Program Implementation Plan

Introduction

One World Children’s Fund (One World) is uniquely positioned in the philanthropic world to provide a dynamic portfolio of services to grassroots organizations. We fiscally sponsor a select group of organizations in Africa, Asia, and Central America (Member Organizations), who are solving the problems of poverty, poor health, insufficient education, economic insecurity, and homelessness for children in their communities. While each Member Organization provides services that are tailored to fit the needs of their local community, they are all building their programs upon the pillars of organizational sustainability: fiscal responsibility, effective governance, diversified funding, and community responsiveness. It is in these areas that we see exciting and meaningful opportunities for collaboration, peer learning, and mentorship within our membership network.

Over the next five years, One World will add educational programming and strategic grant-making to its portfolio of services. The programming will be driven by the needs and interests expressed by our Member Organizations and will be focused on the pillars of organizational sustainability. In the first year, we will introduce the programming most requested in our recent Needs Assessment: succession planning, cross-network collaboration, and sustainability training related to fundraising and communications. Each successive year, we will introduce additional programming on new topics determined by Member Organization feedback.  

Summary of Needs Assessment

One World completed a Needs Assessment in May 2021 to learn which programs and methods of delivery would be most meaningful to our Member Organizations. Representatives from 81% of our Member Organizations participated in the Assessment (stakeholders). Three high-priority areas for professional development and programming emerged:

  1. Succession Planning for Leaders & Fundraising Champions: 52% of all stakeholders requested support in this area.

  2. Cross Network Collaboration: 44% of all stakeholders want to participate in affinity groups based on region or program synergy and explore collaborative impact funding opportunities.

  3. Fundraising & Communication Training: 41% of stakeholders requested trainings on communicating with and fundraising from a US-based audience.

Small groups, peer learning, and virtual interactions were the preferred methods of programmatic delivery. Member Organizations also asked that learning opportunities be available to staff at various levels.

Program Implementation

Succession Planning

Succession planning is a cornerstone of organizational sustainability. Maintaining strong leadership throughout transitions is essential for effective governance and fiscal responsibility. It helps to ensure continuity of funding and consistency in programs designed to respond to community needs. 79% of One World’s Member Organizations are run by the founding leader, making succession planning crucial for these organizations.

In our 2022 fiscal year (ending on September 30, 2022), One World will offer quarterly virtual trainings for Member Organizations and their Fundraising Champions* on succession planning. Staff at all levels will be invited to attend, as desired by Member Organization leaders. Experts in succession planning are being engaged to help develop the curriculum and deliver portions of the content. Member Organizations that have undergone succession planning will be invited to lead sessions and share their expertise. The trainings will be interactive and will also be offered on a recorded basis, so time zones and conflicting schedules do not prevent participation. This will allow leaders to share content with support staff on their own timeline. If desired, breakout groups will be offered between sessions to encourage intra-network collaboration, accountability, and joint problem-solving.

Succession planning training topics will include:

Overview (tentative kick-off planned for December 2021): This foundational session will address the nuts and bolts of succession planning, including when to begin, who should be involved, how to determine the desired attributes of new leaders, how to recruit and support new leaders, and how to engage stakeholders in the process.

Developing a Leadership and Knowledge Pipeline: Even if a leadership change is not imminent, there are many ways to ready an organization for its eventuality. We will explore how to distribute responsibilities within a leadership team, create internal systems to transfer institutional knowledge, and develop an emergency succession plan. We will also discuss methods of developing talent within an organization to prepare staff to successfully assume additional responsibilities and new roles.

Best Practices to Embrace and Pitfalls to Avoid: We will invite leaders to share their own experiences with leadership changes. Through their real-world examples we will explore why some leadership transitions are successful and others are fraught.

Succession Planning for Fundraising Champions: Fundraising Champions serve as a conduit between Member Organizations and their US-based donors. It is critical that these funding sources remain consistent beyond the Fundraising Champion’s tenure. We will engage Member Organization leaders and Fundraising Champions to share the qualities that create successful Fundraising Champion/Member Organization relationships and discuss how to recruit and train successor Fundraising Champions.

Collaborative Affinity Groups

There are significant points of synergy across our Member Organization network, including (among others) similarities in the types of services provided and vulnerable populations served. Member Organizations and Fundraising Champions expressed interest in exploring these points of overlap to learn from one another and collaborate when mutually beneficial. Accordingly, we will pilot our first collaborative affinity group in November 2021, bringing together organizations providing housing and care to orphaned or abandoned children.

