Points to consider when coming up with an agreement between a non profit organisation and a corporate partner

Given the increased emphasis on corporate social responsibility and sustainability, more and more corporates are keen to partner with social enterprises and non-profit organisations in relation to a particular project, cause or fund-raising opportunity.

The terms of such arrangements would usually need to be formalised in an agreement, beforehand. This article looks at some of the points a non-profit organisation (“NPO”) might want to consider, when coming up with the right agreement for the collaboration.

A.    What type of document?

The first question that arises is probably what type of Agreement should be used. In reality, it doesn’t really matter what an agreement is called. It could be called a Collaboration Agreement, Sponsorship Agreement, Project Agreement or just plain “Agreement”. It’s best to avoid the name “Partnership Agreement” though, as the arrangement is not intended to constitute a partnership within the meaning of the Partnership Act 1961 or the Limited Liability Partnerships Act 2012.

B.     Content of the document

a) Parties

The parties need to be described properly. The corporate entity would most likely be Sdn Bhd or Berhad company. Ensure that the name of the company is stated in full together with its company number (“Company”). As for the non-profit organisation (“NPO”), its full name should appear, together with the words (Registered Society No: PPM-xxx-xx-xxxxxxxx) (assuming the NPO is a registered society under the Societies Act 1966)

b) Recitals

The Recitals would usually describe the parties to the agreement.

Sample clauses could include something like:

a)      NPO is involved in the [insert description of the NPO’s activities, vision/mission, objectives]

b)     Company is involved in the business of [insert description of the Company’s business]

c)      Company and NPO are desirous of collaborating on a community project to [insert the scope of collaboration/outcomes and objectives]

d)     The parties hereto are desirous of entering into this Agreement to give effect to the abovementioned collaboration.

c) Main body of the Agreement

You may wish to define specific terms in the definition section and include an interpretation section, if needed.

The Agreement should set out the term of the arrangement, clearly. How long will the arrangement be for and when does it terminate? What happens at the point of termination – automatic renewal, renewal with notice (if so, how many months’ notice is required), or, if the arrangement is for a specific project or goal, perhaps no renewal is needed.  

Next, the obligations of the parties should be clearly outlined. An easy way to address this in the Agreement is to include 2 clauses, 1 entitled “General Obligations of the NPO” and another entitled “General Obligations of the Company”.

The Company’s obligations would usually be to provide some form of financial support or donation to the NPO, in consideration for which, it might require the NPO to display/portray its logo, tagline or brand in a certain way on its promotional materials, buntings/banners, social media platforms, etc.

Another area to address is the mutual use and treatment of logos, taglines, trademarks, brands, confidential information, etc – as well as whether prior approval of the other party is required prior to dissemination of press releases and other forms of publicity.

d) Signatories

Always ensure that the signatory to the Agreement is a party duly authorised to sign it. For the Company, that would be either a managing director, CEO or other duly authorised representative. For the NPO, this should be an office bearer/member of the executive committee, preferably the President and/or Secretary.

e) Schedules

Additional documents, such as detailed plans, maps, manuals, sample advertisements or other documents relevant to the collaboration, could be attached to the Agreement as Schedules.

Hope the above is helpful! J Comments, questions or requests to cover particular topics, email me at spiralcom1701@gmail.com

Tips on setting up a new non-profit organisation

Today on my blog I share tips for office-bearers of registered societies on managing the secretariat of a small, volunteer-run non profit organisation. https://nonprofit-resources.blogspot.my/

Thinking about setting up a new non-profit organisation? The checklist below is not exhaustive, but could serve as a starting point.  

1. Registration : You will need to register your organisation as a registered society, under the purview of the Registrar of Societies (ROS) in accordance with the Societies Act 1966. In order to register, you will already need to have in place some (if not all) of the other items below by the time you submit your application for registration. Visit the ROS website for more details, as well as the link to the ROS online portal through which all applications must be made. Click on eROSes to get the landing page. 

