That’s a really great example. We recognise for some companies it can be quite difficult to engage employees, particularly when some staff have to go on furlough while others are under greater pressure WFH.
Managing appropriate comms to leverage staff donations and volunteering is therefore really tricky.
On what companies and NGOs do to ensure their partnerships emerge from the crisis even stronger than before…
We need to continue to listen to each other and hear different perspectives and different vantage points stakeholders are viewing this challenge from. We all have different perspectives and views on how to solve challenges. It’s important to keep talking, keep sharing, keep connecting, keep creating, keep finding new ideas. More than ever before trying to speak the same language is important. Breaking down barriers and finding new ways to collaborate because we have a burning platform like none we’ve ever had before.
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Q3. Keep longer term objectives at forefront, innovative together on what can be done in the short term, use this time to understand partners better and come out of it stronger
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In response to Q3. they should:
- Stay committed – there will be a post Covid world and many of the issues we are working on together – poverty, inequality etc - will have only have become more critical 2) Think long term – as well as the immediate humanitarian response, companies should be thinking about the long term impact of Covid-19 on communities that they rely on
- Understand how will this impact smallholders, informal workers who have do not have a safety net, garment workers whose factories have lost orders, women who make up the bulk of front line medical staff and also must do the majority of unpaid care.
- These groups will be facing even harder circumstances than they were before Covid-19 – need to think about how we can support them to rebuild their livelihoods over the longer term.
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Yes - a good thread here. On the aspect of this that’s about in-kind support, I’d add that companies should be led by partners on what type of support is valuable at each stage of the crisis. Matching supply and need is sometimes more difficult than at first anticipated. It’s important that any volunteered support of this kind matches real needs identified by the partner, as there can be issues around integration and management that are particularly difficult on top of everything else going on in the crisis.
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As you said Sinead, now is the time for listening and I think keep it simple, open dialogue. Now is the time for any ego to be firmly kicked out the room
Definitely tricky and so far from clear cut! So far I would say we have found employee fundraising returns have been lower than we may have expected. We are wondering if that may be because everyone is so worried about themselves - their own health, livelihood, family etc - that perhaps people are not feeling so keen to donate money, particularly if their own future finances feel precarious? But volunteering enthusiasm seems to be really on the rise! it’s a difficult trade…
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A3: It’s a cliché but out of a crisis comes opportunity and a chance to transform the way things are done. We’re slowly transitioning from the reactive to the recovery phase and while things remain very uncertain, we do know the most high impact partnerships have a crucial role in this next phase. Anecdotally we’re seeing clients show that, by ensuring they have additional resources available for later phases of the crisis.
Just yesterday we saw Barclays commit £100m to support the crisis and it’s fallout and have taken an all assets approach. Their optimising their services, we’ve seen senior leaders pledge some of their pay and they’ve earmarked extra funds to match donations made by their employees.
At CAF we’ll be encouraging clients to continue to think boldly and build on existing partnerships using three principles: openness, flexibility and dialogue. Crucial to this will be adapting business models and strategies around stakeholder groups like NGO partners. We’ve seen over the last decade companies doing this - those that don’t will have to catch up.
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On Question 3, one broad point is to make a little time to learn from working together on unexpected challenges in this unprecedented situation. With NGO partners, document and share what the crisis teaches us about effective partnership working. Agree how to adjust partnership and business practices in the future, in response to this learning.
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Advocate together – Mercy Corps’ experience from Liberia during the Ebola response demonstrates that collecting information on the impact of government’s measures on the economy and sharing this information with the government to advocate for adapting some of these measures has a multiplier positive effect. In Liberia, our advocacy efforts contributed to the government re-opening trade routes to let the flow of goods pass. Partnerships and coordination on the ground have the power to multiply the impact on government responses to ensure that traders and smallholder farmers continue to be supported.
