This week we tried a new, directive approach to communication.  Everybody met outside of class, divided into small groups, and tackled two critical topics on the agenda: the default policy and the mission statement.  The process was efficient, decisions were agreed upon, and everybody adjourned more or less on the same page with one another.  Most importantly, we constructed detailed outlines that will more readily evolve into official documents.  That one hour was, I believe, our most effective use of time thus far in the semester.

There is much to glean from that discussion, and I think we should reevaluate the process by which we have been running our scheduled class meetings accordingly.  As stimulating as they are, I don’t believe they have been as productive as they could be.  Granted that for each class we have a lot of material to cover in a small amount of time, a more directive approach will help us to settle upon decisions that can be translated into official documents.  It should be more efficient to debate and brainstorm outside of the classroom, and to finalize thoughts into official position statements while we are in the same room and on the same page.

Thinking Ahead

Earlier in the semester we realized that distributing cash loans could create a security risk, both for our clients and for us while we are on the ground.  What has recently grabbed my attention is the fact that however we decide to distribute our loans, to do so in any secure manner will require extensive planning and resources.  How will our clients obtain their loans, and how will they store the money?  How will they repay the loans, and obtain future loans, when we are no longer on the ground?  If we recruit long-term volunteers, where will they reside and where will they facilitate transactions?  The crux of La Ceiba will be its physical transaction procedure.  It will extend beyond our vision and policies, demanding a constant supply of attention and tangible resources as needed by our clients.  Really it is this activity that will determine whether we fail to deliver, and as such we should not neglect in planning this procedure until we near the end of the semester.  Simply said, we need a Director of Logistics that can map out a transaction strategy both on- and off-the-ground.  Perhaps we can assign this role to one of our new full-time teammates from the IAP Initative?Dodge City movie

The ball is rolling…

Mission Development

Dodge City on dvd

• We Were Soldiers on dvd

As you can tell from a recent post by Erin, we’ve been dedicating the past couple classes to defining who we are, what we’re trying to accomplish and by what means. Yesterday we initiated round two of mission statement brainstorming, writing up possible statements and slogans on the white board. A lot of good keen observations are in the works—I particularly like the concept of “buttressing” our clients, as Dr. Humphrey put it. I can tell we’re honing in on our identity. My own focus, coming from a communication background, has been less on what we say and more on how we say it.

What is the purpose of stating our purpose? I asked myself this as we brainstormed. From a business perspective, at least two answers come to mind: to inform and persuade our donors, and to keep our actions squarely on track. With that idea in mind I subdivided our mission into three levels in a systematic sequence that progresses from broad and grandiose to nuanced and technical:

1. Vision — This statement defines the end goal of our mission. Here we define the overarching problem we perceive and describe a world that has benefited from our mission. For example…we see a world in poverty; we wish to subdue that poverty; we envision a world in which people, who were once poor, have had a chance to pull themselves up into comfort.
2. Mission — Here we define the means to which we hope to attain our end goal as stated in our vision. That means will be based on our unique specialization, which in our case would be microlending and anything else we deem critical to our methods (e.g. whether we are holistic).
3. Objectives — Finally we outline our benchmarks of success. Essentially our objectives detail the approach to our mission, which may include granular and quantified goals.

From a fundraising perspective, these levels create a simple road map for communication. We open up with our vision statement, where our donors will decide whether or not they agree in principle with our end goal. If they do not, they will walk away and there is nothing we can or should do to persuade them otherwise. If they do, we may proceed to explain our mission statement, which explains the means to which we pursue the end goal of our stated vision. If the donors agree with those means, we may outline in more detail how we plan to carry out our mission. For most donors, a donation can be considered a social investment. All three levels of our identity—goals, means, and methods—are crucial details that all donors would want to understand to ensure that they and we are on equal moral grounds.

As the axis of our wheel—the foundation of our identity, our incorporation, our fundraising, our progress and our success—the mission statement is perhaps the most urgent item on our agenda.

Wild at Heart

Marketing

I’ve merged my department (IT) with Marketing and Communication. Recently I have been outlining an exciting web-marketing strategy for the blog, La Ceiba, and, possibly, the Two Dollar Challenge, which will a critical fundraiser for the capital base of La Ceiba. I won’t delve into that strategy now, but I hope to articulate them next week. Time is of the essence, and powerful word-of-mouth publicity requires time to mature.