In a
previous blog, I wrote about the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ (link below). But when
attending New Philanthropy Capital’s NPC Ignites conference last week (link
below), I was really struck by the discussions that related to the importance
of ‘how’. Here are the points I noted:
·
70% of strategic plans don’t get implemented.
·
Budgets support the status quo. The budget
setting process is too long, too detailed and bottom-up. The whole organisation
can become paralysed whilst it ‘does the budget’. Instead, start from the strategy
and think what resources are needed to deliver it.
·
Productivity matters – you are not just looking
for impact but also at what cost this is achieved. (This resonated with me as a
funder because I have to consider the cost of different interventions as well
as their expected outcomes. But productivity would also be an important factor
for charities deciding how best to allocate resources – some interventions may
just cost too much.
·
Effective implementation needs both a sense of
excitement and dogged perseverance. You need to embed the mission into the
culture of the organisation and ensure people hold it in their hearts as well
as doing the ‘boring’ bits of implementation like planning and reviewing
progress.
·
Research has shown the importance of
implementation: you can sometimes achieve more by implementing something well, that
failed elsewhere, than by implementing a proven intervention badly.
Implementation
is a poor relation when compared to the excited talk there was around digital
and measuring impact . But if you don’t actually deliver what you set out to
then you can’t bring about change. I was pleased to see its importance
highlighted. ‘How’ definitely deserves its place alongside what and why.
Emma Beeston Consultancy advises funders and
philanthropists on giving strategies and processes; selecting causes and
charities; assessments and impact monitoring. Services for charities include
external perception reviews; bid reviews; training for fundraisers and
non-fundraisers involved in bids. www.emmabeeston.co.uk ; emma@emmabeeston.co.uk ; emmabeeston01
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