People powered organisations need cohesive communications
Non-profit organisations and charities face many different challenges in comparison to commercial companies. The third sector is really special as the staff often have close ties to the organisation, and choose to work there. The employees, volunteers and trustees from varying backgrounds come for the love of the mission but they stay because of the culture.
A charity intranet has the same fantastic benefits as it does for all organisations, including hugely improving communication, collaboration and business processes, however it also strengthens and maintains the community and culture. Community is essential to ensure volunteers and employees enjoy their workplace, which reduces expensive and time-consuming staff turnover and attrition.
Charities may make great use of staff meetings and management briefings; sharing information in a timely sense is important for all organisations, but is also a challenge. Some top-down or project related communications can miss key workers, or can overlook the rapidly changing needs of front-line staff. An organisation with a mission needs to be able to direct the passion of its people, in line with its values, to create the results the service users require.
Meetings that are supported with online communications and reference materials can be instantly shared with the entire organisation, or a targeted subset. People can then react and share their knowledge and experience – more openly than with email. It’s important to provide opportunities for real participation, whether by simply adding comments on existing information or adding their own blog or discussion forum topic. A charity intranet provides a ‘bottom-up’ communication model which can highlight the frustrations and concerns of service users and the front-line staff – the people who know what’s happening on the ground.
A well-designed, charity specific intranet will reduce administration costs around processes, and the costs involved in communicating changes in legislation and governance. The intranet can be the single source for such reference materials and a platform for connecting people to the organisation and, crucially, to each other.
See more ways a charity intranet can transform processes and improve communications >>
Wedge Black will talk about the importance of cohesive communications in a charity organisation in a free online webinar which will take place on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM GMT
In this webinar Wedge Black, our resident intranet expert will discuss:
- Why people powered organisations need cohesive communications
- The cost of not providing a platform for work
- Creating change, not just doing business
Attend this event to discover how to:
- Spend less on administration and more on service users
- Empower users, reduce email strain and disseminate essential information
Now you have the chance to WIN a free intranet for your charity worth GBP25,000 ($40,000) – not only do you get the software platform but also a complete intranet solution including:
- Unlimited user licenses
- Workflow and Forms
- Statistics and Search Analytics
- Blogging Tool and AD sync modules
- A dedicated project manager
- One year’s unlimited support and software update
- Accompanying consultancy sessions with our specialist intranet consultants, training sessions and a bespoke design – tailored for you exclusively by our in-house designers
