Yes, I very purposefully used the word Business with the word Charity. Those who know me will know that I support use of business concepts to drive productivity (eg Kaizen to maximise deliverance of aid) and fundraising (using marketing to get more buck for beneficiaries). But I digress.
Through my observations and discussions with non-profits in Singapore, I realised that charities need to overhaul the way they run themselves.
Simply put, the main issue is that most Singaporean charities only focus on their activities, ie what they are doing for beneficiaries. ONLY focusing on their activities.
The issue is not the activities, which in most cases are well-executed. It's what they are not doing that restricts the organisations' potential. Two key areas that these organisations should begin on is (1) participatory management, and (2) marketing.
Firstly, if activities depend on funding and human resource, to neglect the participatory aspect is a misdeed on charities' part. In particular, volunteer management is key to retaining volunteers, to keep them coming back to offer their time and skills. It is also important in training and distributing timely human resource into needed areas.
Secondly, what good is a charity's work, if it does not leverage on marketing to promote itself, in order to magnify its resources and thus its productivity? Marketing will not only boost an organisation's reputation, but also builds up goodwill as it promote your activities and its good people. This attracts more human resource (staff and volunteers alike), and more likely to have better successes at fundraising.
(Here is The Triad Model Part 2)
