The Base Report 2008

The Base | Phase 2 2012/2013 Report

June 15, 2013

Youth Social Infrastructure Program

Table of Contents

1 Accomplishments .................................................................................................................................. 5 1.1 Communications and Productivity .................................................................................................. 6

1.1.1 Online Presence and Social Media ......................................................................................... 6 1.1.2 Productivity and Social Media Applications ............................................................................. 7

1.2 Demand .......................................................................................................................................... 9 1.3 Development .................................................................................................................................. 9 1.4 Human Capital .............................................................................................................................. 10 1.5 Strategy and Governance ............................................................................................................. 11 1.6 Systems ........................................................................................................................................ 11

2 Basecamp ............................................................................................................................................ 12 2.1 Development Support ................................................................................................................... 13 2.2 Advising ........................................................................................................................................ 13 2.3 Project Management .................................................................................................................... 13

3 Stakeholders ........................................................................................................................................ 14 3.1 Changemaking Catalysts .............................................................................................................. 14 3.2 The Initiatives ............................................................................................................................... 15

3.2.1 Feedback from Initiative Leads .............................................................................................. 15 3.3 Tides Canada Initiatives ............................................................................................................... 18

3.3.1 Margaret Dickson, Director, TCI ............................................................................................ 18 3.3.2 Daniela Kortan, Senior Project Specialist, TCI ...................................................................... 19

4 What’s Next? ....................................................................................................................................... 19 4.1 Enabling Changemaking .............................................................................................................. 20 4.2 The Shared Platform Movement ................................................................................................... 20

5 Project Status Report .......................................................................................................................... 20


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The Base | Phase 2

It has been a great privilege to take on this important project. In December 2012, I had the pleasure of meeting with Joanna Duarte, Amy Hosotsuji, Daniela Kortan and Jenn Miller to discuss The Base. I was immediately struck with the idea that this was something important.

The Base takes the fundamentals of entrepreneurial support1 and tops them up with administrative infrastructure and a charitable home – all built on the established shared platform infrastructure of Tides Canada Initiatives.

When I worked at MaRS, Tim Dramin, formerly CEO of Tides Canada Foundation and now Executive Director, Social Innovation Generation National, would challenge me: How to achieve systems change? As with my practice at MaRS, I am cataloguing, tracking and analyzing. I want the “big stuff” to surface so we can work on ideas that have collective impact.

To meet the needs of the future, we need changemakers. We need the creativity and drive of social entrepreneurs, and we need to find new ways to accelerate positive social change and amplify impact. An innovation such as the shared platform needs serious attention, and in the coming year The Base 2.1 is ready to orchestrate the noise this idea needs to make.

Thanks to Jenn for putting such an incredible idea into orbit, and to Daniela our awesome Zen-mother.

Cheryl May Project Director

June 2013

1 Coaching, connections and cash 2 The Base Visual Style Guide (2013). Retrieved from https://www.box.com/s/nynp0aj1u06eaqrjnct5


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www.thebaseinitiatives.ca


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1 Accomplishments

The Base is a project of Tides Canada Initiatives, launched to support changemakers, initially those impacted by the wind-down of Schools without Borders Community Management Strategies (SWB/CMS), and then broadening in scope to include charitable initiatives with annual budgets between $25,000 and $100,000.

In phase 2 – the project’s first operational year – The Base has established itself as a “platform within a platform,” grounded in the community learning that came out of SWB/CMS, and working as a shared-platform intermediary for a group of five initiatives founded by young people, three of whom transistioned from the SWB/CMS platform.

As with any new enterprise, start-up was the spirit of the period. Unique to The Base is that as the project was taking shape, it was happening with a group of initiatives onboard, or in the process of coming onboard. We were tapping into our own expertise and talents, and learning while doing – creating a lean, highly responsive culture while building trust and establishing the right balance of systems and support.

AREAS OF CONCENTRATION

1. Communications and productivity – setting up systems and social media, URL and phone number, launching www.thebaseinitiatives.ca, and testing applications and social media channels

2. Demand – identifying the “market” and how to connect with changemakers

3. Development – exploring potential collaborations, conducting foundation research, government policy alignments, and preliminary ideation

4. Human capital – recruitment and contract development

5. Strategy and governance – roles and responsibilities and strategic planning

6. Systems – identifying requirements and testing systems


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1.1 COMMUNICATIONS AND PRODUCTIVITY

Communications and productivity start with the consistent use of the name and visual ID. Every initiative came with an excellent sense of their “brand” and each one had an established logo and website. The Base, however, didn’t even have a name.