The direction and goals of the group will be determined by the participants, via surveys and group discussions. One World’s Program Officer will act as the facilitator. Areas of exploration will include achieving diversified funding and delivering programs responsive to the community. Anticipated topics include developing fundraising strategies, obtaining collective impact funding, and sharing resources amongst group members operating in similar geographic areas.

Sustainability Training: Communication and Fundraising

Obtaining funding from diverse sources, such as foundations, individual donors, and corporations, requires effective communication and fundraising strategies. We will offer a quarterly virtual training series, beginning in early 2022, to help Member Organizations advance their fundraising and communications efforts in the United States. Peer learning will be an important component of this training series. We will invite Member Organization leaders and Fundraising Champions with demonstrated success in major gift, foundation and individual donor fundraising to share their keys to success. The peer-to-peer training component will be designed to forge collaborative problem-solving relationships. Anticipated topics include drafting compelling e-newsletters and social media campaigns, securing major gifts, grant writing and budgeting, and navigating US charitable giving requirements.

In addition to the training series, experienced One World staff will provide feedback on a fundraising or communications piece (1 per year) for each Member Organization desiring this assistance. Staff will provide feedback from the perspective of a US-based audience on any relevant document identified by the Member Organization, such as a newsletter, website, appeal letter, or grant application.

Program Evaluation

All programming will be continuously monitored and evaluated to ensure that it is responsive to Member Organizations’ needs and that it is providing valuable opportunities for learning and collaboration. Evaluation methods will include:

  • Recording attendance at live events and tracking unique views of recordings.

  • Conducting regular surveys and questionnaires regarding the effectiveness of training sessions and additional topics desired by Member Organizations.

  • Collecting pre/post knowledge comparisons.

  • Discussing the subjective usefulness and applicability of One World programming during our annual interviews with organizational leaders and Fundraising Champions.

The feedback we collect will inform topics and delivery methods for future programming and help us identify new opportunities for collaboration, such as additional affinity or accountability groups. One World will report the outcomes of its program evaluation to stakeholders, including Member Organizations, annually.

Grant Making to Support Organizational Sustainability

One World recently launched a Resilience Fund to provide members with a rapid infusion of resources to respond to crises, while preserving other resources for their essential programs. We will continue to offer grants to our member organizations from this fund, so that long-term sustainability need not be sacrificed in times of crisis.

In our fiscal year ending in 2022, we will begin offering Sustainability Grants. Obtaining funding for organizational efforts that facilitate sustainability can be very difficult, because many donors only wish to fund program-related costs. One World believes that organizations and the people who work for them are of paramount importance. Accordingly, our Sustainability Grants will fund organizational systems and staff, so there is a strong foundation in place to support essential programmatic work. For example, an organization going through succession planning may need to provide professional development opportunities for staff members or hire an executive search firm to find the right leader. Grants from One World’s Sustainability Fund will provide flexible financial support that can be used to help Member Organizations build their organizations upon the pillars of sustainability.

Conclusion

One World is committed to remaining agile in its approach to educational program design and to avoid imposing an agenda that does not reflect expressed needs of our membership. It is our belief that local communities have the right to define the problems affecting them, as well as the trust, knowledge, and social capital to implement the most effective, sustainable solutions. Our members are the content experts in their service areas and understand what their organizations need to sustain themselves and remain effective agents of change in their communities.

We are designing programs that respond to the needs voiced by our community of Member Organizations, capitalize on the diversity and strengths of our membership network, create dynamic opportunities for knowledge sharing, and forge cross-network relationships that support collaborative impact. Our grant-making will reinforce these efforts and empower our members with resources to sustain and grow their organizations, while providing food, health, shelter, safety, education, and opportunity for children in their communities.

As requested by our Member Organizations, our keystone program in the first year will be our Succession Planning Series. In addition, we will pilot a Collaborative Affinity Group and offer training on sustainable fundraising and communications strategies that appeal to US-based donors. We anticipate focusing on methods for measuring and communicating the community responsiveness of programming (with a heavy emphasis on peer learning and community knowledge-sharing) as a keystone training topic in the second year. However, we will utilize feedback from Member Organizations to ensure that future training and programming responds to Member Organizations’ needs in ways that are impactful for their organizations.

* Fundraising Champions are dedicated volunteers who help Member Organizations with fundraising, communications, and grant reporting, and serve as liaisons with One World.