By Liz Davies, Chief Executive, SociaLink/Tūhono Pāpori
It was great to be joined by Soi Pearson, one of SociaLink’s Co-Chairs, and Christa George, SociaLink’s Organisational Advisor.
Rose Hiha-Agnew, CEO of CGA
- CGA surveyed the community sector earlier in the year and one of their findings was that 55% were facing closure of services and/or staff.
A conversation between Rob Campbell and David Latele about BBM – Buttabean Motivation
- ‘LinkedIn is like Facebook for people with money’ – good place to seek donations/support
- People with money do not know what is happening for people on the bottom rung of the ladder; BBM invest in 4 people working fulltime in social media to promote BBM, give a voice to the voiceless and fund raise
- People struggling in our communities is everyone’s problem; when people can’t find homes, do not have enough money to eat they will come through your windows and your cars
- Importance of having well-respected people on your Board to give the organisation kudos
Adele Stowe-Lindner – Institute of Community Directors (ICDA) Australia
- NZers give double the amount of donations compared to Australia
- Be aware of ‘them and us’; whilst you might not agree with the government, you don’t want to harm any relationship with them
- Referred to a report from Social Ventures Australia – Pay What it Takes – it talks about the ‘non-profit starvation cycle’, which starts with funders’ inaccurate expectations of the true costs needed to run not-for-profits. These expectations lead not-for-profits to under-report their costs to funders. In the end, they lead to a sector starved of the necessary core funding required to create resilient charities delivering long-term impact on complex social issues.
- A report about understanding attitudes to Australia’s community sector has been published – Community Compass – a segmentation of Australian views and engagement with the community sector – July 2024 – Rebecca Huntly
Salary Packaging – Barry Baker, Grant Thornton
- CGA is working with Grant Thornton about introducing salary packaging to NZ; it has been operating in Australia for a few decades to make salaries more competitive for those working in the NFP sector – salary packaging means you receive part of your income tax free. If you want to find out more go to the CGA website.
Artificial Intelligence – Matt Bostwick
- Important to have organisational policy on data security and how AI is used
- Feed copilot info to create reports
- AI can help composing emails, help with tone and clarity
- Can translate communications into other languages
- AI can be used for strategic planning
- Had an example of how an opp shop created an e-commerce site to sell garments and items, once a picture of the garment/item was taken, AI can generate a description of it to put on the website.
- AI will get more powerful over the next 6-12 months to the point where it can act like your agent e.g. book travel, accommodation etc.