Group items tagged

Development:  Conscious and Culturally Competent Management

Companies that use this approach to pro bono engagement – placing their emerging talent in the hot seat of managing that challenge to test and develop their flexible leadership capabilities, while simultaneously delivering real value to nonprofit organizations, are earning a return on talent that far outweighs their investment in such programs. 

Engagement:  Loyalty and Purpose

n response, Common Impact has championed ”virtual skilled service” as a solution and an equalizer in this environment.  Most team-based nonprofit consulting projects can take place almost entirely remotely – particularly with the advances in video conferencing that make far-off colleagues feel closer.  When everyone on the team is engaging virtually, it removes the feeling of being the “other” that remote or flex-time employees can sometimes have.  We’ve seen, to our surprise, that our nonprofit clients gravitate towards these virtual engagements as well, allowing them to engage their increasingly remote workforces and make the most of everyone’s limited time and capacity.   

If this new workforce is so strongly demanding purpose-driven and pro-social initiatives, why aren’t they showing up? 

trying to s

This very basic human connection is where we need to start – or in some cases get back to – with our thinking around how to truly engage employees, to get them to sign up, and to help them find the purpose they’re looking for in their work. 

The economic buyer.

The user buyer.

The technical buyer.

The coach

The third challenge is how to speak to businesses so that they respond. Here are five principles for engaging businesses: Speak as partner, not supplicant. Offer legitimate solutions to tough business challenges such as value propositions. Focus on how you will address their needs first. Know their numbers. Know the industry, the business, and your own assets.

social sector groups speaking to businesses in terms of the nonprofits’ own missions was a major barrier.

we coached everyone to focus on addressing the needs of the businesses themselves and on framing the partnership as a value proposition.

Workforce development nonprofits can provide a talent pipeline of workers

This framing as a value-add partnership,

The Prepare Learning Circle, for example, is a group of five cradle-to-career collective impact partnerships that are explicitly focused on exploring what successful collaboration looks like in the context of workforce development and employment.