CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS

5.1: OVERVIEW (back to top)

This evaluation research was aimed at identifying the factors that enabled the Community Volunteers Foundation to achieve a rapid transition from start-up to maturity stage.  The findings of this research indicate that the organization’s exemplary growth can be attributed to its leadership, specifically the charismatic and visionary leader who inspired and enrolled many other resourceful people in the idea of serving the nation’s youth aged between 17-25; its transparency and accountability, particularly in its finances which helped build the organization’s credibility and gained the public’s trust; its organizational design defined as clear with a compelling purpose and guiding values; and its adaptive capacity, which allowed the organization to successfully manage change and deal with various external influences.

The findings of this study further signify that its exemplary growth and resulting wide public support are due in large part to the organization’s replicable expansion model through local chapters, as well as various other models in the areas of fundraising, training, and governance; its focus on a niche target population, namely youth, and channeling their energy into broad range of social responsibility projects; and the organization’s efforts to produce sustainable projects addressing the real needs of local communities.

Moreover, the findings show that the organization’s initial feasibility assessments helped build a strong foundation, and its ongoing needs assessment guided its development.  In addition, its planning efforts, which set specific and attainable goals and objectives, coupled with its investment in training and development of its volunteers empowered and mobilized its target population and added value to its beneficiaries’ lives.

Further findings of the study suggest that other key factors that took the organization to the next stage in its lifecycle included the democratic and participatory organizational culture, which led to a dynamic and harmonious environment; devoted staff members who work with a volunteer spirit; and the insightful fundraising approaches that mainly focused on corporate sponsorships and innovative fundraising events.
 
In addition to the interview findings, the researcher emphasizes the impact of the organization’s skilled use of visual communication in its public outreach to build trust.  Collateral data emphasized that archiving and presenting accomplishments using video clips, printed material, and the organization’s web site helped it raise needed financial resources and recruit more volunteers.  This secondary data also highlights the fact that the organization’s founders had invested in professional staff and physical location even during its idea stage, and the researcher points at these as factors that facilitate the early-stage growth.

The secondary purpose of this evaluation research was to describe the main difficulties faced during growth and to address the perceived challenges in sustaining future performance.  The findings of this study include three main past challenges that appear to be mostly resolved.  These are listed as uncertainty, the risk of working with youth, and being unknown.

In addition to past challenges, the findings identify current and future challenges that may hinder the organization’s ability to continue its exemplary growth.  Among those, the two most prominent ones are leadership succession and the potential impact of external challenges, specifically political climate and economic crisis.  One of the participants used the comparison of a newborn baby’s head being large in proportion to its body, but as the baby grows, the body eventually becomes much larger than the head.  Because the organization has passed its baby stage, the role and function of its founding leader should become less significant and should be replaced by the staff and board as it becomes more institutionalized.

The study also found that the current challenges are focused around volunteerism issues, including a high youth volunteer turnover rate associated with the nature of the organization’s target population; the volunteer profile, described as a potential lack of diversity; alumni volunteer challenges, a lack of benefit from the organization’s large number of alumni volunteers; and the limited opportunity for adult involvement with the organization.

Additionally, communication issues were described as a current challenge.  These include the lack of know-how transfer from each year’s staff, volunteers, and board members to the next; challenges resulting from generational differences between adult and young volunteers; and differences in work style, which mostly occur among staff members.

Though these challenges were described as potential threats, there was significantly less agreement on their importance compared to the challenges that the organization had overcome in the past.  Because of the organization’s adaptive nature, these current challenges can be addressed and resolved by developing appropriate strategies.


5.2: RECOMMENDATIONS (back to top)

To fulfill the purpose of this study, the researcher suggests that the organization continue investing in its success factors to sustain performance and achieve further stability.  All of these factors, with the exception of leadership, can be continued without critical change.  Even though the founding leader’s contribution was one of the key elements of early-stage growth, it can be stated that in moving from maturity to stability stage, this factor can be replaced with a shared leadership model requiring an active and engaged board in partnership with an effective management team.

Regarding the current and future challenges, the researcher recommends that the organization allocate time and money to invest in further capacity building activities to empower its volunteers, staff, and board members.  The organization may find preventative solutions to its perceived challenges by studying other high-impact nonprofit organizations serving a similar target population.

