The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need for corporate partners and funders to ensure the stability and sustainability of non-profit organisations (NPOs) by helping them to build the capacity they need.
The role that NPOs play in society has never been more starkly illustrated than during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite a lack of financial support from government, and extraordinary resource constraints, they have gone to great lengths to ensure that people have been fed and have been able to access the services they need during a time of ongoing crisis.
Looking beyond COVID-19, it is becoming increasingly important to think about how to make NPOs more resilient and self-sufficient.
Investing in capacity building
Investing in capacity building is important as it creates stability and sustainability in NPOs, which averts risk.
If we take the example of the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF ‒ the world’s largest philanthropic organisation focusing specifically on improving children’s lives), two key insights emerged when it engaged with its partner organisations about matters other than funding.
CIFF realised its partners had common capability deficits and that it had not established sufficient trust and credibility to work closely with its partners, who felt unable to ask for support outside of specific programmes.
CIFF recommends that funders do not apply a one-size-fits-all approach and rather look at what organisations need to achieve their goals, both in the short and longer term.
Funders should help their partner organisations to connect the dots between capacity building and achieving their objectives. Capacity building initiatives will then become critical to their organisations, rather than exercises to appease funders.
Companies should likewise consult their NPO partners to analyse what support is needed. When companies focus on programmatic funding, they may unwittingly limit their partners’ efficiency, according to CIFF.
It took CIFF a long time to realise that individual program funding could be myopic; that such funding could put a strain on the programme itself, because the rest of the organisation would often be unable to keep pace, adapt, and deliver to what the program was trying to achieve. It has set up an organisational development team to support its partners with their capacity building needs1.
Capacity building support
Our 2020 primary research on corporate social investment asked corporates about the types of capacity building support they offer, and NPOs about which types of support they would like to receive.
Most companies surveyed reported providing NPOs with some form of capacity building, with almost two-thirds providing workshops and/or training (64%), followed by mentorship programmes (46%). The least common types of capacity building interventions were pro bono support (16%) and staff secondments (10%).
Most NPOs surveyed said they had received capacity building support, mainly in the form of workshops/training (49%). What emerged, however, was the insight that flexible funding for internal capacity building was the intervention most desired by NPOs (35%), which only 20% of companies in the sample claimed to have offered.
Such flexible funding makes it easier for organisations to include capacity building as part of their ongoing strategy.
For almost one-quarter of NPOs (23%), the secondment of staff to their organisations was the least desired type of capacity building. While there is no ‘right way’ to provide capacity-building support, GEO funders suggests that the ‘three Cs’ be borne in mind – making such support contextual, continuous, and collective.
Contextual support involves meeting the unique characteristics and needs of organisations, since no two are alike, which may require many listening sessions.
Continuous support involves long-term commitment to organisational transformation, with once-off workshops unlikely to bring about meaningful change within an organisation or help it to become self-sustaining.
Finally, collective support involves working together with other companies to increase impact and promote greater knowledge sharing, making sure that all the parts add up2.
Types of capacity-building support
Various types of capacity building that organisations can and do offer are outlined below.
Workshops and training
These are opportunities to improve the skills of NPO staff on topics including governance, management, finance, marketing, fundraising, human resources, and monitoring and evaluation, usually in limited-duration training sessions or workshops.
The NPOs in our research indicated that the most sought-after skills were fundraising (63% of NPOs), marketing (48%) and finance (30%).
Some companies arrange workshops for their NPO partners on a regular basis while others allow the NPOs to identify and choose the training most relevant to their needs.
Academic programmes
Companies can provide opportunities for NPO employees to upskill themselves through academic courses and leadership studies, which are typically longer than training/workshop courses and result in formal qualifications.
Mentorship programmes
These are interventions that create opportunities to improve skills in the partner organisations with an expert mentor and/or through peer mentorship programmes. Companies can provide mentors from within their organisation or can fund external mentorship programmes.
Conferences, seminars, webinars, forums
Funders can provide access to industry events and networks, either through arranging the events or meetings themselves or by funding such access.
Flexible funding for capacity building
Perhaps unsurprisingly, NPOs have been most appreciative of unrestricted or flexible funding during the pandemic, as it has largely helped them to conduct their programme work without interruption.
Flexible funding means not being prescriptive about the use of funds, allowing NPO partners to determine how they can put them to use most effectively.
Pro bono support
Companies or institutions can facilitate the process of professionals providing services such as auditing, marketing, legal, income tax and IT support for NPOs.
Secondment of staff
Companies can make their staff in key areas available to NPOs as part of their CSI contributions and volunteer programmes. Secondments usually span a longer period than pro bono support, typically continuous months or years.
Other
Other types of support can include human capital management support, joining the board of an NPO, extending loans and offering donations.
In addition to retention, human capital management support can be offered as a capacity building tool to assist organisations to manage the career progression, performance, and development of staff members.
In conclusion
Although there is no end in sight to the pandemic, assisting NPOs to strengthen themselves through a variety of interventions can help to pave the way for a more capable sector once the crisis has passed.
What is clear is that NPOs cannot be left where they were before the pandemic – existing from month to month, able to cover programmatic expenses but struggling to cover indirect costs in a low-growth economy.
A better system should be built to increase impact and deliver greater value to all stakeholders.
| Fiona Zerbst | Acting Managing Editor | mail me | |  |
| Khumo Ntoane | Staff Writer | mail me | |  |
| | Trialogue | | |
1. Malhotra, V. & Mundol, H. (18 February 2020). Want Impact? Strengthen Organisations.
2. Bartczak, L. (2013). Supporting Nonprofit Capacity: Three Principles for Grantmakers.
