Amy Kweskin

We were founded as a member-based organisation 35 years ago. At the start members were core to our organisation’s activities but over the years we’ve lost touch with them. Last year we launched a new scheme which was an attempt to engage people into our organisation at large as opposed to having them align with one programme.

We now attract potential members with our mission but pull them in with our money-saving benefits. The membership numbers are rising and so are our volunteer inquiries.

Offering money-saving benefits is not useless. It is one of many tangible benefits to membership. But more than that we need to retain members. This steps into the need to promote a sense of community and even exclusivity. You join and you receive access – to like-minded people, to programmes, to staff and trustees. Building and maintaining that community, I believe, is the greatest resource challenge for staff.

The lines are being blurred between public, private and third sectors and creating community. I don’t perceive it as a competition but rather as a success that these positive ethos are crossing sectors. The challenge is for VCS organisations to respond to the changes in the “market place” and still add value.

A question that I keep exploring is: if we are mission driven and our mission is accomplished, successfully addressed by others or no longer relevant, what becomes of the organisation?” We exist to fulfil a need that is otherwise unmet. To stay relevant we must be in partnerships, leading the conversation, pushing for more. This need not be our core activity but it has to be our contribution to organisational citizenship.

Book Review:
Charity Governance
Authors: Con Alexander and Jos Moule
Jordan Publishing Limited
April 2007, 1st Edition
ISBN 978 1 84661 048 6
Hardback £85.00
est practices in charity governance can be compared to a sea voyage with the constitution acting as a map and the mission statement as a compass. Despite these tools navigation is an ongoing challenge for trustees, staff, lawyers and consultants. With the Royal Assent on 8 November 2006 of the Charities Act of 2006 and Companies Act 2006 a tempestuous element is added to the journey. However, with Jordan’s Charity Governance in hand lawyers Con Alexander and Jos Moule, of Osborne Clarke, provide an invaluable aide for safe operations.
Continue reading at
http://careergoals.blogspot.com/2007/11/book-review-charity-governance.html

A text that has been hugely helpful in my analysis of nonprofit organisational and programme development is Nonprofit Lifecycles: Stage-Based Wisdom for Nonprofit Capacity by Susan Kenny Stevens
I wrote a review which you can read here