The Base was validated as the project name early in the year, prompting a move away from the working title, Youth Organizing Platform. While “YOP” was not well established as a name,

goodwill had been built up amongst a closely-knit group of collaborators. The name and logo evolved through a process of community consultation. Quite the contrary to stalling the work, the logo and visual style guide were finalized by November 2012.2 The Base was ready to launch!

Communications: critical observation

The logo and guide represent a powerful asset. Furthermore, the design was inherently suited to an online presence so no adaptations had to be made to create a

social media avatar for channels such as Twitter.

1.1.1 Online Presence and Social Media

Community involvement and communications/social media activities have supported the build on initiative and funder pipelines, identified potential partnerships, increased awareness and kept the project director current with changemaking topics and trends.

The social networks in the social media table were launched April 2013 and a baseline has been established for The Base 2.1. Each of these channels will continue to be tested in 2013/2014 to determine where and how online activity should be focused.

2 The Base Visual Style Guide (2013). Retrieved from https://www.box.com/s/nynp0aj1u06eaqrjnct5 3 The Klout Score is a number between 1-100 that represents your influence. The more influential you are, the higher your Klout Score. Comparatively: The Laidlaw Foundation’s Klout score is 42; Tides Canada Initiatives’ score is 52; Kim Crosby, initiative lead and co-founder of The People Project, holds an impressive score of 72. Bill Gates’ Klout score is 92.

SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS

Channel Count Type

Website Launch 269 Pages per month

Website May 2013 330 Pages per month

Twitter 52 Followers

LinkedIn 7 Members

Pinterest 3 Followers

Facebook 4 Friends

Klout 38 Score (out of 100)3


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Social media: critical observation

Twitter is one of the most responsive social media channels for The Base. Posting activity consistently generates new followers and #FFs. Since Twitter is a two-way channel, it is a great way to

engage with other TCI projects, changemakers and changemaking catalysts.

1.1.2 Productivity and Social Media Applications

The table below represents the productivity and social media applications that were set up to support The Base’s operations. Establishing the framework was a significant focus of activity in Q3. Choices were made with care, recognizing that the tools the project puts in place will shape the culture and operations.

The work was grounded in three core values:

• Gaining familiarity with an application must be of benefit to initiative leads – in terms of productivity or access to a solution;

• The solution must be a robust, scalable and pervasive application that has reached critical mass and operates outside an enterprise environment; and

• Cost, cost and how much it costs.

Most of the applications in the plan are subscriptions, taken out monthly or for a year (with a modest savings). The cost of the suite of collaboration and productivity tools used by The Base is just over $2,000 per year; and many of the applications, such as SurveyMonkey, can be shared across initiatives. Training leads in their application and use is provided as required and ongoing support is provided for core applications such as Box.com.

Cloud apps: critical observation

Training and ongoing support is vital. A more formalized approach to training and support for Cloud applications will build capacity and alignment. Ongoing support will definitely be important to maximize the suite of core components such as Box.com and Salesforce.com.


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PRODUCTIVITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA APPLICATIONS

Application COST Purpose Status

Mindmeister Free Brainstorming and planning Ongoing. No change anticipated.

Docusign 180 Digital signatures Ongoing. Much more familiarity and utilization of e-signatures will eliminate a lot of delays, frustration and ill will.

Adobe PDF Leveraged Document management Cheryl May’s software. Creates PDF binders and conversion to/from Word.

Word suite Leveraged Document management Cheryl May’s software. Documents, spreadsheets, presentations.

Box.com 100 Document management, collaboration, project management

Ongoing. More training to leads to fully utilize the capabilities and establish initiative document storage and shared knowledge interface.

Pages Leveraged Document publishing Cheryl May’s software. Graphic interface for better looking documents.

Issuu Free Document publishing (online) Ongoing. No change anticipated.

Boomerang 50 Email productivity Ongoing. (It’s like a virtual executive assistant).

Yesware Free Email productivity Ongoing. No change anticipated.

Photoshop 275 Graphics Ongoing. Required for web work and graphics.

Tagxedo Free Graphics (word clouds) Ongoing.

