Why Am I Here?
Luis Miranda - Co-founder and Chairperson, Indian School of Public Policy
In Brief
- Strengthen organisational capacity: Support strategy, systems, compliance, finance and recruitment.
- Respect Board boundaries: Distinguish governance from management and avoid operational overreach.
- Guide and support leaders: Offer perspective to founders and CEOs, and contribute to succession planning.
- Listen before advising: Adapt corporate practices to the organisation’s context and stay focused on the people it serves.
- Stay focused on impact: Prioritise the needs of the people the organisation serves and regularly reflect on the purpose of your involvement.
Many founders are not driven by making money. They have a mission to solve a problem in society, and they are deeply driven by that. Why do they need outsiders like us involved? The reasons are many. Most often the main reason is fundraising. They want people from the corporate sector to open their networks to fund the organisation. And that can be myopic of them.
These two organisations were my entry points into the social sector. Of course, the dinner conversations at home when we were kids played a role, just as the dinner conversations at home when our kids were growing up influenced them. If you want to know more about my initial experiences when I transitioned into this sector, you should look at this article that I wrote for ILSS many years ago – Drink coffee, lots of it.
Why I still stay on in the social sector is more important. The mission, the passionate people I meet, the change we experience – these are great drivers. At the same time, it can be extremely frustrating because people are wired differently, there may be mission misalignment, etc.
People in the Social Sector.
Many founders are not driven by making money. They have a mission to solve a problem in society, and they are deeply driven by that. Why do they need outsiders like us involved? The reasons are many. Most often the main reason is fundraising. They want people from the corporate sector to open their networks to fund the organisation. And that can be myopic of them. There is so much more that can be done. Here are some of the areas where ‘people like us’ can play a role:
- Strategy development.
Many founders haven’t had formal management education, but they have a huge amount of experiential knowledge. That experience can be leveraged through our corporate experience, especially in areas like scaling up, mission drift, appropriate staffing, scenario analysis, etc. - Improving systems, including compliance, financial and donor processes.
On the corporate side, we have a lot of processes that help grow and protect businesses. Can some of these practices be incorporated in the social sector so that work can be done more efficiently? Of course, customisation is needed, keeping the soul of the organisation in mind, and we should avoid the unnecessary bureaucracy that we all ran away from in our corporate lives. - Defining the role of boards.
This is another very important area. What does management do and what does the board do? The initial days were very frustrating. After decades of getting things done, it wasn’t easy to transition to a role of trustee or adviser. Quite often my initial response would be to roll up my sleeves and get working on a solution. I had to learn to hold myself back and let others deal with it. - Recruitment.
Our networks and experience can help in identifying areas that need staffing, identifying people who could fill them and actually conducting interviews. - Being a sounding board for the founder or CXO.
I have enjoyed this part tremendously and most of my time has been spent on weekly, fortnightly, monthly or quarterly conversations with them (depending on time and need). It is a huge time sink, but both sides have learnt so much from each other’s life journeys. - Succession planning.
This can be the most impactful role one can play on the board (as we have seen repeatedly at the Tata boards). And it has been most fulfilling and most frustrating at the same time! I’ve been involved with founder transitions in organisations like Centre for Civil Society, SNEHA, CORO, Educate Girls, Sunbird and 17000 Ft.
Was I successful in all of this? Heck, no! Some of the mistakes we make include assuming that what worked in the corporate world would work in the social sector. Or that money is the biggest driver (often even in the corporate world it is not). The biggest mistake most crossovers make is that they start giving advice immediately without listening.
I know that I have lost more money on bad investments in the corporate world than in the nonprofit world. So, the usual response that I do not know who to support in the social sector is not a valid excuse to stay away.
The question that some of us invariably ask is who benefits from all the work in the social sector. This is something that we need to reflect on regularly. We are here to make life better for those who struggle. But often the main beneficiaries could be the donors (they get awards, get mentioned in the press, attend fancy dinners), the founders (they get awards, get mentioned in the press, attend fancy dinners and sometimes pay themselves good salaries), the social purpose organisation staff (who get paid a salary), consultants (who are increasingly making a lot of money from this sector – in areas like M&E, strategy, recruitment, compliance, etc), and bureaucrats (another place to find a job post-retirement). The marginalised person at the bottom of the food chain is sometimes forgotten, despite the great impact numbers that we all throw up. This is not to say that people do not have good intentions. I have met some of the nicest, well-intentioned people in the world in the social sector. But good intentions do not always end with good results. At the same time, I know that I have lost more money on bad investments in the corporate world than in the nonprofit world. So, the usual response that I do not know who to support in the social sector is not a valid excuse to stay away. But asking this question once a quarter does help – ‘Why am I here and not somewhere else?’
Finally, I recall an article that I wrote for Forbes on why people give (money and time). They do so for a selfish reason, to feel good. It applies to us also who give our time. This was based on research by a University of Chicago economist, John List. His research discounted the role of altruism. Instead, he talked about the ‘warm glow’ theory of James Andreoni – people give money to feel the warm glow that comes from being the kind of person who, for example, saves whales. And there is nothing wrong with that. And that has been my biggest driver. It makes me feel good to get involved with these organisations and to give money away.
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