Cost effectiveness is a fundraising tool

Until recently I haven't had many clients asking about how to incorporate efficiency and effectiveness into their fundraising strategy, but times are changing!

Efficiency is  perfectly acceptable fundraising strategy according to Mal Warwick's very useful book which identifies five types of strategy under the acronym GIVES (growth, involvement, visibility, efficiency and stability).

For us in New Zealand, efficiency is becoming more important as philanthropic funding and statutory funding becomes harder to source. Funders don't want to see duplication of resources and they are tending to place a higher priority on groups which work together, hence The Working Together More Fund which is supported by Tindall, JR McKenzie, Todd and Hugh Green Foundations.

Bearing this in mind, the time seems to be right to re-investigate the concept of shared services. Shared services is not about amalgamating databases, but more fundamentally, about choosing to make decisions based on efficiency. It might mean sharing information, sharing knowledge, sharing case studies with other groups so they don't have to reinvent the wheel. It might be about improving systems and processes to ensure that no time or resources are wasted. It might be about identifying new ways of working that take less time or raise the quality of the output. It might be about ICT or sourcing products and services for the business sector that could be  used by the charitable sector. It might mean collaboration, co-opetition, or outsourcing. Phew, there's a lot to think about.

One of the organisations I work with is exploring all the options for increasing the efficiency of charities. WICT is concerned with eliminating the digital divide and making sure that technology can help all people and organisations. We're posing the question "can the right technology deliver efficiencies, improved productivity and better systems and processes so that charities can focus on their mission (not on the admin)?

Watch this space for developments.