Teamwork key to charities’ future
With increasing financial volatility around the world, not-for-profits need to lean into their strengths to continue supporting the primary sector.
As Agricultural and Marketing Research and Development Trust (AGMARDT) general manager Lee-Ann Marsh said: “Everyone’s feeling the squeeze around funding.”
The trust funded a report commissioned by the Agri-Women’s Development Trust in 2022 to understand the critical role that non-profits played in the food and fibre industry and how they can be more sustainable. “It’s more relevant now than ever,” Marsh said.
She expected the report to come under the spotlight again in the coming months when AGMARDT releases another report titled Industry good. Good for industry?
New Zealand has more not-for-profits per capita than any other country and according to the 2022 report – titled Not-for-profit performance: An agri sector perspective – the sector ”has been relied upon to conduct activities and provide important services in response to humanitarian or environmental unmet needs that are currently not effectively addressed by Government or businesses”.
These services cover education and research, health, leadership capability, community development and environmental stewardship.
And while the need is growing, funding and volunteer numbers are not keeping up.
Marsh said AGMARDT funded the report as it was seeing lots of organisations with good ideas but not enough resources to implement them.
The report showed there were opportunities for collaboration, she said, and it was about encouraging organisations to focus on their strengths and leverage off the strengths of others to net a bigger portion of the funding pie.
The report found that in order to build resilience and be sustainable, not-for-profits needed pivotal leaders, capable people, a strategic focus or purpose, ambition, the ability to balance investments, cross-sector connections, good relationships with funders, and the discipline to measure their success and make changes when something was not working.
Agri-Women’s Development Trust co-chairperson Keri Johnston said the trust had used the report to identify gaps and areas for improvement in its performance, and to shape its future.
The trust commissioned the report after noticing consistent themes in the annual KPMG agri-business agenda, Johnston said.
One of these was “the need for small and large sector organisations to collaborate more effectively to meet the challenges that we face, as well as maintaining viability”.
Not-for-profits played a critical role in New Zealand’s society and economy, Johnston said.
“They are significant contributors to our GDP, employment, and overall wellbeing. So many opportunities exist for agri not-for-profits to build on their strengths and magnify impact by harnessing the collective power of the sector: cultivating talent, leveraging synergies, fostering innovation, and lifting executional discipline.”