2. Executive Committee : You will need at least six (6) other persons, who are Malaysian citizens (unless your organisation’s constitution states otherwise), who will take up the various office bearer positions on the Executive Committee such as the President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer etc. Note that you need a minimum of seven (7) persons in order to register with ROS. These individuals will need to provide certain details for submission to ROS, such as name, IC number, address, contact details etc.

3. Address: Choose a postal address wisely as this address will be stated in the Certificate of Incorporation, as well as the Constitution of the registered society as its official address, and this is the address to which documents such as bank statements, paper communications from ROS and other physical documents will be sent. If your organisation is based at a particular premises, you could use that address. If you do not have a physical location as yet, the official address may need to be the residential address of the founding member, or one of the office bearers.

4. Email Address, Website, Facebook page/group, Instagram account/Twitter account – It’s easiest to start off with a gmail account, perhaps something easy to remember for your volunteers and members such as [name of your organisation]@gmail.com. Creating profiles on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter is also really easy – the tough part is finding someone who is willing to commit time and effort to constantly updating these social media accounts! J. As for a website, to an extent, having one seems somewhat redundant in this day and age, as volunteers and stakeholders engage far more on social media than with websites. But it’s still a good idea to have a website, as you will find that corporate, government and international donors/partners /sponsors, still do ask for the website URL as part of their due diligence process on the registered society. So a website is really more for official purposes.  

5. Bank Account : Your organisation will need to have its own bank account in the name of the registered society. The account should be a current account and the signatories and mode of operation of the account should in accordance with the relevant Articles of the registered society’s Constitution. You will also need a chop bearing the society’s name, in affix the chop onto cheques (though take note that cheques are being phased out in stages by the Banks. If all transactions migrate online in future, the issue of authorised signatories to cheques will not arise.)

6. Register of Members : As your existing office bearers will be your first members, you should already open a spreadsheet to serve as a Register of Members and include the details of yourself and your office bearers. The register of members should contain details such as the full name, IC number, residential address, mobile phone & email address, as well as the date that the member joined and also the date that his/her subscription will expire (if they are Ordinary Members).

Hope the above is helpful! J Comments, questions or requests to cover particular topics, email me at spiral1701@gmail.com.

Membership renewals - sample text for emails to members

Unless the Constitution of your non-profit registered society provides for a class of members known as Life Members, your members will be Ordinary Members. Ordinary Members pay a subscription fee upon joining, and their membership usually lapses in 1 year and needs to be renewed every subsequent year (by way of payment of a membership renewal fee).

If your non-profit organisation is small and wholly volunteer-run, one of the executive committee members/office bearers is likely to have the delightful task of tracking membership expiry and renewals :-).
The good news is, if your organisation is small, you probably won't have that many members and can  manage the process using a simple spreadsheet with a column showing when the Ordinary Members joined, and another showing when their membership will lapse.

To help small volunteer-run non profit organisations, I've provided some sample text that I've used before to facilitate the process of reminding members that their membership has lapsed/is lapsing and, to thank them for renewing.

Hope you find it helpful :-) Comments, questions or requests to cover particular topics, email me at spiral1701@gmail.com.

SAMPLE : INVITATION TO LAPSED/LAPSING MEMBER TO RENEW MEMBERSHIP

Dear [name of member]

Just to let you know that your ordinary membership of [organisation] has [recently expired]/[will be expiring on {date}]

We would be delighted to have you on board for another year and we do hope that you would like to renew your membership. 

The membership renewal fee is [RM xxx], and can be banked in to our registered society's bank account, details as follows:

a.    Bank in the funds via ATM and email a photo/scanned image of the bank-in slip to [email address]; or

b.    Bank in the funds via online banking, and email the online confirmation to [email address] 

Account Payee	[Name of organisation]
Bank	[Bank]
Account Number	[xxx-xxxx]

We very much look forward to your continued support of [organisation].

Regards,

[Name]

[Designation]

[Organisation]

SAMPLE : CONFIRMATION OF RENEWAL OF MEMBERSHIP

Dear [ name of member ],

Thank you for renewing your membership of [ organisation ].

We have received your [ATM/online transfer details].

We will issue an official receipt as soon as we receive our bank statement for the month.