The organization may also focus on research and evaluation activities to collect measurable data and to analyze its efforts and effectiveness on a regular basis.  The research and evaluation process may enable the organization to better understand its impact, and it may also help the organization objectively communicate its accomplishments and challenges to its stakeholders.  The researcher recommends working with independent consultants to gather the research data, and designating proficient staff members to evaluate the findings and to develop customized solutions.

In addition to these general recommendations, the researcher provides specific ones that are grouped into two main categories: (a) recommendations based on findings, particularly the challenges expressed by subjects, and (b) recommendations based on observations, particularly the issues identified by the researcher during data gathering.


Recommendations Based on Findings

1. Leadership Succession

As stated previously, it might benefit the organization to evaluate successful leadership transitions in Turkey as well as in the United States and adopt their strategies as applicable.  One of the recent approaches is a shared leadership model based on distribution of responsibilities, described by Crutchfield and Grant (2007).

2. External Influences

Turkey is considered a developing country, and is run by a secular and democratic regime despite its predominantly Muslim population.  In this regard, the organization may be negatively impacted by volatile political and economic circumstances.  The organization can convert this into an opportunity by using its adaptive capacity and further promoting its vision for peace and solidarity along with its principles that stem from universal values.

3. Volunteerism-related Issues

Regarding the constant youth turn-over rate, the organization may invest in creating comprehensive standardized training and orientation packages for its volunteers consisting of videos, published articles, past speeches, and ready-to-use templates.  In addition, online learning tools, such as the one used by the Foundation Center in the United States, may help volunteers stay current with their training, and a web-based database may enable them to access resources anytime and from anywhere.  Considering high-tech a skill of the youth, the researcher also recommends to further utilize Web 2.0 technologies and social networking sites to build collective memory and carry on the organization’s commitment to transparency.

The organization may want to better understand its young volunteers’ profile by conducting quantitative research to verify their demographics and diversity.  Similarly, the researcher suggests forming focus groups to evaluate the specific needs, challenges, expectations, and abilities of alumni and adult volunteers to further benefit from their involvement.

4. Communication Issues

Better utilizing technology to store, share and access information will help the organization more efficiently train new staff, volunteers and board members, and evaluate the performance of people and projects.  A significant number of resources related to this topic are available online for free, along with paid software and membership-based products.  As the United States has many examples of successful use of technology in the nonprofit sector, the researcher recommends hiring a US-based technology consultant to conduct initial needs and feasibility assessments.

The organization can reduce the potentially negative impact of issues stemming from generation differences by creating opportunities for young and adult volunteers to work together on projects.  In addition, the organization may develop special workshops and training programs to cultivate mutual understanding.  These approaches can be applied to staff-volunteer relations as well.

Regarding work style differences, the organization may want to implement structural changes in its management model, establish middle management categories, and hire people who can act as a bridge between young or relatively less experienced field staff and the more experienced executive staff.  Having middle management categories may also provide an opportunity for those who would like to establish a longer career in the organization.

Recommendations Based on Observations
The researcher offers recommendations stemming from her experience with the organization during the interviews as well as data gathering process.  These are mostly based on the perceptions of the researcher and are supported by her knowledge of nonprofit sectors in Turkey and in the United States.  The issues and recommendations are listed below:

1. Data Consistency.Some of the key data sources reported conflicting performance results.  The organization can review its collateral data and make necessary adjustments to ensure consistency and reliability.

2. Translations. Currently, there are inconsistent and inaccurate translations, even in primary source documents.  The organization may benefit from a professional who can translate its documents to English and further edit the existing translations.

3. Reporting.As one of the strategic goals of the organization is to establish new international partnerships and expand its presence abroad, the organization may consider using standardized terminologies and classifications similar to ones used in the United States.

4. Methods. The organization may be well served by re-evaluating its data and replacing the measurement methods that allow double counting, even though these are widely used in the Turkish nonprofit sector and are accepted there as legitimate.

5. Endowment. Despite the organization’s successful fundraising efforts and several million dollar annual budget, the organization still has a very small endowment.  To bring further stability to the organization, it will be necessary to grow its endowment.

