Strategic Fund Development: Building Profitable Relationships That Last, Third Edition

Components of an Effective Infrastructure

Effective organizations regularly evaluate their infrastructure to determine if a particular component operates well and contributes to institutional health. Organizations examine infrastructure by conducting self-assessments or by commissioning independent audits. You can incorporate ongoing assessment as part of annual operations. Also, a long-range strategic planning process evaluates infrastructure as well as program. (See Chapter 6.)

Generally, effective infrastructure includes the following components:

• Planning and assessment (strategic planning is the method to create the first relationship, relationship with community; see Chapter 6).
• Marketing and communications.
• Human resource development (staff and volunteer).
• General business management.
• Corporate governance.
• Financing (revenue and charitable contributions—and charitable contributions demand donor centrism).
• Quality assurance and continuous quality improvement (which includes customer centrism).

What’s missing? What would you add to an effective infrastructure? How do you design your infrastructure—including corporate culture and core systems—to meet the complex, changing environment and escalating community needs? I choose to talk about these eight components:

1. Shared values.

2. Art of leadership.

3. Commitment to process.

4. Learning organization (personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning, and systems thinking).

5. Ongoing conversation.

6. Participatory ...