Your membership has been renewed for a 1 year period beginning [date] and lapsing on [date].

Again, thank you very much for your support of [organisation].


Regards,

[Name]

[Designation]

[Organisation]

A Journey of 5 years...

So recently, one of the non profit organisations I'm involved in, celebrated 5 years in existence at its 5th Annual General Meeting. This happens to be an organisation I've been involved in right from the beginning, so I ve really had the opportunity to watch it start from nothing and gradually grow into the vibrant organisation that it is today. It started with just a group of like-minded friends, each with a different skill, who got together to form a community garden. Today, it has grown into quite a large undertaking, but we are still fully volunteer-run.

Behind the community garden stands a registered society under the Societies Act 1966, and all the compliance requirements that go along with it. Being a lawyer, I was brought on board to help the others with running the secretariat. On a voluntary basis, of course :-)

Suffice to say it has been a challenge, trying to pull this off while also being employed full-time in a high-intensity job. However, it has also been a totally enriching experience which has given me the opportunity to stretch to learn new time management and multi-tasking skills, as well as,  the chance to learn so much more than I knew before about sustainable environmental practies, greening urban spaces, edible gardens and container gardening.  

So reflecting back on 5 years, I thought I would share some of my thoughts with you on being one of the founding members a non-profit organisation. 

1. Always be sure of your "why". When you are crystal-clear about why you are doing something, you get fired up, energised and motivated - and every aspect of the job - including the difficult, behind-the-scenes hard work, or long hours spent planning events, working out logistics, dealing with people, etc, takes on a new meaning.

2. Think creatively. Always think about ways in which you can leverage your skills for greater impact, even if you are under-resourced (as most small non-profit organisations are). Accept that hard work is involved. Sure, it's a challenge. You're already so busy with your day job, and now you find you have additional work to do for your non-profit organisation. Accept that hard work behind the scenes, is part and parcel of doing something good for the community that your organisation serves. The best strategy to balance all your obligation, is to be creative, and invest time in designing systems to maximise efficiency and output.

3. Always learn new ways of doing things. Be open to new ideas, new technogies and new tools and apps out there. Keep track of regulatory developments in the non-profit arena in other parts of the world. Subscribe to free non-profit resources such as newsletters and updates.  

4. Always, always, always, hone your people skills/interpersonal skills. In the non-profit world, people skills are invaluable. When dealing with volunteers, committee members, statutory authorities, suppliers and service providers - remember, you are a leader. Take responsibility to invest in those relationships and make them work, even though it can be quite challenging sometimes :-)

I hope the above thoughts will help inspire and empower you to lead your non-profit organisation.


Comments, questions or requests to cover particular topics, email me at spiral1701@gmail.com.

Taking on new roles within a non-profit organisation.

What drives volunteers to volunteer their time, funds and/or manpower to specific causes and organisations? Well, one key driver is passion. People who volunteer are usually very passionate about a particular cause. They feel an inner "push" to get involved and to want to contribute their expertise, experience and skills towards making a difference and having an impact, which drives them to seek out volunteer opportunities above and beyond their day-to-day jobs and activities.

For example, passionate gardeners may be inspired to volunteer with gardening clubs or community gardens. Those who love children, or pets, may flock to volunteer with orphanages or animal shelters. Cycling enthusiasts may be drawn to cycling clubs, while some are inspired to reach out to the disadvantaged by participating in soup kitchens, organising donation drives for refugee shelters, etc etc.

So, let's assume for the purposes of this article, that you are one of those passionate individuals who have just come on board as a volunteer with the organisation of your choice. Things are going well in your selected role, and you feel you might be able to take on a bit more. Or, (more often than not :-) your fellow volunteers and group leaders approach you to ask if you could fill a new role or take on an additional one. This is not at all uncommon, as small volunteer-run organisations are nearly always under-resourced in some way or the other, whether from the perspective of manpower, funding or support structures such as office space, etc - and must always be on a sharp look-out for capable new volunteers! :-)

Fast-forward to your situation - you're being asked whether you can take on a new or expanded role and (before really thinking it through! :-) you find yourself saying a bold "Yes!" :-)

