case Foundation says, “The old way of doing things is simply no longer effective in this new world. It’s time for us all to take risks on new ideas, approaches, and initiatives. It’s time for us to be bold, to act with urgency, and to resist the tendency to let caution be our guide. It’s time for us to Be Fearless.” Will you join us?
How One Organization is Figuring Out the Value of Skilled-Volunteers… One Question at a Time
At Grameen Foundation, we’re in the process of conducting a retrospective evaluation of the Bankers without Borders’ program. As we near our fourth anniversary, we want to better understand the longer-term impact our skills-based volunteer initiative is having on the organizations that our volunteers serve, the volunteers themselves, and our corporate partners.
Some of the questions we are trying to answer:
- What organizational capacities were the most and least impacted by the Bankers without Borders project? What are the most common outcomes at the organizational level? To what extent did the services received from Bankers without Borders contribute to the organization or program’s ability to achieve greater efficiencies or more effectiveness?
- How much have volunteers benefited from their involvement in Bankers without Borders at a professional and personal level? Are they more likely, because of their involvement with Bankers without Borders, to donate to related causes and/or participate in other volunteer efforts?
- What made the Bankers without Borders’ collaboration successful to our corporate partners? What criteria did they use to define “success”?
Based on preliminary conversations with a third party group and others, the team identified two distinct and common needs for skilled volunteers:
- Extra capacity: Sometimes programs or organizations simply need extra capacity to help them achieve their work goals. The volunteers require certain skill sets but are essentially assigned tasks that otherwise would be waiting on the back burner or keeping staff from what they consider more critical tasks. For example, Grameen Foundation’s marketing team relies heavily on volunteers to support our social media strategy. They know the best practices in social media marketing but need added support to be effective in implementing them.
- Outside expertise: The other use case is where the skills and expertise is lacking within the organization and volunteers are essential to the organization acquiring knowledge and applying it effectively to a particular challenge. For example, Grameen Foundation’s finance team has used volunteers with foreign exchange risk expertise to help inform us on how we can best hedge the risks inherent in our investment portfolio.
However, as noted by a member of our reference group, one of the added benefits that come from either type of engagement is a fresh perspective to the work.
How often do we proactively go out and try to gain new perspective on our work, approach, or strategy? Rarely, is my gut instinct.
But perhaps, some of the greatest value that Grameen Foundation gets from being an organization that is constantly bringing in volunteer consultants is that we are constantly opening ourselves up for critique. By welcoming in new people on an ongoing basis, we are welcoming new ideas and approaches to the problems we are trying to solve – be they operational or strategic.
Fresh eyes, open minds, and new enthusiasm – these are all qualities that skilled volunteers can bring to our organizations and each of us.
How are we capturing and understanding the results of this wonderful by-product of skills-based volunteering? What innovative approaches or new ideas have volunteers generated for your organization and its social mission?
We look forward to sharing our learning with you later this year once our evaluation has been completed.
About Bankers without Borders® Director, Shannon Maynard: With more than 15 years of experience in nonprofit management and volunteer mobilization, Shannon Maynard joined Grameen Foundation in February 2009 as the director of Bankers without Borders. She previously served as the executive director of the U.S. President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation and managed strategic initiatives for the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency.