How do you prioritize social justice in your non-profit strategy?

Working in technology can make you see alot of numbers. Each of those numbers is a human being, and whether thats been Brian, who while living positively was among the first teenagers I ever got to mentor, or Bonheur, a congolese refugee who lost the dream to become a teacher but now serves as a volunteer community health worker or Livingstone, a program officer who has left his home town to go and work in a remote settlements as a health program supervisor - my biggest lesson has been to peer behind the numbers, find the names and faces that make up the story of impact in the work I am a part of.

Buscamos garantir que nossos programas e iniciativas atendam às necessidades das comunidades marginalizadas e desfavorecidas, promovendo a igualdade de oportunidades e o acesso equitativo aos recursos. Isso inclui a realização de avaliações regulares para garantir que nossas ações estejam alinhadas com os princípios de justiça social, ouvindo ativamente as vozes das comunidades afetadas e adaptando nossas abordagens conforme necessário. Avaliamos nosso impacto por meio de métricas específicas, como o alcance e a participação das comunidades atendidas, as melhorias tangíveis em suas condições de vida e o feedback direto dos beneficiários sobre a eficácia de nossos programas na promoção da justiça social e da equidade.

See your values as commitments. Put them in your articles of association, annually measure whether you are living up to your values through staff and community feedback, and keep reflecting on how they show up in your recruitment practices, funding decisions, programme decisions and decision-making spaces

Our values are not just plastered on the wall, in sleek wooden frames and elegant fonts, we decided to not even use cookie cut phrases and asked our team, for the first year, to share values that would fit in a regular conversation, to truly see if we resonated with them. So we crafted phrases like "On the table" to address our need for transparency, and "devil in the details" to commit to leaving no stone upturned. This certainly wont be everyone's cup of tea, and later on when we have more advocates and custodians of our culture, perhaps we will adapt them, but for now, they are serving us - after-all, our work is truly "not all about the money".

Como uma organização sem fins lucrativos, priorizamos a justiça social em nossa estratégia ao adotar uma abordagem inclusiva e equitativa em todos os aspectos de nossas operações. Isso inclui o compromisso com a igualdade de oportunidades, a diversidade e a inclusão em nossos programas e equipes, a defesa pelos direitos das comunidades marginalizadas e a promoção de políticas e práticas que visam reduzir disparidades sociais e econômicas. Nossos valores fundamentais incluem integridade, respeito, empatia e responsabilidade, guiando-nos na busca por um mundo mais justo e igualitário.

There are two pieces here that are critical. The first is aligning the internal culture, policies, and practices of your organization with the external vision, values, and goals that you have. Consider how staff are treated, compensated, and valued. Is that a reflection of social justice values and the impact your organization aims to make? Or are some of the same issues being perpetuated internally? The second is looking at how you engage with the communities your work intends to benefit. A social justice approach will treat beneficiaries as experts and partners. Engage them meaningfully in the design of interventions rather than assuming needs or rolling out an intervention that's "flashy" to donors but doesn't meet the actual needs.

This is very critical - being able to steward over our resources (people, time, talent, treasure) well starts, I believe, with appropriately deploying them. Your activity plan, and how its prioritized every single week is to maximize the use and utilization of every resource you have. So we don't just want to be effective, we want to be efficient, employing comparative advantage of the team and ensuring automated well documented processes. We have made a commitment to use these processes to drive down our cost of production, and pass those savings onto our clients.

Para alinhar nossas atividades, garantimos que cada iniciativa e projeto esteja em consonância com nossa missão e valores centrais. Isso envolve uma análise cuidadosa para garantir que cada ação contribua para nossos objetivos de longo prazo e tenha um impacto positivo em nossas comunidades-alvo. Mantemos uma comunicação aberta e transparente entre todas as partes envolvidas, garantindo que nossas atividades estejam sempre alinhadas com nossos valores e com as necessidades daqueles que servimos.