Piktochart 360 Infographics There was interest in using this; however it hasn’t been picked up. Subscription under review. Expensive if it is not being used.

Prezi Free Presentations Ongoing. No change anticipated.

Cirrus Insight 100 Relationship management Connects email to Salesforce. Salesforce implementation delayed. Will be active in 2.1.

Salesforce Free Relationship management Planned for Fall 2013 launch.

Facebook Free Social media Under review. Beta testing Facebook page for The Base.

Hootsuite 120 Social media Connects all social media profiles into one dashboard with added functionality (scheduling). Ongoing. May upgrade part of ramped up online presence in 2.1.

Linked in Free Social media Under review. Beta testing LinkedIn page for The Base.

Pinterest Free Social media Under review. Beta testing Pinterest for The Base.

YouTube Free Social media Under review. Beta testing YouTube for The Base.

Coffee Cup Free Subscription interface Testing as an alternative subscription interface (to Mail Chimp).

Mail Chimp Free Subscription interface Email list management

Ongoing. Likely to upgrade as part of ramped up network development in 2.1.

SurveyMonkey 230 Survey and evaluation Ongoing. Access to leads and training is needed – will be promoted in 2.1.

Koodoo 480 Telephone and plan Ongoing. No change anticipated.

Rogers Leveraged Text Cheryl May’s own number is used for text messaging.


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PRODUCTIVITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA APPLICATIONS

Application COST Purpose Status

GoDaddy 150 Website, domain registration and email accounts

Ongoing. No change anticipated.

TypePad Leveraged Website: blogging Cheryl May’s account. May move to another blogging application for 2.1 to create greater interoperability with online collaborators (Ashoka, SiG).

1.2 DEMAND

Although the priority of this period was not the number of initiatives on The Base, attention to this activity was required to ensure that pipelines were established to maintain the practice. As founders and initiatives progress, it is likely that they will move on to become TCI projects, form their own organizations or wind-down operations.

The process of new initiative recruitment is slow because the shared platform is not a top-of-mind option for people who are starting up new charitable initiatives, and the value proposition is not clearly understood. In this period, the Base focused on building pipelines and working through referrals.

New initiatives: critical observation

Recruiting new initiatives is a lot of work. It encompasses identifying, building trust and nurturing relationships. From initial contact to operational may be a

process that takes up to one year, and the ratio of potential initiatives to committed initiatives may be 25:1. The shared platform is not a mainstream alternative and needs to be better understood.

1.3 DEVELOPMENT

Resource development is an important activity for The Base and the initiatives. The Base keeps track of submission deadlines and works closely with initiatives to develop proposals that are aligned with their mission and strategic direction, and aims to make every proposal an opportunity to further the vision and create a jumping of point for future activities. TCI keeps an eye on report deadlines, coordinates financial information, and sends reminders – and The Base works with initiatives to create a report that’s reflective of the work that’s been accomplished and catalyzes their learning.

INITIATIVE OUTREACH Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Total Prospects 5 4 1 3 13 Potential 1 0 0 1 1


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Resource development: critical observation

This is a huge area of activity. Development support has a significant impact on capacity building. Once a process is set in place, content assets are shared, and everyone is familiar with the workflow, the whole system becomes incredibly efficient. The initiative team and the project director become very adept at identifying opportunities, setting timelines and putting together projects

that contribute strategically to the vision.

DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

The Base Ontario Trillium Foundation (successful)

Laidlaw Foundation (pending)

Lost Lyrics Transition of existing agreements

Laidlaw Foundation Report Ontario Trillium Foundation

The People Project Transition of existing agreements

Laidlaw Foundation (successful)

Johansen-Larsen Foundation (pending) ArtReach (pending)

The Reading Partnership

Transition of existing agreements Ontario Trillium Foundation (stage 2)

Laidlaw Foundation (pending)

Seed to Table Transition of existing agreements

Ontario Trillium Foundation (successful)

Laidlaw Foundation Report

Toronto Community Foundation (pending) National Bank (pending)

York Youth Coalition City of Toronto SDIP transfer

Transition of existing agreements Ontario Trillium Foundation (declined)

Ontario Trillium Foundation

1.4 HUMAN CAPITAL

Imagine being the founder of a grass roots initiative and your salary (with benefits) is deposited into your bank account bi-weekly?

