(A newsletter published by Going International

As we get closer to the new millennium the concept of long-term or strategic planning takes on a whole new light. Has your organization reviewed it mission to ensure that you are ready to enter the new millennium as a forward-looking and innovative institution? Are you anticipating global trends and maintaining a reputation as a true leader organization? If you have not taken the time to do an organizational review and fine tune your "vision" in awhile, this might be a good opportunity to take the time to prepare your organization to be a world leader going into the 21st century. Two articles in this issue show the processes two international NGOs have undertaken to do just that!

The international NGO, the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN), just completed the development of a strategic plan, a focus of its 1996-98 biennium. This process may hold some "lessons learned" which will be of interest to other international NGOs as well as other readers of International Trends. ISPCAN was founded in 1977 and has members in over 100 countries and a Board of Directors with members from 16 countries.

Following a thorough evaluation of current and potential activities in late 1996, ISPCAN Councillors (Board members) were requested to prioritize the projects in terms of current and future value. To supplement this process a survey was sent to a sample group of members in mid-1997 to ask their views on a variety of existing ISPCAN activities and possible new activities. The results from both of these surveys were used to guide a facilitated strategic planning session held by the Executive Council (Board) at their September 1997 meeting. A mission statement and objectives were developed during this session as well as a determination of the major issue areas that the strategic plan would cover. The chairs of the committees overseeing the targeted areas were then charged to work with their committees to develop draft goals and related action items. Much of their work was done by e-mail.

From the work of these committees, a Strategic Planning Committee, appointed for the biennium, developed a draft plan. A smaller working group, comprised of the chairman of the Strategic Planning Committee, ISPCAN's executive director, a strategic planning consultant, and ISPCAN's President as an ex-officio member, worked directly with each committee chairman on the actual drafting of the plan. This draft plan was reviewed by the full Strategic Planning Committee and then presented to the full Executive Council which adopted it prior to ISPCAN's 1998 World Congress, where they also shared it with the membership at the Annual General Meeting.

As the definitions of strategic planning differ around the world, it is important in an international effort for all members of the Board of Directors to understand the process that is being undertaken and to be comfortable with fully participating in it. This often will involve an initial orientation period in which the Board takes the time to discuss what it would like to accomplish and what process will best result in those outcomes. Because strategic planning is not a common practice in many nonprofits around the world, understandings of what this process is all about can vary significantly.

In an international effort, where Board members as well as the organization's members are in different geographic parts of the globe, communication becomes especially important. The process developed needs to focus on mechanisms to encourage good communication so that the process is truly reflective of the organization's key constituencies.

• Adequate time should be allocated for discussion of the strategic plan when the Board of Directors actually meets together. Whatever is not accomplished in a face-to-face meeting will take longer to accomplish by telephone, e-mail and other means of communication when Board members return home.
• The Strategic Planning chair will need to be the liaison between the Board of Directors and the staff members and/or consultants designated to help with the strategic planning effort. This liaison role will be especially important if the process includes a consultant not known to most of the Board members at the beginning of the process. As it takes time to establish a relationship of trust, the Strategic Planning chair can help to provide credibility to the process among his/her peers on the Board. From the ISPCAN experience, several considerations should be kept in mind when choosing a Strategic Planning chair: 1) someone who can work well in a team with the executive director, consultant (if one is used), and other Board members; 2) someone who is respected by their colleagues on the Board; 3) someone who understands and values a strategic planning process and can be its "champion" to his colleagues on the Board; and 4) someone who can commit the time to this process which can be a very time-consuming effort.

According to ISPCAN Executive Director Kimberly Svevo: "By taking the time and investing a portion of our limited resources into doing the process right, with critical membership input, leadership commitment and a professional internationally-experienced strategic planner, Bonnie Koenig, ISPCAN has benefitted in many ways. The process allowed our Councillors sufficient time to think through, become comfortable with and to embrace major changes in our very mission/objectives, as well as our organizational structure. We prioritized our programs to best utilize staff and financial resources. A success! We enter 1999 with more work to do but a motivated and positive membership, leadership and staff."

by Suzy Salib, Opportunity International

One year ago marked the beginning of a new opportunity for the Opportunity International Network of microfinance organizations. We restructured our global network to provide our members with greater involvement in Network-wide decision-making, communication and technical support. One year later, we have seen several successes and a few key challenges as well.

