29.01.2016
With the start of the new year, it is time to look back and see what we have accomplished so far: we have met with more than 120 Turkish Civil Organisations, built close to 75 profiles on C@rma (visible if you are registred), posted more than 50 skilled based projects for them, organised 6 speed datings and engaged more than 150 volunteers who had never heard about NGOs before or thought to work with them.
But, what do we do exactly and how do we do it?
- Diagnostic (Thank you Pro Bono Lab!): Everything starts with a diagnostic of the NGOS; What we realised is that sometimes it was very hard for an organisation to detect what they really need (if you don't know what is SEO, you don't know you need SEO). So, together we discuss, we make sure we are understing correctly what they are doing and then we are assessing their communication, strategy, marketing, HR, finance, IT, volunteer and stakeholder management, etc. We are not experts but we are curious and ask questions to be able together to compose a list of potential projects.
- Projects: Once we have that list, we have three different ways to solve the issues of these NGOS:
- The short term technical projects: Think about graphic design of a logo, an excell training, defining user specifications of a website, etc. These projects are posted on the platform. Volunteers who registred on the platform are then automatically notified once a new project matches their skills. As C@rma, we are staying involved to make sure that the NGO is taking contact with the volunteers and make sure the project stays on the right track.
- The "how to " projects: where the NGOs would need the expertise of some experts to brainstorm for 2-3 hours. It can be "which HR system do I need", "What can I do to protect my intellectual property" "how can we make sure the press is publishing our reports" "how to establish a hotline". We gather 4-5 NGOs and, individually, for each of them, we find 5-6 experts for their specific problem. They brainstorm together in our now famous speed dating sessions and we, as C@rma, moderate the sessions. This is a great way for potential volutneers to discover what is an NGO and realise the impact they can have with their skills in just 2 hours.
- The larger projects: we are asking the support of corporate firms to engage a team of 10 of their staff on the project for 4 months to not only tell the NGO how they should do it but do it together with them. We are including this project in a Social excellence program where we are also training the volunteers in project management.
- Offline events: we want to create dialogue between the private sector and the civil society. We want them to understand each other and to gain trust. For that, we are organising quarterly Pro Bono drinks where we have 6 NGOs presenting each in 10min their activities in a casual environment and biyearly corporate breakfasts.