Human resource management is one of the things that is different about being on a shared platform. You get paid on schedule. Your consultants get paid when they submit an invoice. The budget guides your work. It’s not about what you have in your wallet.


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MANAGING HUMAN RESOURCES

Base LL TPP RP S2T YYC

Employee Agreements X X X X X

Contractors X X X X

Volunteer Plan X X X X

HR: critical observation

At first, the process of setting up an employee agreement or consulting contract seems totally bureaucratic and weird. After all, this is often a founder becoming an employee, or a consultant who has been a co-creator and best friend. But

once things are underway, it begins to make sense and there’s a better understanding of roles and responsibilities.

1.5 STRATEGY AND GOVERNANCE

Strategy and governance are a key consideration for shared platform project leaders. Unlike traditional charities where senior staff and the Board of Directors lead this activity, initiatives, together with their allies/advisors, have ownership of their strategic direction and need to spend time and resources on it. While there is still a lot of work to be done, exceptional progress was made:

• The Base is governed by a five-member steering committee with documented roles and responsibilities; • Lost Lyrics developed operational policies; • The Reading Partnership developed Advisory Committee Terms of Reference; • Seed to Table conducted and documented a governance review; and • York Youth Coalition transitioned the existing steering committee, retaining the Chair and the critical

partnership with Weston Mount Dennis Action for Neighbourhood Change.

1.6 SYSTEMS

Establishing systems includes one-time transitioning, onboarding and building an understanding of timelines, protocols and practices – all of which were a significant focus in phase 2. Initiatives have been successfully brought onto the TCI systems they need to do their day-to-day work.


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2 Basecamp

Basecamp represents the space where The Base interacts with initiatives. Three common enablers emerged from the practice of being responsive to the issues and requests of initiative leads:

1. Development support, such as identifying funding opportunities and managing timelines related to project planning and grant preparation, are welcomed by initiative leads and all leads demonstrate a sophistication and comfort-level with iterative, online collaboration.

2. Advising, as needed, on strategic focus and foresight, budgeting and programming approaches are well received by initiatives; advising is best done one-to-one and in-person with email/text follow-ups.

3. Project management is critical for everything from expense and invoice processing to grant deadlines; the competing priorities of changemakers makes reminders, facilitation – and sometimes being able to “jump in” and add some extra, time-limited capacity – a reality.

4 TOR = Terms of Reference

GOVERNANCE AND SYSTEMS

Base LL TPP RP S2T YYC

TOR4/TCI X X X X X X

TOR Advisory X X X

Governance review X X X

Informal advisors X X X X X

Formal advisors X X X

Strategic planning X

Succession planning X X X

Contracts X X X X X X

Petty cash X

Credit card requisition X X

Cheque requisition X X X X X X

Expense reports X X X


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2.1 DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT

While extensive support was required for critical grant-writing functions, such as project model development, volunteer resource

planning and assessment, partnership identification and formalized agreements, I was moved and impressed by the vision and

fortitude, community knowledge of the leads, their networks, and the caliber of support letters received for each application.

– Cheryl May, Project Director’s Report

2.2 ADVISING

Since the allies/advisor structure is nascent, The Base project director provided advisory services directly. In a few cases, The Base was an intermediary for specialized contacts who were outside the lead’s network or helped to identify the types of subject matter expertise required and specific volunteer advisors in the initiative’s existing support network. Each initiative is working on their governance and advisory structure, and this is area of focus that’s built into workplans.

All initiative leads seek a greater understanding of their budget and cash flow; however, it is difficult for them to make the time for cashflow management and financial analysis. Financial management is an essential leadership skill; therefore, The Base 2.1 will build financial competence in an intentional way. This will include:

• Reviewing monthly financial reports to further understanding of financial management; • Building development/grant budgets to create a financial narrative for the future; and • Developing an annual budget, including carry-forward and cash flow.

2.3 PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The TCI portal is at the crux of project management; however, current administration protocols require facilitation, especially timeline management for input, comments and approvals. Furthermore, direct use of the TCI portal requires a level of comfort with the interface, some understanding of accounting such as the use of general ledger codes, and the financial fluency to read and understand financial statements and cash flow reports. The infrequency of invoice processing and hiring/contracting for initiatives with small budgets to manage also makes it difficult for leads to become familiar with the TCI portal interface and processes.

