Nonprofit work in Portugal? A country that is member of the EU? A country with a GPD per capita of $30,500 according to the CIA World Factbook? How could this be? I am sure that some where in the academic literature, there is taxonomy or hierarchy of non-profits. If one Googles “hierarchy of needs for non-profits, Maslow’s famous pyramid shows up. Of course, it is culturally based on western world thinking. As a business professor, I often came across internationals students, specifically from Asia, who stated that the highest level of their pyramid was family needs – not their own. So, what works in one country may not work in another. Even in the US, non-profits fall into various categories of development. As one progresses up the pyramid, the needs change from fulfilling basic needs such as food, shelter and clothing to incorporating business applications to maximize effectiveness – a split between sociology and economics. To do good, resources are needed, and it required that adaptation of business principles to maximize efforts and fund raising to support those efforts. This is a long way of saying that my role in Portugal was not to work with those who needed food, shelter and clothing but to work with the providers of these services to ultimately generate revenue to perform these needed services.
My background is marketing and international business. My career was in consumer-packaged goods marketing and teaching marketing and international marketing at the college level. I was matched with an organization. Crescer (http://crescer.org/en/the-association/) that is approaching 20 years in existence and is ready to improve and expand their fund raising so as to expand their programs.
What did I actually do? First, I acquainted myself with the organization - initially by web page and once in Portugal through meetings with a wonderful volunteer.
Florenica (Crescer) and Dorothy (venture with Impact) 2019 Lisbon.
Charities in Portugal are not as developed as other countries in Europe, but this had not been fully explored. Their employees and volunteers were focused on programs as opposed to the big picture. Research on the internet formed the basis of an overview to further recommendations. Then, we focused on awareness – how to inform people about the organization so that ultimately, they would be willing to support it. Then end product was a plan we developed which was submitted to Crescer to specifically increase awareness and to offer new strategies to raise funds.
Opening of a restaurant which trained unemployed people for jobs. Lisbon 2019.
Was it successful? Expanding awareness and raising funds does not happen in a short time frame.* It is basically a long-term strategy so results may not be known for some time. A few strategies were immediately adopted, and others would have been if they had enough “man/women power” to do so. Can more work be done? Yes. Development is not a one-time effort. Neither is it only short-term efforts. Crescer is a wonderful organization with many talented employees who are willing to learn and grow. I am so proud to have a very small part in that effort.
* One recommendation was to update the English version of their web page.