Home Blog & Media The role of non-financial support in locally led development

The role of non-financial support in locally led development

September 16, 2024

Share this Post

Author

Tara Sullivan

Content Writer
Humentum

Launched in 2022 by the Ford Foundation, Weaving Resilience is an $80 million initiative for social justice civil society organizations (CSOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the Global South. The work addresses three core areas: institutional resilience, strategic relevance, and holistic well-being.

“Beyond funding, we believe if we provide non-financial support around particular areas, we create a more resilient civil society that can then address issues of inequality and injustice,” said Senior Program Officer Nicky LeRoux. “That’s what Weaving Resilience is about – the non-financial support our partners need for sustainable success.”

That approach – strengthening organizations by building skills and providing knowledge – exactly fits with Humentum’s approach, as well as their expertise.

“We heard from our larger partners — our quintessential recipient, if you will — that they needed help with how to manage finances professionally. Many have also grown, so they need additional skills, structure, and processes,” said Nicky. “We knew this was something Humentum had expertise with.”

Participants and process

As of early 2024, with two years left in the initiative, the “Weaving Resilience Resource Hub” had collaborated with 43 organizations: South Africa (20), Zimbabwe (11), Zambia (6), and Malawi (6). (Another 75 organizations are being onboarded to start the process from the beginning.)

The areas of focus are governance, financial management, and financial sustainability. To qualify, organizations complete a detailed profile and participate in an interview to assess capacity gaps and specific needs. (Those who needed help but didn’t qualify in 2022 were offered webinars on how to strengthen capacity.)

Humentum worked with each participant on:

  • Individual skill-building 
    Using Humentum’s existing course catalog, each organization chose two participants to take financial management and financial sustainability courses.
  • Complex problem-solving support  
    Consultants delivered comprehensive assessments of each NGO ’s unique needs, a customized action plan, and dedicated support over three months.
  • Real-time resources  
    Humentum provided access to an online support desk and resource library, as well as complimentary one-hour coaching sessions with a consultant.
  • Collaborative Community  
    CEOs and senior leaders from participating organizations engaged in a monthly community of practice webinar to facilitate peer-to-peer exchanges of insights and cultivate strategies for enhancing resilience.

Reasons for participating

Financial sustainability and financial management skills and processes topped the list for most participants to join the program, plus goals to:

  • Enhance governance systems and board effectiveness
  • Improve financial manuals to remove loopholes and create a comprehensive reference document
  • Build donor confidence
  • Scale and grow appropriately
  • Strengthen internal controls

Organizational benefits

The list of benefits was long and individual, given each NGOs’ different pace and stage of growth. Some of the common themes around the benefits of being part of the Hub include:

  • Board and staff input into the process to own it
  • Improved financial skills, from budgets to reporting to monitoring
  • Stronger board processes, from sub-committees to policies
  • Access to a resource library of tools and templates to quickly create organization-specific policies

 

When we were introduced to Humentum, the thinking was around how can we improve our governance systems and structures as a small organization, and also just how can we develop our board? Most of our challenges were around governance at the top level of the organization. Our systems were not really in place; the goal was to have proper systems, especially in line with governance of the organization.

Kumbirai Kahiya Team Leader, Girls and Women Empowerment Network (GWEN)

The experience was one of a kind. PERCCT successfully developed SOPs for board members, job descriptions, and an anti-fraud and bribery policy. We were strengthened and given the opportunity to participate in a year-long program to train our staff in various skills, including management, financial management, monitoring and evaluation, and SEAH. These are essential skills for any organization to operate professionally and efficiently.

Berenice Jacobs Director, Port Elizabeth Rape Crisis Centre Trust (PERCCT)

This process has given us vision and direction, and the policies and procedures for years to come. Defining sustainability has been really helpful. People talk about “how do you make nonprofits sustainable?”, in this process, I’ve looked at it as building reserves, community, finance mixing, self-financing, or with grants and partners. A diversity of funding is more sustainable.

Taryn Rae CEO, Tomorrow Trust

Designing the Financing strategy was most helpful as it helped us in developing plans to meet our financial goals and implementation of long-term objectives. Also, being given the push to work as a team to develop our own plan and policies. Deliberating on these 3 questions: where are we (situation analysis), where do we want to go (vision), how do we get there (strategy).

Nqobile Nkiwane Senior Programmes Officer, Forum for African Women Educationalists Zimbabwe Chapter (FAWEZI)

[The goal was] to upskill. To build internal capacity within the organization, especially in the areas of financial management and sustainability, good governance, etc. Our current financial management systems were relatively strong, but we knew that they can always be improved. We were really looking for what are some of the things, where are some of the gaps, where are some of the areas that our current systems could be strengthened and further improved.

Lindsay Henson Executive Director, Lawyers Against Abuse (LvA)

A different future

When looking to the future, even with continuing resource challenges, each NGO saw a clear path to progress.
In some cases, the work will involve updating policies (around fraud and anti-bribery, for example), while in others it’s a change in processes (how to work with the board and how to do due diligence on partners and potential funders).

For others, the changes involve a mindset shift as well. In future they will negotiate with donors, versus just taking what the donor offers, and put financial sustainability plans in motion to generate reserves.

The project really gave us a chance to strengthen the loopholes which were there, to have a comprehensive financial manual that we can use in terms of managing finances, the reference document that now and again we can go back to look through it. what is guiding us through.

John Nyirenda Executive Director, Youth Malawi

We received a clear financial strategy through the consultancy. We have the fundamental documents and procedures and policies; we need to integrate them and follow the plan. Our entire team worked on this process as a collective. We all understand it; now we have to do it.

Taryn Rae CEO, Tomorrow Trust

Understanding grant agreements before signing them, negotiating with funding partners on financing, running the organization as a business, among other things.

Nqobile Nkiwane Senior Programmes Officer, Forum for African Women Educationalists Zimbabwe Chapter (FAWEZI)

Measuring results

Throughout the project, Humentum is monitoring progress and satisfaction. Organizations also reconvene with the lead consultant three months after concluding the online training or consultancy. For consultancy engagements, an action plan was developed at the project’s outset, with subsequent assessments gauging the tangible impact on each participating organization.

The ripple effect of weaving resilience

Given the positive results, what can the sector learn from initiatives like Weaving Resilience?
“This kind of hub has become very popular,” said Nicky LeRoux of Ford Foundation. “Funders can see that a blend of financial and non-financial support is needed to move the sector forward. Core support is critical. People cannot do the work if you just support project work all the time. It’s not just the funding, but how you’re funding.”

From Humentum’s perspective, they frequently see this tension between funding the project work versus funding the organization.

“We are constantly working with NGOs and CSOs on both the current situation – managing budgets, understanding costs, applying for funding like USAID – and building the future resilience they need,” said Moulaye Camara, project leader and Technical Director, Funding and Financial Systems at Humentum.

“We are happy to partner with funders like Ford who are looking at the larger system issues, and helping individual organizations build the skills and access the tools they need for sustained growth. It’s impossible to deliver on your mission when you’re living from donation to donation. That’s why we focus on operational systems.”


Do you need help with your organization’s operational effectiveness? Work with us to build strong and resilient operational models for now and into the future.

Reach out today

How can funders embrace flexibility? Learn how Humentum is shaping a framework for effective, innovative funder operations.
Join Humentum Consultant, Sareta Thomas, as she explores how starting with equity automatically helps you with resilience and accountability.
Kim Kucinskas and Robyn Sneeringer discuss how with Humentum’s support, EngenderHealth created a framework and toolkit designed to guide their partnership strategy.