Our story

Discussions between a group of committed community leaders over 18 months (2019-2020) resulted in the formation of the ‘Coalition of the Willing for Community Governance’. Two workshops convened by the group identified what the problem and opportunities were and concluded there needed to be co-ordinated, collaborative strategy. This was reinforced by the release of the research report ‘What is the Future of NGO Governance?’ that called for a national, co-ordinated approach to investing in community governance.

A launch event was held in December 2019. As part of this event volunteers were asked to put themselves forward to contribute to the development of the strategy/Action Plan. In the first month more than eighty people had volunteered to help. Seventy more followed. Everyone who volunteered were included.

Six outcome areas were identified from the discussions and knowledge of the research findings; (see national action plan).

The goal of developing a national strategy is to strengthen, unify, enhance the value and support best practice in community governance.

Over 150 people contributed in seven sprints held between March – June 2020. Six were focused on our outcome areas including a Māori governance sprint to recongise the unique nature of Māori governance.

Co-design sprints involved bringing together of a diverse group for a concentrated period to use a a structured process to collaborate and problem solve.

The sprint process:

• was inclusive of the wide range of boards, committees and their members. Community groups operate across all sectors, across the rural / urban divide, are all range of sizes, have different operations models, risk profiles, and constitutional arrangements. The level of governance expertise and experience of community board and committee members is also variable.
• could scale up or down to include as many voices and volunteers as stepped forward
• was time and cost effective. Those involved would be busy volunteers and the project’s operating budget was shoestring.
• was action orientated. Many of us were weary of projects that involved meetings and talking that resulted in little action. This project needed to have a strong bias towards action.
• assumed the problem is complex and not well defined which is the case with improving the capability of community governance

Participants in the sprints were a diverse mix of community board and committee members, experts and potential funders and supporters. To ensure the needs and perspectives of community board and committee members were central to the process ‘personas’ a were used to design solutions for, participants had one of two roles;

• a member of the sprint team – who worked for two days to design and develop the actions
• a member of the challenge team – who provided critical and feedback a two points during the sprint

The process was designed for sprint teams to work face to face. However, COVID-19 lockdown meant the process was revised and six of the seven sprints were completed on-line.

From each sprint, two or three actions were identified and plans to put them into place were created. These actions and their plans form the National Action Plan for Community Governance.

The Coalition of the Willing that helped establish the project evolved into the Steering Group for Community Governance in 2020. The Steering Group, chaired by Mele Wendt, guided and championed the development of the Strategy and the Action Plan. The Steering Group was focused on ensuring the quality and impact of project work, inclusiveness of the process and considering the on-going sustainability of the project. See national action plan for members.

A ‘backbone’ organisation that provided a ‘home’ for the project has been an essential feature of its success. Backbone organisations provide logistical, administration, communications and co-ordinating support. The Centre for Social Impact provided this support.

This work would never have happened without the support of the five foundation funders; Auckland Council, Foundation North, Rata Foundation, Ministerial Discretionary Fund administered by the Department of Internal Affairs and Grant Thornton.

Each funder not only contributed to the operational costs of the project, but also their expertise, networks and as champions of the works. This co-investment model was critical to the success of the project and models the collaborative principles that underpin it.