Imagining the future

The vision for the network is becoming clearer 🌱

After a few conversations we’re starting to picture a thriving community of experts who are accessible to people trying to change the world with constrained resources.

The network of experts is growing and they are offering high quality support through the platform.

Experts are staying involved because it is easy, useful and rewarding to give their time and expertise — and because they can set clear boundaries around their involvement alongside their other commitments.

Alongside this, the network of burgeoning leaders seeking expertise is growing too - not just in numbers, but in the geographical and issue areas the are covering. The members spread the word through their networks.

These leaders can easily find and request support across the many capabilities they need when leading an organisation but which aren't always covered in a small organisation — governance and compliance, communications and marketing, project management, HR and people, for example.

They can bring practical problems to focused conversations with people who have relevant experience. They can also post up their work for feedback.

Some early observations

After posting a “Participants wanted” add on the Moral Ambition Community page and some exploratory chats with my own network, we’re doing exactly what the early discovery phase is all about - plotting the landscape, refining hypotheses, spotting potential value to people and generating more questions.

1. There are people willing to help as guides, experts and network supporters.

After some light promotion, we’ve had offers from a few potential guides, as well as people who see something interesting in the idea.

Working conclusion: there are experts out there willing to act as guides.

Still to find out: what makes the proposition appealing to them, and what makes their involvement valuable enough to keep coming back.

2. There may be a wider stakeholder group with an interest in this problem.

Intermediary funders have recognised the power of local partners to deliver. That suggests there may be a wider group of organisations asking:

How can smaller, locally rooted organisations get the support they need to do their work effectively?

Some intermediary funders are investing in targeted training and support for their local partners. I’m curious about how effective that support is in practice and if there’s duplicated costs across the not-for-profit sector.