The next thing that usually happens is that, exactly 3 seconds after the word "Yes" has left your lips, you start to panic. ""Oh no what have I done! I don't know how to do what I said I would! I can't do it! What do I do now?? Help!!":-)

OK, first things first, calm down and do not panic any longer...help is at hand :-)

If you feel that you would like to accept the new role but are really not sure whether you can do the job, read on for some helpful tips :-)

First, adjust your mindset. Push fear out of the equation and focus on taking up the new role as a challenge. Even if you feel you don't have the skills or experience to take it on, that does not mean you can't learn at least some or most parts of the job. Push yourself to take up the challenge to learn and master something new, and be confident that you can.  Check out this inspiring TED Talk on adopting a growth mindset and pushing beyond your boundaries and comfort zone.

Secondly, find out exactly what the role entails. Is there someone who is already serving in that role? If so, have a chat with that person and find out the full scope of the job, as well as what challenges that person faced, how they overcame the challenges, whether there are any precedents or templates or standard operating procedures already in place, to make the job more structured and easier to manage. If there are, all you really need to do is compile what is already in place, think about how you could customise it to your own requirements, and work out how you can use it or perhaps improve upon it, to get the job done.

If you're being asked to take up a new role and no one has been handling it all this while, your job gets a little harder but, it's still not impossible. It just means that you have to contribute the extra effort to create a system with which to handle the role. One of the ways to create a system where none existed before, is to map out all the processes that go behind each deliverable that makes up the task, break them down into detailed steps, and then link all the steps together to form a process flow according what needs to happen when. There are tonnes of articles on how to do things like this online. For starters, here's a link to an article on how to learn new skills in less time.

Another tip would be to talk to other stakeholders involved in the various key processes and tasks that intersect with your role.  Today, virtually no job exists in isolation in any organisation,  let alone a small volunteer-run non-profit organisation. In fact, an individual volunteer in a small non-profit organisation could actually end up doing multiple jobs across the spectrum of tasks required. So, talk to other people involved in other roles. Identify where the touchpoints are ie. at which point in the process flow a task moves from them to you and vice versa. Find out from them what problems they've faced on the ground and ask for input and feedback on how to improve things. Incorporate all this feedback into the design of your workflow and scope of work.

Next, once you've mapped out the scope of work required,  match each task to your skill sets and honestly assess the extent to which you can personally handle it. As in any job, you'll find that there are some tasks that you excel in, some tasks that you are average at, and some tasks that you really don't know how to do at all. For example, if you have no knowledge in accounting and bookkeeping, taking on the job of Treasurer of the registered society is probably not going to work out so well for you when the time comes to prepare the accounts:-).

Even if you're faced with a role you really can't take on from a practical point of view, don't be tempted to give on the role altogether.  You could still agree to take on part of the role, by carving out tasks that you can do or rather, can learn to do by stretching yourself and putting in some effort. Using the Treasurer example, perhaps you could still assist the organisation by taking on some of the subsidiary functions of the Treasury role - like doing data entry for receipts and reimbursement claims, tracking online donations, or helping to issue to receipts to members, donors and suppliers - even if the actual accounts are signed off on by someone else with the requisite knowledge. Who knows, in the process, you could learn and gain some valuable new skills and experiences :-)

Hope you find the above tips useful and, happy volunteering :-)

Comments, questions or requests to cover particular topics, do email me at spiral1701@gmail.com.

Tips for small non-profit organisations on briefing volunteers

Typically, a non-profit organisation is originally set up by an individual, or a small group of friends/colleagues/family members, to achieve a certain objective or to contribute towards the betterment and well-being of a specific group or cause. The founding members usually have a clear vision of what they want to achieve, and are truly passionate and enthusiastic about doing something to make a difference.

