Concepts and Approaches to Institutional Development:
Human Resources and Fundraising

Heba El-Shazli

The Human Resource

Money is a necessary resource – but not the only one - for an organization; there are also infrastructure resources, such as premises and conference rooms, and the human resource. Resource mobilization means managing the resources at hand as well as potential resources in an efficient manner in order to function appropriately, to be productive and sustainable, and to meet the set targets.

Leadership

To lead an organization requires good communication skills, wisdom, decision-making capacity, creativity, and initiative, etc. In a learning organization leaders are ideally teachers, responsible for building an organization where people can continually expand their capabilities, share perceptions, clarify their vision, and revise or improve their mental models. The leader is someone who harnesses the creative tension that exists in any organization. It should be in any organization’s interest to see its employees grow as individuals and to encourage and facilitate this, because it will have a positive impact on the organization itself. However, one should not forget that learning processes take time; providing facts and figures on a certain issue is much easier than trying to change behavior.

Job Description

The job description depends on the audience an organization wants to address; if the job does not require specialized personnel, the organization will throw out a rather general job description, and then choose among the various kinds of people that may apply. On the other hand, if the position in question is rather specific or related to a specialized field, the job description must be specific, too.

When putting together a job description, one needs to know the organization very well in order to be able to identify the missing and complementary elements that would enhance the organization. A job description is like filling a need that has been found in the organization, meaning one must be very careful in the wording, because an employee may take it very literally.

When drafting a job description, the following elements should be included:

A synopsis of what the organization does.

A clear description of what the job entails, showing both the exciting and the boring parts. Everyone knows that a job is not all wonderful and glorious; applicants do not expect to find the perfect job and therefore the job description should be realistic.

The daily, weekly and monthly tasks: the long-term tasks should be emphasized, because this will suggest that there is a future, somewhere to go with that particular organization. A job description should be fashioned in a way that even a secretary’s job should seem as though it has some potential, excitement, vision, etc., for example by indicating that there are future training opportunities.

The job description should also mention the supervisor (the person to whom one has to report), the work setting (the headquarters, a satellite office, a job involving travel), the salary range and the benefits package.

Staff Recruitment

The next logical step following the formulation of the job description is the staff recruitment. There are many possibilities as to how and where to recruit staff but the main point is to disseminate the information, be it an advertisement in the newspaper, by word of mouth, through networking, personnel services, or a head hunter. If a specialist is required, one may go to universities and talk to professors or experts. Phone directories or Yellow Pages can be another good source of information where one can look up addresses listed under a certain category, call people or send out job advertisements, or in the case of a job seeker, resumes.

Once a job vacancy has been advertised and the organization receives the applicants’ resumes and CVs the next step in the recruitment process is the interview. Depending on the kind of job and number of applicants, the resumes may be filtered beforehand and a short list of interviewees be created.

The interview itself should not be taken lightly; it is more than sitting down and having a dialogue. As time is usually the enemy, the interviewer has to focus on the important items and be aware of the following pitfalls: first, it is frequently assumed that the applicant knows far more about the organization than he/she actually does; and secondly, the interview is often limited to a certain set of pre-prepared questions, and once they are answered, the applicant rushes out. It must be taken into consideration that people sometimes just come in for an informational interview, i.e., in order to learn about the organization. Therefore, they should first be given an organizational overview and description of its activities.

Ideally there should be a selection committee, not only one person. For example, if there is an interview for a nurse’s position, not only the hospital director should be present but also the head nurse or people in other relevant positions. On the part of the interviewee, it is always good to learn a little about the organization beforehand, so that he/she can ask intelligent questions and make an impression.

Sometimes it is wise or necessary to have more than one interview, or add some tasks such as a writing assignment; there are many different ways, depending on the organization and its kind of work. The interviewee should also be aware of the next step, i.e., how many other people are being considered, when the selection will be made, and when applicants will be notified. Besides a description of what the future holds, the interviewer should also explain potential difficulties; the picture is never completely rosy and one should be always honest.

The selection of a candidate is usually followed by a probation period during which any wrong impression or misjudgments can be carefully considered.

Performance and Performance Appraisal Systems

The performance of an organization, unit or person is measured against set goals. These should be SMART goals, i.e., they should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Trackable.

Looking at the performance is also getting feedback and should be utilized as such. Feedback, when put in a drawer and forgotten, is useless; one should listen carefully and act accordingly. Sometimes there are incidents where an organization cannot implement certain suggestions because of its limitations, and this should be explained. That is the skill and talent of being a good manager. A leader has to encourage and communicate, while, at the same time set limits as well as voice expectations.

There is always room for improvement in any kind of authority or governing body, but whatever ideas or concepts are applied, one should bear in mind the given reality in terms of work, culture, positions, history and society. Concepts developed and applied in the Western World may not necessarily work in the Middle East, for example. Some things are acceptable and can be adopted, but others will not work and ways have to be found of dealing with problems. One way is to give suggestions, share ideas, experiences, success stories and not so successful stories and encourage the organization to see what example fits its particular situation best.

There are many models for improving performance but this is not the place to discuss them all in detail. In short, the following five essential steps can be taken to close a performance gap:

The performance must be analyzed to find this gap.

The underlying cause of this performance gap must be identified. This might be something that has to be done from outside, e.g., by a consultant, because it can be very difficult to look at it from inside if one is used to the organization.