The Base developed alternative/intermediary processes; mostly utilizing the features of Box.com to establish auditable, single-action workflow management tools for processing invoices and contracts. Initiatives leads and teams rapidly become accustomed to setting tasks and collaborating and commenting on files, and all see the value of collaborative document development and storage in the Cloud. This system has several advantages:


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• The project director and initiative leads receive email prompts and a can access their task list on their Box.com account, which streamlines, date stamps and logs activities such as posting invoices, document reviews and approvals;

• All collaborators can upload and download documents, manage folders and files, set tasks and make comments;

• The Base/TCI have a shared view of development and fiduciary files with initiatives and collaborators; • Initiative leads have built competency in utilizing a basic, scalable Cloud technology; and • In time, initiative leads may move to directly using the TCI portal to input some or all of their expenses directly

– a good transitional phase for an initiative that is moving toward becoming a TCI project.

Most promising in phase 2 is the evolution of common files across initiatives and the potential for

knowledge sharing. Sharing best practice materials such as grant applications, development and

evaluation plans, templates and reports – and being able to connect directly with the file owner – will

facilitate a powerful peer support network with limited intervention on the part of the project director.

– Cheryl May, Project Director’s Report

3 Stakeholders

3.1 CHANGEMAKING CATALYSTS

Primary stakeholders are the Laidlaw Foundation, the Ontario Trillium Foundation and Tides Canada Initiatives, the shared platform provider. More broadly, a large group of changemaking proponents have an interest in the shared platform models. Discussions have been initiated with several catalysts, including Ashoka Canada, CatalystsX, Centre for Social Innovation and SiG@MaRS. During this period, The Base tracked key stakeholders, built important relationships and initiated conversations about collaboration.


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3.2 THE INITIATIVES

In November 2012, The Base hosted an initiative lead meeting. The focus was on reflecting the experience and identifying areas of improvement. The ideas included:

• Potential to allow more frequent invoicing for short term and small contracts to minimize wait for re-payment; • Better access to petty cash to minimize out of pocket expenses; • Leveraging the support the project director can provide to initiatives on capacity building activities such as

submitting grants; • Better deadline management; and • Support to projects in developing and managing their program budgets.

Issues related to meeting deadlines completion of forms in a timely manner and following protocols

related to application submissions continue to require attention with most initiative leads. Underscores

that the administrative management is not an area of strength.

– Jenn Miller, Project Director Report

With the heavy lifting of start-up completed, The Base prioritized and focused activities and built on the requirements identified. Invoice processing and payment schedules have become more manageable, and access to petty cash clarified. Budgets and deadlines are actively facilitated. In addition to managing the transition to The Base, the project director has been actively involved in the planning and preparation of 13 funding applications and facilitating alignment with TCI systems and processes.

3.2.1 Feedback from Initiative Leads

CM: Across the board, I'd say we've had challenges related to getting used to timelines, access to cash, hiring and contracts. Do you agree with

these? Any other challenges and how would you address them?

CC: I agree with these three. I would say meeting the TCI deadline for grant applications is a challenge only because there is no grant

schedule in place for my project. Often times grants will pop up but I'm hesitant to go for them because I know that they will have to be

completed a week before the stated deadline in order to get approval from TCI. If a grant schedule for projects were in place for the

year it would be better for all parties involved.


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EP: Yes, I would agree that there have been challenges with all of the issues mentioned. Some of these challenges are things that with

time; our initiative will adjust to (e.g. writing contract requests according to TCI standards, adjusting to timelines for grant submission)

while other things may need additional intermediary support or changes in order to work for small-scale projects such as accessing

cash.

KC: Yes definitely! But you have been so supportive and so available to help and be really proactive. It has been enormous to have

you in this role.

ND: I agree with the above. Challenges have to be addressed through new policy and protocol. Some of

Tides policies relating to petty cash and employee versus contractor status need to be reviewed and

discussed with all the initiatives so we can share our insights on how the Base can become more

efficient.

SY: I agree with the initial statement. I think there needs to be a way whereby transition of old to new staff happens smoothly for future

groups to avoid the challenges and fall back we had on our project.

CM: Now that you've settled into the platform, do you feel that you are able to spend more time directly on your initiative? If so, how has this

impacted your work?