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Sure Nicole. It is imperative that we have proper due diligence when funding issues are concerned. I wonder how long it would take to make a due diligence for a local NGO in the South and other developing countries. I have seen some due diligence exercises have taken months. In this case as D.D takes place the COVID-19 Curve continues to rise and the eventual funds might not help much . A time to think of an alternative of creating and looking for a trusted organisation as a central pot to disburse the funding to NGOs which will apply. Through this discussion It is easy to reach out to Most NGOs participating .
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Michael Smolens from Dotsub - in NYC - technology platform enabling video created in any language to be able to viewed in any other language - one of the ways is crowd/community translation which appears as subtitles on videos, our normal work is with a global network of thousands of professional translators, but created the platform for TED years ago which evolved in the TED Open Translation program
Glad to contribute our platform, experience to enable videos created about any aspect of COVID 19, in any language, to be translated into any other language, by local volunteers who would both have internet connectivity, and being bi-lingual between these respective language pairs.
There could be lots of remote languages that need to be translated to English, French or another language, then to another remote language, but we will try to figure out how to work thru this.
Just wanted to offer something to help life saving info be available to those on the front lines in languages they cannot understand - because good and accurate and timely messaging is critically important here.
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Could not agree more @JoshNewton. Openness, transparency, flexibility and dialogue is key to come out of this stronger than before. They say you have to work at a marriage. It is the same with a partnership, especially one that is going through such a tough time. Reaffirming values and principles of the partnership will help you through the medium and long term to come out much stronger than before
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Great point Michael - This crisis presents an opportunity to leverage technology – as our partners on the ground cannot move, they will better understand the value technology can offer. Partnering to provide connectivity, hardware, and access to social media and digital market platforms will go a long way to help partners on the ground stay connected and maintain businesses. For example, Mercy Corps in Kenya is leveraging its partnership with Safaricom, Twiga Foods and Jumia to provide food vouchers to the most vulnerable urban population through the Safaricom platform, with food packages being ordered through the Jumia platform, and delivered by Twiga urban retailers.
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The point on informal sectors is really worth emphasising. Newsnight yesterday raised the point that coronavirus has not been a great leveller - we’re seeing those worst off are losing out further.
Love a cliché - and totally agree with you that there is opportunity to transform.
No single organisation can solve this crisis, which is why partnership is critical to bring forth bigger thinking, bolder action, and combine expertise, ideas, tools and resources to support communities across the globe. Multi-stakeholder coordination and partnership will be critical to bring us all back up, and beyond, where we were before this crisis.
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Well put, Sinead. I’d add that companies should actively seek opportunities to build trust with partners. The way companies behave, communicate and involve partners in decision-making during the crisis will have a lasting effect on the future partnership. So, anticipate the partner’s concerns; and demonstrate early on how you will act in good faith and support their future as an organisation, as well as enabling the partnership programme to succeed in the changed context.
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Great points @Kate_Woodhead and @JoshNewton. At Mastercard, we’ve been identifying and promoting virtual opportunities to support our NGO partners AND to the point raised earlier about companies using their other assets, we are also promoting virtual “pro bono” opportunities to support efforts within Mastercard on COVID-19 related projects. Employees have stepped up en masse to help.
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Q3. What should companies and NGOs do to ensure their partnerships emerge from the crisis even stronger than before?
We need above all to focus on the relationship, and in particular the human element. Understand the stress everyone is under, the multiple priorities pulling people in every direction, people being furloughed and unavailable. Our recommendation is to have really open conversations over what is possible, not over-promise or over-expect from the other, but appreciate we are in extraordinary circumstances.
In many cases, agree to reduce the partnership activities - including communication! - to a minimum. Enough to keep the partnership bubbling along, checking in from time to time to keep the relationship going, but don’t expect or try to get anything like the usual level of engagement.
In some cases, some partners might be in a much better position to deliver than others - perhaps they can pick up more of the activities, and let others take more of a back seat.
We’re all tired of Zoom conferences, the fewer we can get away with, the better!
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The core of our work is centered around fast and flexible funding to ensure efforts to address the world’s greatest challenges can carry on without interruption. When things go wrong unexpectedly, organizations across the social sector come to us for help because of our speed.