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Description
At the Bureau of Social Initiatives Foundation (BIS), we support people who are active in the community. We teach people how to turn dreams into action. Our strategic goals are: • To develop a system of support for residents to become socially active; • To develop a system of support for NGOs, taking into account their diverse needs; • To strengthen the role of the Foundation in the process of developing cooperation between local governments, NGOs and residents. Our activities are aimed at three groups of beneficiaries: active residents, NGOs and local governments that are ready for local cooperation. We are an experienced organisation with a proven working methodology and a committed team. We have a strong brand in the Lesser Poland Province. Within the 5 years of the strategy, we want to: • build networks of Citizens'' Activity Places and NGO Centres as well as expand the small grants programme and other forms of support and services, • improve working methods, • expand the network of partners, especially entities from the business sector and local governments, • strengthen our brand as an expert organisation and build our community, • develop our advocacy activities in order to strengthen our position in the City of Cracow, • develop the knowledge and substantive competence of our team. We also want to develop: • the ability to diversify sources of funding (business, fundraising, paid services, endowment), • the effectiveness of promotional, sales and fundraising activities, • management processes, team cohesion and collaboration, organisational participation and a learning culture, • standard of office and equipment. Reporting tools will be developed. We will organise annual meetings to review the degree to which the results and their indicators are being achieved and the qualitative implementation of the plans.
Summary of project results
The BIS Foundation has prepared a comprehensive development strategy, planned for a period of 5 years, covering both the areas of program activities and
internal. Mid-year monitoring of the strategy indicates its implementation in all areas in a relatively proportional manner - the adopted goals
are therefore strategic in the implementation process. We monitor the achievement of planned indicators.
External factors have had and continue to have a significant impact on the implementation of our strategy:
1. full-scale war in Ukraine - people of Ukrainian nationality became recipients of our services to a greater extent, Lesser Poland Voivodeship
non-governmental organizations undertake various initiatives dedicated to this group and BIS supports them in these activities.
2. inflation, budget crisis, local government elections: cooperating local government units withdrew from some tasks (e.g. another Place of Activity
Residents in Krakow). New authorities in some local governments, including Kraków, where BIS is conducting intensive activities for
building a system of cooperation with NGOs and developing social entrepreneurship. This is an opportunity resulting from the new opening and at the same time
the burden of having to start some activities from scratch in order to win local authorities as our allies/the environment
ideas.
3. inflation, budget crisis and cuts in corporations: low openness to cooperation and financing of long-term activities.
4. Inflation of the employee market - it is easier to find new people to work, although we still feel very strong wage pressure and low
competitiveness of employment in BIS.
A trend that BIS should use to a greater extent is AI - we are gathering strength to use these tools to a greater extent.
The BIS Foundation has prepared a comprehensive development strategy, planned for a period of 5 years, covering both areas of program and internal activities.
Mid-year monitoring of the strategy indicates its implementation in all areas relatively proportionally - which means that the strategy is being implemented for all objectives. Some of the indicators have already been achieved and significantly exceeded.
Monitoring indicates successes both in achieving "simpler" indicators and selected "more difficult" indicators. An example of "more difficult" indicators implemented successfully is the scaling of some of our products. For example, in accordance with the assumptions of the strategy, we are developing cooperation with new partners in the field of local grant programs [currently we have 4 additional local government partners, while the indicator for the entire strategy was assumed to be 6] and mobile centers of non-governmental organizations [currently we have 4 local government partners, i.e. as many We assumed a 5-year strategy, the project index is 2, i.e. it has been doubled]. We classify these indicators into the "more difficult" category due to the need for co-financing of these tasks from local government partners.
Since its establishment, we have been carrying out activities to strengthen the development of the non-governmental sector in Małopolska, supporting it initially substantively, and later also financially (in the form of regranting programs). The funding granted under the grant allowed us not only to expand the scale of our activities, but also to strengthen the organization internally. The activities we undertake as part of the implementation of the Foundation''s strategy are consistent with the goal of the Program "Strengthening civil society, civic activity and empowering groups at risk of exclusion and equalizing their opportunities" and in the support areas: "Building democratic culture and civic engagement at the local level" and "Support development of the social sector.
However, during the implementation of the strategy, important external factors occurred - war, a large increase in inflation and, consequently, burdens on local government and business. In our opinion, this may constitute a significant risk of further implementation of some of the assumed indicators. An example is the withdrawal of the Kraków Commune from the development of the network of Resident Activity Places due to budget cuts. Assumptions regarding acquiring new business partners are also subject to risk, and our fundraising activities have not yet brought satisfactory results.
1. we increased the emphasis on marketing activities in the field of building the organization''s brand and promoting BIS flagship products, a brand strategy was created, we are developing new promotional tools.
2. the process of product scaling is ongoing (Local Grant Programs and Mobile COPs) - we are acquiring new local government partners. Building the Coalition for Neighborhoods leads us towards developing the MAM network (new MAM on the horizon)
3. we see significant progress in the development of paid activities - we have developed and are testing a sales system, we have new and returning customers, there is a queue of customers to the accounting office run by a company owned by BIS
4. internal improvements and changes - in terms of work structure and organization (process optimization, basic accessibility standards), development of a new remuneration scale, new member of the management board, development of team competences
5. further strengthening of cooperation nationwide based on the SPLOT network.
6. testing new fundraising ideas - MAM local fund, new idea for a 1.5% campaign (we don''t know the effects yet)
Challenges:
- unsatisfactory scope of cooperation with business as part of fundraising activities - the investment is still greater than the revenues, lack of companies interested in long-term cooperation, it is difficult to increase the scale of cooperation with friendly partners
- limitations in scaling activities - local government partners are unable/are not ready to finance the full range of services offered to local communities, BIS largely finances (invests) from other sources
We are facing (at the end of the year/beginning of the new year) a mid-term evaluation of the strategy - a revision of the goals in terms of their validity and feasibility. We plan to change the provisions/structure of the strategy in terms of reducing the number/merging of indicators and clarifying selected ones, which will enable easier monitoring.