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For as long as I’ve been in the social sector, there has been a consensus that those organizations who depend mostly on grant funding (whether from government or foundations or private donors) need to find better, and more sustainable ways to partner with the private sector, or more specifically, for-profit companies. The main reason behind this drive is the assumption that the for-profit world has resources and capabilities that can help socially focused programming achieve sustainability, inject innovative ideas and provide agility not typically found in the public sector. You’d think after a few decades that this question could be answered – and we’d see a constant mash up of companies and charities. And, to be sure, we do have myriad examples of those partnerships playing out at this very moment. But there is definitely no silver bullet that has swept across the not-for-profit landscape and, I am of the opinion, that there are just some fundamental differences between companies that are solely profit driven, and organizations that are not, which must be negotiated on a case by case basis… or maybe even a person by person basis. Sam Applebee, my guest for the 162nd Terms of Reference Podcast, sees the necessity for this negotiation and understanding between for profit firms and charities as an opportunity. That’s why he founded Super Global, a network of design, tech and data science companies that support and accelerate the impact of social actors. I became aware of Super Global after Sam sent me an article he wrote on why doing pro bono work might be the worst decision for profit companies can make. Intrigued, I had to learn more and I think this conversation goes straight to the heart of what this podcast is all about – how we’re seeking to break the mold of the social sector. Over the next 45 minutes or so, Sam and I talk about the nuts and bolts of starting an initiative like Super Global, the key points of that negotiation between for profit services and the charities that seek them, and some of the sexy (and not so sexy) project that Super Global has attracted already. You can connect with Sam here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samapplebee Tweets by Sam_Applebee
IN TOR 162 YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT
- The value in incorporating private practices into nonprofits to drive impact, creativity, innovation, awareness, understanding and more
- How Super Global quickly became a network of top agencies and individuals contributing to A&D from design, marketing, and even data science and machine learning
- How often “standardization” is another word for “silo” where honest feedback and insight are not incentivized
- Sam’s journey from going to the idea, to part-time enthusiast, to leader of a global talent network of 30 partners and growing
- Practical questions about the value of pro bono work, or whether it’s better to work in social change full or part-time
- The thorough and rewarding process of signing up for the Super Global network
OUR CONVERSATION FEATURES THE FOLLOWING
Names:
- Super Global https://super.global/
- Colombian Ministry of Environment & Sustainability
- Financial Times
- The New York Times
- Humanitarian Data Exchange (TOR 129)
Topics:
- Networks; disruption, understanding, dealing with frustration, synchronization
- Design, Marketing, Branding
- Data Science, Machine Learning
- Innovation, Technology
- Mainstream Media
- The design process, Prototyping
- Nonprofit financial management, UK law
- Pro bono work, Incentives, Risks, Contracts
- Early Warning Systems
- Rural and jungle internet connectivity
- Social Media, “Echo chambers”
- Impact; Motivation, rationales, intent
- High-skill individuals, Talent, presence in A&D
- Knowledge transfer
Places:
- Lisbon, Portugal
- United Kingdom (UK)
- Aleppo, Syria
- Colombia
EPISODE CRIB NOTES
Lisbon, Summer 2017 03:57 Super Global A community of designers, innovators, marketers, data scientists Agencies want social impact SG helps them define problem and approach Design and technology for collaborative problem solving Pooling resources, including understanding MSM was covering Aleppo, how people managed to connect online People were exchanging information Rumors, misinformation not always intentional How can we pool and validate, verify reports? How to incentivize factual work? 07:08 Common sense mistakes “You need to tell people when the bomb is about to go off, not later” Design agencies often have too standardized a process SG goes after honest insight to a problem Prototyping is good, but must always be results-oriented All in all, agencies are often willing to team up It all started with a pro bono project Up to 30 agencies joined Design and multimedia, to hard-core data scientist 10:08 Impressive speed of information “I jumped shipped”. Now Sam is at SG full-time Network demand is way bigger than a person’s full-time job, let alone part-time A common issue was financials, investment management in nonprofits He learned a lot from people “more knowledgeable than he was” UK financial law for nonprofits is tricky It became a better option to make a for-profit Organizations looking to join SG network would have to pay and annual fee Agencies paid to get work, and it worked They share information, learn collectively SG developed silver, gold badges according to fees, quality of contribution SG developed themes (“Europe refugee crisis”) with modules and parts, and the agencies fill in the gaps 15:28 Sexy and unsexy cases in point (you decide which) Early Warning Systems Bombs that are about to go off Colombia Ministry of Environment Wi-Fi in a box rainforest villages SG developed the modules, interacted with larger agencies, consulted on execution “Social media echo chamber” Engaging the right way with the right organizations Machine Learning “is unsexy, boring” but you can try and twist it Working with creative agencies for social impact, using ML to solve African issue Slow revolution But things are always changing, there’s always something new 19:36 How hungry are you? There is a shift towards intrinsically motivated impact More and more brands want to be identified with social impact Individual sentiment is also flowing They are merging, companies allow employees more wiggle room to tackle social projects A boon for SG New levels and qualities of skill coming to programming and development SG is pioneering many practices At the end of the day, the reason matters less than you would think, as long as the work gets done “We still think about this” Should people in impact fields be doing it full-time? Should they do something else for best results? Evidence in SG for both scenarios There are places where they’ve only started to realize the possibilities of social impact Including lots of high-skill individuals Other organizations are “natively impactful” One or the other does not determine how effective their social efforts will be SG tries to bring understanding, find the perfect match One of the current active challenges: knowledge transfer Related: actualization 26:59 Don’t ask nor do for pro bono work Someone is always paying Who pays for what has huge implications on incentives, quality How and how much should agencies be charging for their impact? SG found agencies doing pro bono work run into a lot of risks “Free” affects the quality and skills of the work coming to A&D projects It can also be straining on people, if improperly organized It does not mean agencies should always be charging for cold hard cash It is important to add a sense of value to the work When monetary value was added, work was still under market rates 31:12 Where do I sign up? It’s a surprisingly long process (not that long) Constant calibration, behavior adjustment Getting in front of people, extract and challenge ideas Convince them to work in field different from what they thought they’d be doing Internal models are also constantly refining A dumb way to start is with the inventory Agencies also have different languages, work goes into understanding And making experiences more universally valuable The future will be systematized, maybe even with an online platform 34:23 Lessons learned, designed “There will be frustration” on each side Hold on your impulse to leave it behind after the first clash Charities and businesses have different rhythms The chasm of slowth and rush Respect about each other’s work tends to go compromised This must be prevented first and foremost There are reasons why each team does things a certain way, trust that initially Money-based interactions seem to help stave off interactions “What do you do if you get a free car that breaks down in the middle of the road and you have to spend thousands in repairs?” Contracts that highlight value are a great lubricator to work and understanding Sam’s written about it 39:03 Super Global’s super future Short-term: moving forward with current projects Later on, revisit the membership model Better agency matching More solid, clear, effective frameworks Scaling up and down Become better capable to apply insight into actual work Everyone needs to get better at telling what they need More people in nonprofits are becoming more technologically savvy But the work is just started when it comes to knowledge transfer Many organizations are prime for process upgrade, re-engineering They need all the help they can get, from anywhere Sam’s background in consulting seem to help with the bigger picture 43:06 Sam’s club “I’m learning all the time with every conversation” Academic Research Financial Time NYT “We should form our own opinions” “All the information I get is always in context” Humanitarian Data Exchange (TOR 129)Please share and participate
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