EP: Because Seed to Table is still in a state of transition, it may take more time to answer this fully, but I

can share based on using the platform for 2012 programming, and how we have engaged with it so far

this year. I don't think we spend any less time on administrative tasks and are therefore able to spend

more time directly on the initiative/programming than before. However, The Base has unraveled the

administrative work from something that felt intimidating, had a lot of unanswered questions, and didn't

have foundational support for – to clear, template resources and access to support that helps make the initiative accountable – legally,

to funders, and ultimately to the community we work in. Seed to Table's capacity to do administrative work has definitely increased

since joining The Base.

KC: There are still quite a few things I am learning about, but it feels so much more stabilizing to have Tides as a force and The Base

as a platform. It allows me to work more comfortably and proceed carefully. I have the opportunity to slow down, to consider an action,

a budget line so much more thoroughly and that is such a blessing and it increases the quality of the work. It is definitely difficult, the

overall speed of working in this sector can mean that there are things that will pass you by, but I am beginning to adjust and it feels

transformative.


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ND: Not as of yet. I am still learning a lot of administrative duties and trying to keep up with the internal Lost Lyrics processes while

being a middle person between Tides and the Lost Lyrics team. There is a lot of communication on my part that is necessary to make

sure all parties understand this new relationship, which is also at times consuming and complex. Many of the processes learned with

Tides have been useful and I think next year will be much more smooth.

SY: Yes, the resources needed are there and the support. The impact has been positive. We've been

supported on grant writing, the payroll is smooth which allows for more time spent on the project instead

of administrative work.

CM: Overall how would you describe your experience with the platform?

CC: I am grateful for the support The Base offers. I'm learning how to develop stronger grant applications

and really feel like I have a firm foundation to continue to build my initiative. My exchanges with you are

helping me improve my level of professionalism and my ability to lead. I really value your opinion and

count it a privilege to be able to tap into your wealth of knowledge whether it is about our marketing

material or trouble-shooting through issues with community partners. I think the most valuable thing for

me is the mentorship, knowing that there is someone there for me to run my ideas by, who will provide constructive criticism as well

as encouragement.

Initiatives on the Base are in a very vulnerable space, we are 'in-between' everything and at 'at risk'– at risk of not receiving the grants

we need to move the work forward, at risk of loosing volunteers, etc. It is important to have something constant something that

doesn't change and that's what The Base provides – consistency, support – it really is the backbone of our initiatives. I'm building this

initiative and learning to build it at the same time, the scaffolding you provide along the way to support my learning (i.e. templates

such as the workplan template you provided for the first grant I wrote) really help. Also, the fact that you are hands-on at times really

helps to create a sense that we are in this together and really are working in partnership.

EP: Seed to Table's experience with The Base has been excellent. Besides helping us navigate and access the TCI portal and

guidelines, The Base has provided invaluable support in the process of hiring and budgeting. The most useful support thus far has

been with grant and report feedback. As a small initiative with some experience, but little training or formal learning in grant and report

writing, feedback from The Base has pushed us to not only share our ideas and experiences more clearly, but to submit grants and

reports that present more polished and professional than they would be otherwise.


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KC: Working with Cheryl and Jen has been wonderful. Both have been skilled, flexible, responsive,

patient and thorough. Overall I feel a lot of positivity and hope about The People Project's future and

current work.

ND: My experience with Cheryl has been amazing in the sense that I felt supported in my leadership of Lost Lyrics, and I was

introduced to more legitimate and professional ways of conducting Lost Lyrics business with access to sound administrative

platform. I feel more confident with systems of organization such as the Base, which keep Lost Lyrics more accountable to our

stakeholders. I also find that Cheryl's expertise has helped shed insight on issues relating to contract work and social enterprise.

In the beginning, members of Lost Lyrics were at odds with understanding Tides' processes, which caused a great deal of stress.

There was a lack of trust, leading to delays that were hard on everyone concerned.

SY: Positive. Its unfortunate we cannot get the IIN workers but one step at a time.

3.3 TIDES CANADA INITIATIVES

3.3.1 Margaret Dickson, Director, TCI 5

CM: How much of a role should The Base play in the shared platform “movement”?

MD: As much as possible.

CM: Given TCI’s experience with community-based projects and now initiatives, what is the philosophy related to “failure”?

MD: Success can be measured in a variety of ways, not simply whether initiatives are sustainable or

scale. A key criterion is the development of leaders. Value is placed on not just the initiatives but on

supporting the development of capable, competent leaders … changemakers. The shared admin platform

allows initiatives to flourish without the need to establish an independent administrative body, and also

allows the visionaries and leaders to focus on developing their expertise, knowledge, skills and voice.

