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Organisation Development

Collective intelligence or collective stupidity?

2022-03-11T13:45:15+00:00September 23rd, 2019|

We often talk about collective intelligence, or the way we can take advantage of each contributor’s knowledge in order to find solutions that we would be unable to find individually. But we also talk about the dangers of a crowd. We see people in a group behaving in a way that contradicts how they would usually behave, in opposition to their values. How come the group sometimes brings out the best in us and in other cases reveals our worst instincts? Let’s start with this Native American story. An old man tells his grandson that we each have two wolves fighting [...]

How to write a successful proposal

2022-03-11T13:45:10+00:00May 8th, 2018|

Donors are like you and me: they are busy people, and often don’t have enough time to thoroughly review all the applications they receive. If you make their work easier, you will greatly increase your chances of catching their eye, by following these simple steps: Select the right donor Sending the same proposal to any donor you hear about won’t work. The first step is to thoroughly research available donors and to build up a simple document (it can be an excel sheet!) containing a list of donors most relevant for your organisation (ex. those that share the same overall vision [...]

Useful free resources for CSOs: tested and approved tools

2022-03-11T13:45:09+00:00February 1st, 2018|

Working in a small organisation is not easy. Financial and human resources are scarce, and although civil society organisations (CSOs) are aware that there are countless free resources and tools out there that could make their life easier, they are often so overloaded that they can’t invest the time needed to find out where they are and which ones would correspond to their needs. Here are a few resources we find useful, on issues that small CSOs often request support for; we hope they will allow you to free up time for what’s important: your programmes and the people you work [...]

Leadership Development: The Mustard Seed of Efficient Organisations

2022-03-11T13:45:09+00:00January 12th, 2018|

Leadership is an essential element that contributes to the success or failure of civil society organisations (CSOs). If properly nurtured within an organisation, it can be the panacea that can contribute towards ensuring a stable health in CSOs and boost their growth. Yet, it constitutes the weak link in many CSOs working in the Congo Basin. From Well Grounded’s experience in this region, leadership “affects all aspects of an organisation and can therefore have either a strong positive or negative influence on the ability of an organisation to achieve its desired impact” (Well Grounded Discussion Series 2016, Issue 1- unpublished). Through [...]

Structures in organisations

2022-03-11T13:45:07+00:00November 7th, 2016|

One of the key standard questions an organisational development practitioner will ask any organisation s/he will engage with is to show their organigram. An organigram will show the functions in the organisation and how they are related to each other. Sometimes the diagram shows the names of the members in the organisation, but this is not always the case. The organigrams that we see are often very hierarchical and this raises the question how much thought is given to the structure and how it relates to the strategy of the organisation. In his influential book ‘Structure in fives’, Henry Mintzberg identified [...]

ICT for CSOs: simple solutions for faulty internet connections

2022-03-11T13:45:03+00:00October 6th, 2016|

CSOs, like any other organisation nowadays, manage a lot of data. When we think about them, we tend to imagine all the activities they implement on the field; unfortunately, they also have to spend a considerable amount of time writing e-mails, sending reports or managing their accountancy. But CSOs also meet a different challenge: their access to internet. What connection can we expect in the middle of the forest or in a remote village? How can they then manage spending their time, with a slow, rare and unstable internet connection, on their field activities rather than waiting for a page to [...]

Raising funds for small NGOs: meeting the challenge

2022-03-11T13:45:01+00:00June 8th, 2016|

By Camaleo Let's face it: competition for funds is high, and fundraising has converted into an uphill battle for all non profits. The situation is even more dire for smaller organisations, especially when they are based in the countries where they implement their programmes. Small organisations and their specificities The vast majority of charitable organisations in the world are rather small, and most are based in the global South. Much of the good work worldwide is done by these small non-profits. It is true that for these organisations, fundraising is difficult. But they know the local situation well, and new technologies, [...]

Should social media be part of your organisational strategy?

2022-03-11T13:45:01+00:00May 17th, 2016|

By Victor van Reijswoud Social media is useful for more than just social connectivity and entertainment. Social media opens new possibilities for organisations all around the world. It changes the way organisations communicate and engage with their clients and stakeholders. Social media expands the communication reach of organisations at a lower cost and these relations become more intimate and frequent. Social media opens up new horizons for civil society organisations (CSOs) and and many CSOs worldwide are making use of this cost effective opportunity. Although you may think that this is only the case in the developed world, Africa is following [...]

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