What is The Tomorrow Project?
In late 2020, FuseSocial commissioned a research study Profiling the Non-Profit Sector in the Wood Buffalo Region to eliminate the knowledge gap and to create an up-to-date profile of the social-profit sector in the Wood Buffalo Region. The profile provided a count of active agencies and highlighted the overall health of active and non-active organizations and considerations around organizational health and operations that organizations are making.
This research was the first step in what FuseSocial had termed The Tomorrow Project: Reimagining the Wood Buffalo Social Profit Sector.
Why The Tomorrow Project?
With this data in hand, FuseSocial realized that a richer dialogue was necessary to truly recount the current state of the Wood Buffalo Social Profit Sector and collectively create a narrative for its future.
Enter the Wood Buffalo Community Foundation and United Way Fort McMurray and Wood Buffalo, collectively with FuseSocial referred to as The Collaboration. The Collaboration came together to explore the challenges social profits and their communities face in Wood Buffalo. Over a period of four months, The Collaboration identified key stakeholders to join an engagement process with Overlap Associates, who then went on to analyze the perspectives, stories and data that emerged across different methods of engagement to surface insights for the current state of the sector, the future state of the sector, and recommendations for future work.
State of the Sector Insights in 2021
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Staff and organizations are burning out and need mental health support. The pressures of the past few years have resulted in an increased workload and constant pivoting leaving staff feeling burnt out and in need of proper mental health support. The impacts can be detrimental from high turnover rates, future forecasting for the sector, stability, and stifling innovation - to name a few.
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The sector is operating from a place of "survival" which has led to it feeling strong and resilient, but insecure. Many organizations experience mission-drift to accommodate funding requirements or feeling the need to pivot their work to focus on “popular issues” to receive funding.
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The funding follows "popular" issues, influencing organizational mission and work. Funding requirements will change, often including “popular” issues as they arise. This funding uncertainty may influence mission drift or change alignment of their work to meet the funding requirements versus being funded for the type of work they ought to do.
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Staff and organizations are burning out and need mental health support. The pressures of the past few years have resulted in an increased workload and constant pivoting leaving staff feeling burnt out and in need of proper mental health support. The impacts can be detrimental from high turnover rates, future forecasting for the sector, stability, and stifling innovation - to name a few.
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The sector is operating from a place of "survival" which has led to it feeling strong and resilient, but insecure. Many organizations experience mission-drift to accommodate funding requirements or feeling the need to pivot their work to focus on “popular issues” to receive funding.
-
The funding follows "popular" issues, influencing organizational mission and work. Funding requirements will change, often including “popular” issues as they arise. This funding uncertainty may influence mission drift or change alignment of their work to meet the funding requirements versus being funded for the type of work they ought to do.
So now what?
In the next 5 years, participants would like to see more improvements in their own sub-sectors or organizations, but they would also like to see the sector in a position in the future where collaboration exists, terminology and language feel more representative of the sector and there is no confusion about what everyone’s roles are, in addition to data and resourcing being utilized to benefit the sector.
FuseSocial commitments
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Establishing regular cadence of dialogue and problem solving to build trust, movement, and momentum
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Clearly define accountabilities and roles
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Establishing enablers, such as a shared language and terminology glossary, asset sharing system, and data hub, that support the whole sector and community impact
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Establishing regular cadence of dialogue and problem solving to build trust, movement, and momentum
-
Clearly define accountabilities and roles
-
Establishing enablers, such as a shared language and terminology glossary, asset sharing system, and data hub, that support the whole sector and community impact