Capacity Building Program for Choose Love

partners serving refugees from Ukraine

The goal of the Program is to support the organizational development of nonprofit organizations who are serving refugees from the war in Ukraine. They are spread across the surrounding countries: Poland, Romania, Moldova, Belarus, Ukraine and Greece.

The Program aims to accompany partners and provide them with tailored, on an on-demand support but guided basis, over a 10 month period, with experienced consultants who are close to them in language and geography.

The support activities can be anything that will help the partners become more successful, more resilient, more impactful, more attuned to the needs of their beneficiaries.

These support activities can include:

1. Quick online consultations with any participating expert
2. Onsite or online training, such as training for leaders
3. Coaching packages with leadership coaches or mentors
4. Organizational development projects, guided by a consultant of their choice, ranging from 20 hours to 10 days.  
5. Contribution to a grantee’s costs, such as the costs of an offsite strategy retreat.
6. Access to Nonprofit Builder's rolling webinar programme.
7. Any other support that will concretely help one or more of the grantees become more successful, impactful, sustainable, resilient.

Topics:

Boards & governance, Business models, Business plans, Campaigning, Communications, Financial management, Fundraising, Gender, diversity and inclusion, Hiring and retention, Human resources, Leadership and team building, Legal issues, Monitoring and evaluation, Organizational structure & roles, Safeguarding, Security, Strategy, Succession planning, Technology

See: Organizational Development: Core Expertise Glossary

Example questions you may work on as part of this Program:

• How do we get a simple strategy which works and does not sit on the shelf?
• How can we find a new business model and diversify our revenue streams?
• How shall we organize our communications to reach my audiences?
• How do we find and hire the right people with minimal time and effort?
• How can we plan our cashflow so we avoid financial droughts?
• How can we organize our remote team to work in a concerted way?
• How to make sure that our global team has equity in benefits and compensation?
• How do we ensure a smooth transition from one leader to another?
• How do we integrate diversity and gender equity or child safeguarding?
• Do we need a CRM and if yes, which one?

Who are consultants?

The consultants you would work with can be from your own countries/your region and often speak your own language! They are part of the Nonprofit Builder trusted pool of experts. 

Click here to access the Consultant Browser.

How it works?

1.Onboarding  

Communicate to us your priorities and readiness to start the Program via form below. We hold 60-90 minute intake meetings via Zoom on a rolling basis for all new partners. We recommend filling out the self assessment survey before attending the onboarding session. Following the intake meeting, you will receive access to the Nonprofit Builder platform, and an information pack with an explanatory video.

Click here to access the form 

Online Open Space for grantees - every 2nd Tuesday in month, from 5 to 6pm Central European Time CET

Feel free to join the Open Space for grantees of Choose Love onboarded in the Organizational Development Support program. You do not have to set up separate meetings with the team, just feel free to join and ask, or share your so far experience with ODS, consultants, self-assessment etc. Click on the dates below and subscribe for the ZOOM meeting.

14 February 2023  Link to register

14 March 2023 Link to register

11 April 2023 Link to register

9 May 2023 Link to register

13 June 2023 Link to register

2. The Nonprofit Builder Platform

The Nonprofit Builder platform allows the partner and the sponsoring funder to browse consultants and book meetings with them, keep track of all consultations and projects, register for webinars and watch past webinars, and fill in  organizational self-assessment to diagnose its OD needs. It has a live chat to get support at any time.

Link to the CRM Demo.

3. One-to-one Consultations & Additional Hours

This unique service allows partners to contact any one of 50 participating OD experts  to get support on any pressing questions. They  can book a 60 minute meeting via the NonprofitBuilder platform, and after the meeting the expert will send a helpful follow-up email with advice and suggestions. If one hour is insufficient, partners can request up to 20 additional hours from this consultant.

Click here to access the Consultant Browser.

View One-to-one Presentation & Roadmap

4. Executive Coaching

This kind of coaching is ideal if a partner is a startup, or if it is the leader’s first time as an executive, or if they are taking the organization through a complicated transition and need a competent adviser to backstop them.

Our coaches have very strong practical experience in all the important questions leaders may face: strategic shifts, motivating their teams, financial management, working with their board, partnerships, etc.

Coaching typically comes in packages of 10 sessions, either monthly or every two weeks, to be agreed with the coach. The focus is always on what the leader feels is most relevant to them.

5. Diagnostics Self-Test & Needs Assessment Call

We recommend starting with the concise self-assessment form below. It should be filled in by the management team, not only the chief executive. The resulting discussion will lead to a common understanding of needs and priorities in terms of developing the organization and may prove to be one of the most valuable gains from this Program. The partner may then book a needs assessment call with us. We will take 60 minutes to go over the self-assessment with the partner, and identify priorities, identify what projects could be part of its organizational development plan. We will then send a recap email, including our recommendations about which experts would be the best suited to guide the partner in the implementation of these projects. 

Click here to access concise self-assessment form - * Please do not fill out this very form, it is a sample - you are going to receive your own copy for your organization only!

6. Guided projects

Guided projects last about 2-3 months and include 5-7 days of consultant support. They are ideal for more mature partners who are ready for deeper dives into organizational transformation: pivots, transitions, growth, succession planning, income diversification, digital transformation, etc.

View Guided Projects Roadmap (with links to samples)

Choose Love- guided project roadmap by Nonprofit Builder

7. Webinars and onsite trainings

Together with the consultants, we have prepared for you a number of webinars on various different topics. Feel free to register.

CRM knowledge sharing open session for CRM users and for starters

Online sessions for Nonprofit Builder partners

Show your interest at this link.

1. Theory of Change Capacity Building, by Organizational Development Support
2. Action Learning Cycle: Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL), by Purpose+Motion
3. Leadership Labs: Leading in Times of Rising Complexity, by Purpose+Motion
4. Communication for Impact, by Rose Odengo
5. Fundraising Friendly: Setting up and Managing Fundraising in a Non-Profit Organization, by Czech Fundraising Centre
6. Unlock the Power of Technology: An Interactive Workshop Series to Optimize Your Processes, Enhance Productivity, and Drive Savings of Time, Money, and Resources, by Tzviatko Chiderov

Each course will welcome minimum 6 participants and maximum 12 participants to ensure good peer exchanges.

One organization can send people to more than one course. 

For past webinars and on-site trainings visit this page.

What can you expect from this Program?

The Capacity Building Learning Program should help the partner put into place building blocks of a healthy organization:

• A well articulated strategy that includes a theory of change, a resource mobilization model, a communication strategy and a set of goals and indicators with which to measure its progress.
• A solid situation in terms of leadership, governance, team, organizational structure and culture, operational capabilities, and financial management, so it may reach its goals.

Additionally, we hope it help you set partners on a path of continual learning and improvement: 

• Self-awareness: the partner is aware of its position/phase in their OD journey.
• Intentional: the partner has learned how to set OD goals and priorities, and become intentional in reaching these goals.
• Results: the partner has laid the foundations in at least three of its OD priority areas.
• Seeking help: the partner has learnt how to work with OD consultants and coaches.
• Continual learning: the partner shows interest in adopting a path of deliberate and continual progress in its OD.

How much does it cost?

The Program is at no cost to the partner. All costs and expenses are covered by its funder via the Nonprofit Builder.

Contacts

To enquire about this Program, please contact: Jana Ledvinova, Marie Říhová 

Ukraine Capacity Building Program by Nonprofit Builder

Choose Love Grantee Presentation by Nonprofit Builder