In the world of global development, collaboration and community are crucial for addressing the complex challenges we face. Population Services International (PSI), a leading global health organization, has been at the forefront of addressing health concerns for over 50 years, providing essential healthcare services worldwide in the areas of family planning, malaria, HIV/TB, and sanitation.
We spoke with Karen Conley, Director of Grants and Contracts at PSI, to get her perspective on how Humentum membership adds value to the work they do.
PSI has been a Humentum member for fifteen years. What made this partnership last for so long?
PSI has been a member of Humentum since its inception and even before, when it was InsideNGO. Our long-standing connection to Humentum has helped us to stay up to date on regulatory changes, as well as maintain a broader connection to the international NGO communities that are working on similar issues.
What would you say is the most valuable aspect of being a Humentum member?
I think when I reflect on that, it’s the concept of community—the broader community that Humentum has created where other INGOs can come together, share experiences, and learn from each other.
PSI really values having the opportunity to connect and strengthen partnerships across the NGO world through this membership. That’s probably the most valuable thing if I had to pick one in particular, though there are many valuable aspects of the membership. This sense of community is truly key.
You mentioned several valuable aspects of membership. What are some others that have helped PSI?
Several things come to mind when I think about the benefits of our membership.
Training, of course—when we think of Humentum, one of the first things that comes to mind is the variety of courses offered to INGO members. We have sent our staff to take many of the course offerings over the years in different languages, both online and in-person formats, making them widely accessible. The facilitators have been great in terms of keeping participants engaged, particularly with e-learning or webinar formats, which is so important given the global context we work in.
The course offerings are varied, covering everything from donor rules and regulations, financial management, subrecipient management, USAID contracts, proposal and bid preparation, human resources training, to Project DPro for project management.
In our case at PSI, Humentum helped us tailor a Project DPro program that we could roll out to different cohorts within the organization, enabling us to create co-learning sessions. This was invaluable because everyone, irrespective of their role or department, plays an important part in project management. It was great to be able to offer Humentum’s Project DPro to employees at all levels across functions.
Another valuable aspect is Humentum’s advocacy and access to resources. Humentum does an excellent job of staying on top of donor updates and ensuring that its members are aware of changes. Their advocacy work in donor regulatory changes has been invaluable. We’ve appreciated Humentum’s approach to gathering member input and feedback when regulations are in draft form, helping to consolidate and coordinate feedback back to the donor, which is harder to do on an individual basis. Humentum has been extremely effective in creating one voice for the INGO community.
Finally, the opportunities for both formal and informal networking are essential in our field. Humentum creates spaces for this through its Listserv, Connect weekly digest publications, the annual in-person conference, online webinars, and roundtables.
These are some of the benefits that PSI really appreciates.
Given how busy everyone is, what makes it worthwhile to join the Humentum community?
To my knowledge, there’s no other organization that does what Humentum does. While there are various organizations that conduct trainings, Humentum is the only one that not only provides trainings, and access to resources, but also creates a community for INGOs to share experiences, navigate problems, and essentially serve as peer resources to each other.
With over 300 member organizations across the humanitarian and global development sectors, Humentum fosters a vibrant community of collaboration and shared expertise. Humentum creates practical solutions to improve finance, people, risk, and compliance processes through:
- Individual, group, and organization training
- Expert consulting delivered by a global team with years of sector experience
- A robust membership community for peer-to-peer networking, resources, and problem-solving
- Relationship-focused advocacy to address the sector’s most pressing operational issues
If you need training for multiple people, or external expertise with consulting, Humentum membership offers discounts on both.