Once they actually get the project off the ground though, they soon find themselves stretched quite thin. It's often an unpleasant surprise to discover that there's actually far more to do than initially envisaged! :-) First of all, there is the organisation to set up and manage. Then there are the actual activities that the group wants to focus on and run. Multiple to-do lists start to form and each action item starts developing long, jellyfish-like tendrils of smaller action items, which trail merrily behind, waiting to be done :-) So if the organisation is small and there are no paid secretariat staff yet, the founding members definitely need volunteers, wait, make that a lot of volunteers, to help them out with everything:-)

Fortunately, these days there is no shortage of volunteers in the Klang Valley at least. Volunteerism has become so popular amongst all ages and communities that most non-profit organisations find that hopeful volunteers are contacting them non-stop and offering to volunteer (instead of them having to chase after volunteers).

So what's the best way to optimise this wonderful supply and demand equilibrium? That's right, welcome the eager volunteers on board and give them stuff to do a.s.a.p:-)! To make this a mutually fulfilling arrangement though, the organisation must first invest time and effort in coming up with a proper plan for volunteers so that their time will not be wasted, and they will enjoy the experience and feel like they are contributing something valuable to the organisation and the community/cause that it serves.

Here are some simple, easy-to-implement tips:

A. Before the Volunteer Session 
1. Identify the tasks for which volunteers are needed
2. Break down each task into mini-steps/processes required to complete it
3. Identify what tools, information, materials, resources and other items the volunteers would need in order to complete each task
4. Make a list of available volunteers for the various volunteering slots, and assign the tasks accordingly
5. Preferably, contact the volunteer before their session to give them a quick briefing as to what they will be doing. This could be in the form of a short email, or even a watsapp/FB message.

B. During the Volunteer Session
1. Be there earlier to ensure everything is set up
2. When the volunteers arrive, do a quick briefing to make sure everyone knows what they're supposed to be doing. The briefing should cover the specific tasks for the day, as well as general stuff that needs to be done during every volunteer session (such as cleaning tools, storing them away, clearing up the area, etc)
3. Encourage the volunteers to document what they're doing, take photos etc.

C. After the Volunteer Session
1. Encourage the volunteers to do a write-up in their own words together with photos, which can then be posted on social media.
2. Thank the volunteers for being a part of the activities and ask if they might want to do the same task again sometime, or try something new, and whether they might be interested in committing to a regular volunteer schedule.
3. Get their contact details and keep them in the loop on upcoming events and activities to continually build engagement.

Hope the above tips are helpful :-) Comments, questions or requests to cover particular topics, email me at spiralcom1701@gmail.com

Creating an event calendar for the year

Hello everyone and welcome back after a long break! Malaysia being the land of public holidays...it has been pretty much one long holiday since December, hasn't it! :-)

I'm sure many small non-profit organisations who are volunteer-run like ours, are quite glad that the holidays are over - so that we can get back to focusing on running activities with the help of our volunteers :-)

So, looking at key tasks to tackle for the new year... perhaps one of the first things to be done is to create an event calendar for the year. This calendar could include dates and deadlines associated with planned events, tax and accounting audits, bill payment dates, membership register review & updates, compliance and reporting obligations, meetings with stakeholders, and other activities.

Such a calendar can prove to be a very useful tool for the organisation, especially when there are multiple stakeholders working on various projects.

A couple of easy steps to follow:

1.Create a google calendar for your organisation. If you have a Gmail account in your organisation's name, you'll already have a calendar function built in, which is linked to this account.

2.Select someone to be the overall manager of the calendar. This person should be tasked with inputting data when needed, reviewing the calendar periodically and sending out reminders when needed.

3.Identify key project leaders amongst the volunteers who are tasked with specific projects, tasks or events and give them access to the Gmail account so that they too, can input data directly into the calendar.

4. Create a simple process flow to manage the inputting of data and supervision.

One of the advantages of  having such a calendar set up, is that any office bearer or member who logs in can view the years' calendar at a glance, and schedule new dates.

And, when the time comes to create a calendar of the years' past events and activities for the executive committee's report during the annual general meeting, all the events and dates will super-easy to compile :-)

Hope the above tips will be of some help in getting your organisation's yearly calendar up and running! :-)

Comments, questions or requests to cover particular topics, do email me at spiralcraft1701@gmail.com.