One or more interventions must be selected, i.e., ways of dealing with this performance gap. One could be training, another could be access to data. For example, people involved in the implementation of a program who never get reports from the finance department may head into a performance gap because they end up over-spending as they cannot keep track of the budget situation. If they received monthly reports outlining the budget vs. spending, they would find it most useful in cutting down on expenses. Another example is the way jobs are structured; sometimes there is a performance gap in that two people are doing the same thing and there is a clash or duplication. The same goes for the flow of information; there are situations where a fax comes into the office and ends up on many desks before it gets to the addressee. If the jobs were clearly defined it would limit these performance gaps.

The change necessary to eliminate the identified performance gap must be implemented.

The results must be evaluated based on the initial analysis that disclosed the performance gap. This will clarify the present state, the problem and the extent to which the organization has achieved what it hoped to achieve through the change.

Fundraising and Proposal Writing

Organizations, whether NGO, governmental or part of the business community, need funds to cover salaries, institutional overheads, equipment, and a range of other expenses. No matter what kind of organization, financial resources are always limited and have to be managed carefully.

NGOs generally receive financial resources by submitting proposals to donor organizations and asking for funds. Funders usually require a clear outline as to why an NGO wants the money, how it is going to spend it exactly (budget), and what resources are already available. When approaching a funding institution one must always be able to convince the donor why it should give funds to this particular organization and not another one.

Proposal writing is an important part of the work of any NGO and should be done very carefully. However, it bears the danger that one can follow the prepared schemes and frameworks and get lost in all the jargon and terminology. Of greatest importance is the idea behind the proposal, i.e., the quality; the focus should be on the content and conciseness, clarity and logic. A two-page proposal, therefore, can be as impressive as one that consists of 30 pages.

There are various ways to write a proposal, but the following components should always be included:

An introduction to the project that relates to the mission statement of the organization;

The title of the project;

A background to the project, i.e., its general setting (why it should be done, what particular problem it tackles, etc.);

The objectives of the project;

A specific outline of the project, i.e., an exact description of the intended activities (what will be done and how);

A mechanism to evaluate/measure results.

The evaluation plan often gets left out but is increasingly important for funders because they are interested in sustainability, i.e., they want to know whether the organization will be able to sustain the project once they have gone. There are different methods of evaluation depending on the kind of project in question. The following four aspects should be looked at when doing an evaluation:

Reaction: if conducting a training program, for example, learning about the participants’ reactions as soon as possible.

Learning evaluation: looking at the principles, facts, techniques, etc. that were used and how these have effected a change in attitudes, for example.

Behavior: monitoring and looking at what changes in behavior resulted from the training program, for example. This is usually done by examining how people’s job performance has changed.

Results: considering the tangible results of the program in terms of reduced cost, improved quality, and improved quantity etc.

Evaluation can refer to a variety of issues, such as the administrative-logistic content, the project design, instructors, perceived impact, use of skills, confidence and ability to perform, impact measures, and so on. One important aspect is to keep track of the budget, i.e., to monitor the spending. The budget proposal contains the estimated expenses for the project in question. It basically assesses the approximate cost, and by monitoring the actual expenditures, one will be better equipped to do the next budget.

Generally a budget should mirror what has been outlined in the project description. For example, if it is proposed to set up a vocational training center to improve people’s skills in building and construction, it does not make sense to have a trip to Hawaii in your budget.

The general line items that should be in a budget are as follows:

Salaries and benefits: salaries should be calculated according to the number of weeks or months. The benefits in terms of health care, pensions, insurance, etc.

Communications and postage.

Travel and per diem: where necessary, distinguished by domestic or international travel and transportation.

Supplies, equipment, stationary.

Other direct costs: such as the cost of renting a conference room, providing meals for workshop participants, etc.

Contractual and consultancy fees

ICR - indirect costs: e.g., rent, administrative staff, electricity, secretaries. The amount depends on the costs and can account up to 30 percent of the total budget; however, high ICRs are not attractive to a donor, so it sometimes makes sense to shift some of the ICR costs into direct costs.

Sometimes a budget is flexible enough that it allows for shifting between line items, i.e., if there is under-spending on communications and postage, the surplus can be moved to areas where there is a real shortage. However, some donors set a limit for such shifts, a percentage per category, for example. It is principally good to over-estimate each line item, though without exaggeration. Which line items are eventually included in a budget also depends on the funder. Some donors, for example, consider taxes and/or hospitality as disallowed costs and will not pay for expenses such as VAT, restaurants or entertainment; others will refuse to pay for business or first class tickets and confine travel expenses to flights in the economy class. There are also funders that are reluctant to pay high salary costs; this line item depends on the project and organization, but in principle it can be said that anything over 50 percent of the total budget is considered excessive.

Other means of fund-raising include coalition building and tapping local sources, which often take the shape of private donations. Coalition building can be useful in cases where an organization itself is not able to accomplish a certain goal. If two or more organizations put their forces and resources together, however, they may be well in the position to achieve a common goal; beyond this, they may differ in their interest and policies.

The problem with coalitions, particularly in this part of the world, is that they are formed to obtain funds and once they receive them, they do not act as an umbrella but become an organization in itself. One way to avoid such a development is to have a coordinating committee and rotate the meetings within the member organizations.