On the success side, our international Network Board has provided a mechanism for members to influence Network-wide decision making and bring local priorities to a global forum. Not only has this provided greater accountability between local, regional and international levels, but it has also provided unity of purpose and vision. The Network Board's 5-year Vision Statement and Goals have mobilized individual members to plan and set targets that go beyond their individual horizons. They now aim to bring more funding and capacity-building to the Network as a whole, not just their own organizations.

Our new structure has also allowed us to consolidate the management of our four regional offices. With consolidated management has come consolidated budgeting and planning - both of which are helping us assess the effectiveness> and efficiency of our technical service delivery. Prior to this consolidated budgeting and planning, it was much more difficult to coordinate expenditures and assess our funding inputs and performance outputs on a global scale. Our challenges remain on two fronts: communication and technical service delivery. We have made some accomplishments in improving communication across our Network. We've instituted a bi-weekly news and events e-mail bulletin that is broadcast to every member organization's executive director, board members (those on e-mail), and our own regional staff overseas. We also send out a longer, monthly e-mail journal from our managing director that provides our regional staff with more in-depth information and a forum in which to discuss and debate issues of technical service delivery.

On the technical service delivery end, our member organizations identified four key functional areas (individual lending, group lending, management information systems and organizational governance) in which they desired specific technical input. Individual member organizations that either had expertise in the functional area or wanted to develop that expertise were designated as Network-wide service centers in each area. Their role is to provide information-sharing, training and product development within their functional area. Any products or services they deliver should be applicable or adaptable Network-wide. Service centers are intended to work on a cost-recovery basis and can charge member organizations a fee for service, subsidize their services through grant funding or utilize a combination of fees and grants. To date, we've developed agreements with each service center on the products and services they will provide, performance measures and quarterly reporting. However, as our network and the whole microenterprise field moves from a donor-driven, grant-oriented one to a market-driven one, we still face challenges in delivering high quality services that our members pay for on a cost-recovery basis. We expect this to change over the next two years as our member organizations incorporate service center fees into their cost structures and fund raising.

We hope to bring you news of even greater progress again next year at this time. For more information on the Opportunity International Network, check out our web site at <http://www.oinetwork.org>.

The American Society of Association Executive (ASAE) will soon unveil a new web site designed to help U.S. associations developing their international program. At the present time its target audience is primarily U.S.-based associations, however, much information has been gathered that has never before been brought together in one place.

Specific areas that will be covered include conducting an international audit of your organization, developing strategic alliances and partnerships, expanding international membership and organizing international meetings to name a few.

Global Opportunities will be available on ASAE's web site within the coming weeks and will be found at URL <http://www.asaenet.org/go>

A report just released by Johns Hopkins University <http://www.jhu.edu/> says states nonprofits and other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) represent at least a (U.S) $1.1 trillion industry worldwide.

"The Emerging Sector Revisited" indicates NGOs provide more aid than the World Bank, employ more than 19 million people and work in areas many governmental agencies consider too dangerous or unstable, based on surveys of groups from 22 countries.

On average, NGOs get 47 percent of their budgets from government contracts and other public sector groups, another 42 percent from fees, and 11percent of operating revenue from philanthropy, the paper reports. If the NGOs combined revenues, they would rank as the eighth-largest nation in terms of economic activity, the paper reports.

NGOs also represent a wide spectrum of political and religious philosophies as they go about their duties of distributing aid, providing medical care, boosting education, protecting the environment and promoting democracy and judicial fairness, the report states.

While 7.8 percent of the U.S. workforce is employed by nonprofit groups, Western Europe leads the world in NGO activity, the paper reports.

The Netherlands has 12.4 percent of its workforce in nonprofits, followed by the 11.5 percent working for nonprofits in Ireland and the 10.5 percent working in Belgium.

Excerpted from Philanthropy Journal Alert, 12 November, 1998. To subscribe to the Philanthropy Journal Alert's free e-mail bulletin send an e-mail message (with the message section left blank) to: <pjalert-on@mail-list.com>