Before reading the cases presented in the article of Effective Capacity Building in Nonprofit Organizations, I have been wondered how I could ensure that my venture attracted enough funds, and with limited number of initial donations coming in, where I shall use them on. Capacity building was not on the top of my list, as it requires a large amount of money and such money is from people who resonate with the mission of the venture to help the uninsured get medical services, but not with improving the “operating capacity” of the organization. However, after reading through several cases, I believe that it is a must and strategic task to do for the venture.
The Samaritan Inns is a great eye opener for me, as it did something that the government was unable to offer and excel. My venture is very similar to it on this aspect. Due to huge cost, tight federal budget, complicated budgeting process and various stakeholders involved, offering health insurance is not something that the government can achieve in the short term. My venture needs to pick up where service is left, i.e. those who are not covered by any types of insurance. I also need to figure out a way to cover other possible medical costs incurred on my customers. What Samaritan Inns offered was huge for participants, by expanding the government program with housing facilities and treatment facilities. After the funding for 28-day rehabilitation program was discontinued, they decided to enhance their capacity by providing a full-set of services for the addicted.
This is something worth thinking for my venture. Shall I offer a full-set of services and products to help the uninsured reduce medical costs? If so, how and what are the steps to realize it? It requires much planning, networking, skills and obviously lots of money. To realize it, there are a few other things that the venture needs to offer to help people reduce medical costs:
• Partnering with community health agencies and clinics to offer uninsured medical services and needs
• Educating how to use insurances to reduce costs: e.g. choosing hospitals and physicians for different services
• Building healthy lifestyle and maintaining scientific diet: tips on food, exercise, fitness, drug prescriptions
In essence, the vision of my venture stays the same, making it possible for people to get medical services. The strategy may need to expand from offering health insurance to other programs like those mentioned above. These new programs will come to full play gradually, with the first two realized within the first two years of operation, and the third offered gradually since the middle of 2nd year.
Planning of Capacity Building
To understand where my venture will stand from day one to the future, I will apply McKinsey and Company’s evaluation tool for measuring capacity level against my venture. This tool will be available to all founders from day one and they will be asked to score the aspirations, strategy, organization skills, human resources, systems and infrastructure, organizational structure and culture. Key findings from the evaluation will be well recorded and analyzed for improvement in Capacity Building Log. I have designed this log to keep track of scores from each founder and their comments on future improvement. (Due to space limit, the Log will not be presented here.)
Arrangement on Using the Capacity Building Log:
• Evaluation is due once a year consistent with the end of fiscal year period. The scoring tool will be available to all founders and staff members three months before deadline.
• Score entered by staff, if any, will altogether account for a weight of 20%, while each founder’s opinion accounts for 16%.
• All scores and comments will be entered in the Capacity Building Log.
• All founders will sit together to analyze what these scores mean and to especially focus on written comments on improvement.
• Based on analysis of the scores, all founders will draft a plan to enhance the capacity of the organization to be approved by the Board.
Having understood the importance of building capacity for a venture philanthropy, I am wondering how I can strike a balance between using donors’ money and improving the venture for long-term and bigger benefits. To ensure the success of initial launching of the venture, shall I focus on the program first, at least within the first 6 months or the first year? Or shall I start from get-go to build capacity? Above all, important and beneficial for the venture, capacity building would not mean much if the venture cannot be launched or operated successfully in the first place.
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