Elizayo Blog

The reality is that for many of years to come we will be fighting the battle of women empowerment. But are Men the Enemy?

Many Non Proifts quite often have protectionist visioning and are not prepared to make tough decisions when it comes to strategy.

When this incredible individual becomes and remains the pivot of the organisation, or becomes the person who has a stranglehold on organisational development and maturity, you are left with Non Profit founder syndrome.

The term “Social” in the Non-Profit field is the prefix for a plethora of different concepts - Social Entrepreneurship, Social Responsibility, Social Solutions, Social Sector, Social Value, Social Change, Social Problems, Social Responsible Business, Social Investments and Social Innovation etc. (To a certain extent the wide use of the term “Social” can be linked to the application of Corporate and business practices and applications to the Non-Profit field.) Social Innovatio

We need to ensure that our services are relevant, and determine whether interventions should bestrengthened or discarded.

[repost of 2015 post]I have written about the frustration of fundraising for nonprofit, community based organisations in South Africa before and feel the need to once again touch on this subject. My frustration level has not decreased. Some of the frustrations include NLDTF: Where the “bleep” is the lotto of SA. Why is there no annual call for proposals, why – if they have to sporadic call for proposals does it take so long to pay out to organisations? They seem to have a h

Competent and passionate leadership has always been considered vital in every civil society organisation. However who is the best person to lead an organisation is not always so easy. Due to lack of funding and the subsequent lack of supportive management structures, leaders in the civil society field are quite often a person who is appointed on the basis of balance of various prospects. The leaders are expected to be inter alia financial managers, fundraisers, high level s

Around 10 000 New NPO's are registered annually in SA. Why?

Leadership is one of the most talked about, but least understood concepts in the Non-Profit field.

Are NPO losing their visions/mission for a TPA

NPO’s and civil society organisation by nature inhabit a world of relationships. Whether between NPOs and beneficiaries, local NPOs and their partners, NPOs and donors, governments, the private sector, relationships are foundational to everything the sector does. However the term ‘partnership’ has been diminished by misuse and is applied to a range of relationships and at this stage is quite often a devalued term. In addition Network’ and ‘networking’ have become something o

When I was at university (some 35 years back) I had to write a paper on the differences between a For-profit and Not-for-Profit organisations. Suffice it to say it was not a great success- my approach was that there was no difference in method and routines – only a difference in what you do with the end result. (Profit). Since then much has changed and a business approach to NPO management is mostly accepted by all, with the qualifying difference that where a Business/For Pro

Risk is inherent to the life in general and in the NPO field in particular. In the NPO field risks cannot be avoided and are part of our everyday organisational life. This has always been the case - The future is always uncertain and the outcomes of events unpredictable. Why then the perpetual surprise in the NPO field when these risks pop up. Why then the resistance in developing plans to address the risks and the tendency to year after year raise the negative impact of th

One aspect that has not changed is the lack of a unified and cohesive Social Work front.

We have been working with around 350 Non-Profit organisations through various activities – training, monitoring and evaluation, strategic planning, due diligence, fundraising etc - in the past four years. In all my years in the Non-Profit field I have always fiercely believed that the organisations exists for the purpose of rendering services to the focus client group that their vision and mission advocates. I believe that the needs of the clients come first and that staffing