Values-driven policy design
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Values-driven organizational policy design
Summary: Introductions, framing, discussion
Framing
- Consensus based leadership structure (1 block per 5 year term... or something)
- Diverse, committed staff
- Direct democracy community council, CC eligibility based solely on hours
- All meetings are f2f
- CC chooses staff people
- Split staff structure into paid (lots of effective power, relatively little policy power) and unpaid (advisory / keyholder status)
- Formalize current policies (socialist pay structure, privacy policy, funding)
Examples
Last summer's intern project, both times we've had massive conflict.
Notes
Free geek Chicago constitution
- Have a community council governance structure
- There are other free-geek orgs in portland, twin cities
- No overarching structure for all free geek structures
- Been around for 6 years
- Operate on consensus process
- Block - nuclear option - can use once in the career of the blocker
- Agreement that everyone can live with
- Every stakeholder must be at each meeting
- Face-to-face meetings
- volunteer 35 hours - you get a vote. Count renews quarterly (or within the past 3 months)
- Created the constitution from frustration from grand-funded nonprofits
- Learn how to take apart and build up and fix computers, ethical recycling. get credit for volunteering to spend towards getting a computer
- Have a statement on funding. Incentive structure of your funding really matters. Part of the outcome was setting the bar very high for foundation funding.
- Someone else decides priorities
- Fundraising is hard work
- Funding can obscure failure, due to having no chance to fail
- Can be hard to get rid of them
- Funding is an exchange. Somebody wants something from you. Always strings attached
- Funders often follows trends
Questions
- who provides funding?
- plans for when runs out
- how can funding protect org structure
Requirements
- all funding approved by community process
- transparency in what funding you get and how
- set limits on how much % funding your org can have
- Funders sign a memorandum of understanding - abide by all decisions made by community council and all communication will be public
- Sell computers
- Biggest cost is recycling (20k this year, $50-80k next)
- funding comes from our own grassroots campaigns
- Were offered interns (a form of funding)
- Certain strings attached
- Raised our own money to take on our own intern
- Could we do collective borrowing?
- Creating a bunch of co-signers to sign for a loan
- We are a 501c3 - but board is on paper only - not involved in daily governance at all
- Examples of where policies have saved an org?
- Most people write policy too late
- Large distinction between grant funders, individual funders, and grassroots funding
- Causa Justa :: Just Cause example around grassroots funding - that structure means that they can't abandon their mission and have to meet their member goals
- Use volunteers for grassroots fundraising - get read on involvement, remind them of the work they are doing
- Inside funding
- Free Geek doesn't do fundraising like that due to capacity issues
- Earmark money for ethical recycling for funding. Taking money for those sorts of programs seem like they work for us.
- Free Geek hasn't done much internal funding. I think it would be helpful.
- It might work doing a gentle ask for fundraising
- Had an intern that sent out thank you cards
- Allow other kinds of contributions
- Automated process of asking for funds - ask with the intention that you are going to hear no - surprised by how many people say yes
- Ask people who have given money before
- People get paid the same amount - people are into the flat hourly rate or two salary brackets
- A lot of our capacity goes to finding good hardware to refurbish
- Board members should give enough to make them feel invested
- Talk about fundraising as resource mobilization - allows us to value more than just cash
- We are going to require that people come to a couple CC meetings before they can vote