All charity directors dream of slashing overheads and operating their mission by using volunteers. Most charities indeed have a good cadre of volunteers mixed with paid staff. This is characterised by a number of problems:
1. Charities want to keep their overheads down so salaries are usually uncompetitive
2. As a result some charity staff members can be demotivated
3. In addition charities can attract staff who are not high calibre and are sometimes themselves "needy"
4. Volunteers working alongside people who are paid can be discouraged by this discrepancy
5. Volunteers at the end of the day cannot be relied upon – there is no comeback if they decide not to turn up to do the job
6. Some charities have developed creative reward systems for volunteers, such as Oxfam bussing their shop workers up to the HQ for a day of stroking, but all too often it is simply an invite to a Christmas party.
If we want to build a project with a truly global impact then we have to face the fact that Helen, Tracy, Bev, Emma, Kay and I are not going to achieve that. We have to have more people and people cost money unless they are volunteers. Whilst considering this problem and discussing it with people who are already interested in the project I have begun to formulate a cunning plan. At TME I want to try to develop a network of high calibre volunteers or "Associates" around whom we build the project. I am wondering whether it is possible to recruit and retain unpaid people who form the fabric of the organisation in a wide variety of roles and seen as being senior and critical to the success of what we are trying to do. They would not so much be told what to do and given times to do it but would organise their own schedule to achieve the agreed objectives for their role.
These people would be at the very heart of the operation but would work from their own base (home or office) funded either by themselves or by a network of their own contacts. The reason I think this might be possible (after 20 years in the voluntary sector where I could never have believed this) is that we are increasingly attracting high calibre people who want to help.
For example:
Clive Dove Dixon, Commercial Director of Warwick University
Gareth Eastgate, Leamington solicitor
Richard Berry, IBM manager
Dr John Millard, Retired Surgeon
John Hacker, Nursery manager
Amanda Gander Miller, School headteacher
Richard Wood, Tree Surgeon who designed the Starfish Controller
The entire staff of Eurotalk etc etcWhat sets these people apart for the most part is that they are offering of their time over and above the normal interest that people show in good causes. These are generally people who we have not asked and who we are not rewarding yet. Crucially they are all people who have simply got on with something without draining the resources of the organisation. I think this could be scaled up with a carefully thought out programme.
The way it might work is for example:
Partnerships
We need to build dozens of partnerships around the world. This will be time consuming and expensive particularly if we have to visit. Consider the large number of people who have either worked or travelled through one of our target countries. (I did two years with VSO in Zambia) Such people already have a pre–exisiting interest in that part of the world and probably links to organisations there. They would probably secretly like an excuse to revisit their old haunts and they will have a network of their own friends and families. Many will be in middle age and have at least some disposable income. We probably all know people like that. Carefully selected, people like this could handle one, two, or all the partnerships in a particular country. Working to a formula where we identify and select partners on the basis of some agreed principles, they could report to the Thare Machi Education office and have a relatively free hand (in the way that Bev and I have had) to develop the project within our overall aims.
Finance
There is more of a precedent for this in churches and charities which have volunteer treasurers. We need at the moment to draw up a sensible budget which will stand up to scrutiny (not one of my "one column" budgets as a recent potential associate commented!). This will need to be matched by annual accounts which Olu, our treasurer, then does not have to do any work to but can simply review.
Technical
Developing the software and hardware as the industry changes
PR and Media
Design of materials and developing a media strategy if one is needed
Events
Organising one-off events to promote Thare Machi Education or fundraise
Educational Content
Topic refinement, script writing, translation
And maybe many others…. We will need some staff and some of these tasks will have to be done by them but I could imagine many could be done by our "Associates". The key would be in the selection of the associates but with a trial period the risks would be low. Some general points would be: No tricky people, No people with egos, People who understand that part of their job is to raise money to fund their own activities.
The package might include:
Stephen Clarke