6. Projects. Although the organization takes pride in diversity of its projects, it may be useful to categorize the massive number of projects into 7-10 primary areas to help the general public as well as prospective funders and partners better understand its programs.

7. Key Staff. The organization has only one information technology specialist and only one proficient financial manager.  It may want to support these core departments with additional qualified staff members to boost performance and pass on collective memory.

8. Physical Location. The existing location is utilized to its limits, and it may prevent the organization from recruiting and retaining new talent.  Moving to a larger space that can accommodate the growing numbers of volunteers and staff may increase its capacity.

9. Technological Infrastructure. Currently, the organization is using outdated hardware and software. Moreover, it does not have the infrastructure to make use of audio or video conferencing.  It is recommended to update the outdated technologies to increase efficiency.

10. Systems. There are not many automated systems in place to take messages or respond to inquiries from the internet.  Using phone operators, assigning voice mails to staff, and designating a person to handle the email inquiries can reduce the loss of information.

11. Database. The organization’s volunteers and staff members still utilize Excel as their primary database.  Adopting an online database designed for nonprofits and customized for this organization can increase its operational efficiency, and store information securely.

12. Staff Training. Although the organization allocates almost 10 percent of its budget to training its volunteers, there are limited funds for training its staff.  It may be prudent to allocate additional resources and provide further training to improve staff performance.

To summarize, in moving from maturity to stability stages, the organization needs to look at its systems and processes and improve the quality of its infrastructure to be able to meet the requirements of growth and be prepared for a quantum leap.  In this regard, the organization’s commitment to keep operational costs at a single-digit level may need to be re-evaluated and replaced with a new commitment to capacity building and organizational effectiveness in order to achieve social change at a larger scale.


5.3: FURTHER RESEARCH SUGGESTIONS (back to top)

Although, this evaluation discovered the key factors enabling the rapid growth of Community Volunteers Foundation, further research can be done to better understand the findings of this study and to answer additional research questions.  The additional research opportunities that can contribute to the general body of knowledge on nonprofit development are stated as follows:
1. How different and unique are these success elements in comparison with other high-
 impact nonprofit organizations in Turkey and the US?

2. Are these factors universal?

3. Can emerging nonprofit organizations (or existing ones that are ready to renovate
 themselves) replicate these elements and attain similar results?
The additional areas of exploration that can intensify the findings of this research and further empower the organization are listed below:

1. The impact of Community Volunteers Foundation on the development of the Turkish
 nonprofit sector and its position among other nonprofits.

2. Perceptions that particular groups have about the organization:
  1. Perspectives of its target population, youth and adult volunteers, and the
    organization’s influence on their lives.

  2. Feedback from the past and present staff.
    3.  
  3. Reflections of stakeholders in the form of focus groups, such as trustees, board
    members, corporate donors, or media associates.

  4. Opinions of the general public.
3. The further exploration of challenges of growth and the strategies to manage them.


5.4: IMPACT OF THIS STUDY (back to top)

This research aims to help Community Volunteers Foundation better understand how it achieved a remarkable early-stage growth and a rapid transition from start-up to maturity stage, so that the organization can continue investing in its strengths while developing its weaker areas to realize further stability.

Even though this evaluation is primarily designed to answer the questions of the organization’s stakeholders and can be utilized as a comprehensive five-year report, it can also be used as a case study to communicate the organization’s accomplishments as well as its challenges with the external groups, such as international funders, strategic alliances, and academics.

While the key factors that enable the early-stage growth may empower the leaders of other nonprofits to apply the elements of success in their organizations, it can also contribute to the literature focusing on international non profit development.


5.5: SUMMARY OF LITERATURE REVIEW (back to top)

Nonprofit organizations strengthen democracy by providing widely available opportunities for civil participation. Community Volunteers Foundation is an exemplary organization that has ignited social change and accomplished a remarkable growth in a relatively short period of time.  A greater understanding of the organization’s recipe for success, as well as its roadblocks, is not only beneficial to the organization itself, but also to the development of the third sector. The researcher is delighted to have had the opportunity to shed light on Community Volunteers Foundation and sincerely hopes that this study will provide insights on its transition from passion to professionalism. It is also desired that this study will accelerate the organization's efforts to realize further growth and stability, and assist other nonprofits in becoming high-impact organizations.