How Can You Scale the Charitable Impact through online learning
Since the pandemic's start several charities have had to think about how to increase the impact of their work and sustain their local presence through virtual ways.
The sector of charitable giving isn't one of the sectors that's famous for being an early adopter of new technology though it is, in the words of Thrive for Good's International Executive Director, James Woller. "Charities tend to be more traditional and cautious when it comes to their efforts to expand. Thrive's had to take an entirely different approach to get forward, and that involved taking on a risk by delivering virtual training through ," he explains.
The introduction of online learning has enabled this organization to increase its impact. "Before the introduction of online learning, we had impacted around 30,000 people. Now, we're impacting close to 80k. We went from 550 communities to close to 800, seven nations to 47 as well as expanding to countries that we could never have imagined of," Woller says. Woller.
Another organization that has had to get innovative in order to meet the challenges posed to them by COV-19. One of these can be found in Vayu Global Health Foundation. Before the outbreak, Burke was traveling every few weeks to train medical experts in the field. As travel has not been feasible, the Vayu team developed an online course that allows for training and reach people all over the world.
"We use strictly for education purposes," says Vayu's executive director Thomas Burke. "Without , our efforts would have slowed to a halt because of the epidemic ."
We had a chat with Thrive For Good's James Woller and Vayu Global Health Foundations' Thomas Burke to discuss how they were able to increase their influence in such an uncertain time around the globe. We found out they could achieve this through two methods by teaching on the internet as well as looking at the charitable space from an asymmetrical perspective. Here's how they scaled the impact of their charity work:
1. Online Teaching
Thrive For Good
The world's population is dwindling to two billion and they don't receive the nutrition they require. Thrive For Good equips communities worldwide with skills to sustainably produce healthy, organic foods to sustain their lives by educating individuals who can learn the art of growing food for themselves as well as their family, as well as partners who are able to incorporate the Thrive's principles into their own programs. On average, the organization creates more than a million Canadian dollars every month in foods in their community gardens based on 50 cents per meal.
Partnering with partners across Europe, South America, Africa and Asia, Woller says they would not be able to scale their reach without the advent of online classes.
Online learning has not only increased the size of the company and expand, but it has also made it easier to overcome the obstacles posed by covid-19. "Just this morning, I am on the phone with my partner from Uganda which is a place where the borders are locked down and movements are completely limited... It would be extremely difficult to arrange an instructor in-person at the moment, and that's where online learning helps ."
Woller states that their company has saved a lot of money after converting to online. "We're saving thousands of dollars since the use of . If we had to deliver a physical Thrive trainer to every partner organization's community over the course of a month but it's impossible to grow in the same way we do," he says.
Vayu Global Health
Thomas Burke, emergency doctor and professor of the Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, is the director of both his company : Vayu Global Health Foundation and Vayu Global Health Innovations.
The Vayu Global Health Foundations is an charitable trust that is focused on identifying and implementing breakthrough solutions that have a transformative effect to improve newborn, maternal and the health of children. Its Vayu Global Health Innovations arm of the organization is a public benefit corporation which means they're a member of the World Health Organization as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and are fully committed to global health and the community.
In Vayu, they've created medical equipment that can help ease CPAP that Burke claims is one of the highest killers of youngsters under the age of five. The respiratory device required to treat this condition is able to decrease mortality by 66%. Because most of these devices use electricity, they're too expensive to be used in countries that are poor. The Vayu team came up with a solution for $300 -- less than the cost for the standard CPAP device worth $12,000 -which has the same features. It doesn't require electricity or bioengineering, which makes it simple to those who have limited resources to utilize. By using , they're able to train local medical professionals on how to use the device.
Since the CPAP course has proved to be extremely successful and they're in the process of creating another program to train medical professionals on how to utilize their new device called an oxygen blender. Normally priced at $1,200, they've designed the exact device at just $50, which can help those suffering from pneumonia or difficulties breathing.
In addition, the virtual platform allow to connect with more people, it also helps to standardize the training for medical devices. "We have master trainers from each country, but it's not sufficient. This training helps us improve the quality of our didactics that are provided and also to test. will be with our students," the trainer says.
2. Using a lense that is progressive
Thrive For Good
Woller states that conventional methods can prove difficult to scale charitable impact. "The very nature of a foundation's existence is built on donations and charitable giving. The relationship that has been established between the donors or philanthropists and the charitable organization that is delivering the program poses some issues in scaling up," He explains. "Donors don't necessarily want their funds going to improvements in technology... It's their preference to rather spend their money on initiatives... However through the development of capacities through technology, things are able to grow ."
Thrive's innovation has come from studying organizations already focusing on organic farming and nutrition, and expanding their work. "We did not have to increase the amount of money we have to spend in order to increase our impact. The company has shifted from a traditional B2C model to one that is B2B. We like to see ourselves as Java on your PC; it doesn't matter if we're Dell and Apple. We can white label what we offer. That's a great idea in the charitable space ."
They've managed to increase the scale of their operations since they went to the Internet, Woller explains. "We have been recently approached by an organization in India with a number of training centers, 18,000 staff and community workers as well as millions of beneficiaries. They approached us about their worries about food security in India and the crisis of covid-19, and they have requested that we push all their training to Thrive. That's scale."
Woller is a firm believer in the value of charitable organizations testing new approaches and taking risk. Their online training was a risk which paid off with great results. "I believe that a few instances of creativity in the charitable space is greatly needed. Making an impact requires taking risk. I'm glad that we made the decision to try online learning," the professor declares.
While Woller acknowledges that taking risks can be scary, he believes that the outcomes can be awe-inspiring and is a normal aspect of the entrepreneurial process. He says "Ninety percent of all businesses fail, yet entrepreneurs maintain their moving forward ."
Vayu Global Health
Vayu Global Health Innovations model Vayu Global Health Innovations model is built on the development of a robust income base to grow and self-sufficiently expand their efforts without relying on donations. "This is the most unique approach in the charitable space," he says.
With the progressive lens, they've now been able an online platform to offer training. This means that they're in a position to reach a larger audience than they could when they solely rely on in-person training. "We have the ability to think more broadly with regards to populations and health systems better than programs for demonstration ."
In the case of online learning, Burke believes that the outcomes are as great as the effort you're putting into. "You have to know that it's not easy to develop educational materials of high quality," he says. "Teaching involves some kind of entertaining as you're trying to grab the attention of your students. The focus shouldn't only be on providing information. You must to have fun and be imaginative. the time of your life. ."
Burke recommends charities work with locals within the populations in which they're educating when building out the materials they use. "It's good that charities collaborate on projects with locals rather than have an Americanized instrument which you're trying to throw over the Atlantic. I doubt that it can be successful," he says.
In summary, establishing an online class is an exciting step in the charitable space that can significantly boost the capacity of an organization to grow. Taking risks, being innovative, and thinking outside of the norm can help an organization increase its influence and impact.