Meet the community where they are by aligning all with your grant requirements, outreach effort, and directions from a community advisory group made up of people that these activities will affect directly. T This will serve to purposes: -Informed resource allocations -Early Community By-In

As a leader of a multi-national, non-profit social enterprise addressing a complex and multifaceted challenge our society is facing. I have come to realise that without collaboration, you are navigating the non-profit world blind. Collaboration provides insight, innovations, opens doors, and helps you to see your blind spots. Complex social justice issues can not be addressed in silos. When collaborating please consider the value all parties are bringing to the table and be accountable to your piece/s of value. It will put you in a good position to develop the opportunities that can arise from collaborating. It can also help you to minimise conflicts and cultivate transparency, both of which are crucial to a healthy collaboration.

Stakeholders, Partners, Clients - there are many buckets to place them all. While I think collaboration is nearly self explanatory, I am more drawn to the softer issue of authenticity in our dealings. It takes not just guts, but a good level of inner peace to know its okay to tell your client you are not ready with a delivery; or to tell your final users that the platform is not ready for the feedback they have already provided. We took more than a year showing partners a struggling dashboard that our own impact metrics undersold the reach we had achieved. But the temptation to look good, to sound good and to appear good will always be there. Authenticity (and honesty) will make any collaboration, even a hard one, greatly rewarding.

I consider support from businesses to matter a lot. For example, say you wish to advocate neuroinclusion to bring neurodiversity to the public realm. Businesses can show that neuroinclusion is more than social justice. It can keep talents, create a supportive workplace policy, and leverage the company's policy for neuroinclusion as a competitive advantage.

According to me Collaborating, coordinating, meaningful partnerships with stakeholders with similar business mind set is one of the major components to make the objective/s successful. Whether its with government agencies, local NGOs, village leaders, union members or private companies, amplified desired impact is possible when we are closely connected with each other.

Construir e manter relacionamentos baseados na transparência, confiança e respeito mútuo. Estabelecer parcerias estratégicas com outras organizações sem fins lucrativos, doadores, agências governamentais, setor privado, grupos da sociedade civil, em áreas de interesse comum e alavancando nossos recursos e redes coletivas para amplificar nosso impacto e influência. Resolver conflitos e desafios que surgem do trabalho com interesses diversos com diálogo aberto, negociação construtiva e soluções colaborativas que priorizem o bem-estar das comunidades. Colaborar com outras pessoas aumentando nosso alcance, credibilidade e inovação, fortalece a capacidade de enfrentar desafios complexos e alcançar mudanças significativas na justiça social.

One of the most humbling experiences as a leader was to superintend over an Organisational Capacity Assessment that clearly required me to supervise the exit of founding colleagues. Without the courage to face our fears, and humility to accept that the foundations were made of quicksand, it is pointless to engage in exercises that are designed for you to learn and adapt. Some where in the middle is to unlearn and relearn. And many times it felt like we were taking 2 steps backwards, but I am glad that the foundations are stronger; the team more aligned in the mission to serve each other and I believe our partners and collaborators will reap the benefits.

Para aprender e se adaptar, coletamos dados e feedbacks através de pesquisas, avaliações e monitoramento contínuo de nossas atividades e do ambiente externo. Analisamos essas informações para identificar tendências, desafios e oportunidades de melhoria. Usamos os insights e lições aprendidas para ajustar nossa estratégia, atividades e desempenho, priorizando a inovação e a eficácia. Compartilhamos nosso conhecimento e melhores práticas com outras organizações por meio de publicações, eventos de capacitação e colaboração direta, visando contribuir para o avanço coletivo da nossa área e setor. Aprender e se adaptar nos mantém relevantes, responsivos e resilientes em um mundo em constante mudança.

Para priorizar justiça social em nossos projetos de impacto, devemos ser desconfiados em como as coisas são construídas, sobretudo o conhecimento. Ter uma visão crítica da modernidade e do sistema capitalista é fundamental, pois não podemos promover justiça social plena em um sistema extrativista das pessoas e do mundo.