5 May (February 2013). How the base fits into TCI (minutes). Retrieved from https://www.box.com/s/djqq3m7zni441ibf2r91


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CM: The Base will be evolving its own sustainability and investing in the sustainability of initiatives, what is the ideal balance?

MD: A high priority is working with funders to educate them and engage them in the shared admin platform structure. The established

rules need to be challenged to make room for this alternative. For The Base, there’s an additional challenge in making the case for

both incubation (The Base) and initiatives.

3.3.2 Daniela Kortan, Senior Project Specialist, TCI

It’s been an exciting year, supporting the advent of The Base as an important platform for changemakers,

funders, and the sector writ large. At Tides Canada, discussions around how a model like The Base could

be used to support grassroots social justice and environmental initiatives in new geographies across the

country continue to emerge. Colleagues whose work focuses on indigenous communities, both in the

north as well as in the coastal B.C. Rainforest have begun exploring how The Base, or something like it,

could offer valuable charitable infrastructure to enable good ideas to happen. It’s been a pleasure working closely with Cheryl and

Jenn on the inaugural year of this project, and we remain excited and optimistic about the impact The Base is poised to have now and

in the future. – Daniela Kortan, TCI Senior Project Specialist

4 What’s Next?

The “big think” piece in the latter part of phase 2 was the question of strategic direction – what’s next? Unlike other projects on a shared platform, The Base emerged as a solution to a specific problem, and was, in fact, developed through a series of consultations between Schools without Borders, the Laidlaw Foundation and TCI. Two basic facts are:

1. The Base leverages the TCI shared administration platform, acting as an intermediary for promising initiatives that are aligned with the TCI mandate but don’t meet the criteria to plug directly into the TCI infrastructure.

2. In addition to the administrative intermediary function, The Base is designed to provide incubation services such as mentoring/coaching, business advice, strategic guidance, resource development and making connections.


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4.1 ENABLING CHANGEMAKING

There are two truths when it comes to providing positive enabling/capacity building support to changemakers at the scale of the initiatives on The Base:

• Each initiative has a unique style of operating best served by a customized and adaptable support plan. • Frequency and intensity of support varies depending on the activity that’s taking place.

It is also important to note that initiative leads do not need day-to-day support for their core activities, and they are unquestionably the experts in their areas of specialization. The leads are also exceptional at core components of development, and their ideation, problem identification and call to action not only make an authentic and compelling case for support, but make it a pleasure to work with on development activities such as planning and grant writing.

4.2 THE SHARED PLATFORM MOVEMENT

There’s a lot of work to be done to define and promote shared platforms as a model for changemakers, which includes: continuing to pilot shared platform projects that can increase our understanding of how to amplify the impact of changemakers; identifying best practices; and testing process improvements. The Base is gaining recognition across the social sector as an active proponent of shared platforms and changemaking, and is uniquely positioned to further the vision of establishing shared platforms as a model for strengthening the sector.

5 Project Status Report

AREA RESULTS PERFORMANCE

INDICATORS LL

OTF

COMMENTS

Project Migration/ Recruitment

LL: Platform provides projects with a charitable home and quality administrative support. OTF: Established a new option for emerging initiatives through the creation of

Appropriate administrative systems and processes in place to support the projects during all stages of development within the platform (intake and beyond)

X X Systems and processes are being developed in an iterative way. Task management related to invoice processing, contracting, proposals, communications material, etc., is grounded in Box.com. Portal and Box.com training is being done on an “as ready” basis.

Projects migrate from Schools X X 3 projects migrated: Lost Lyrics; The


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INDICATORS LL

OTF

COMMENTS

a platform that provides projects with a charitable home and quality administrative support.

without Borders’ CMS to TCI’s The Base

5-6 4-5 People Project; and Seed to Table

Relationships established with potential project pipelines to feed new projects on to the platform (e.g. CivicAction, Storefront Neighbourhood Trust)

X 4-6

X ~

A broad base of awareness was built during the first half of the project year. Connections with entrepreneurial networks will deepen the project reach. * Partnerships have the potential to be developed on a win-win basis and have a double bottom line – for example: if The Base meets a gap in programming, can be a service delivery partner, the relationships will be more powerful. Potential network/service partners are SiG@MaRS, CSI, CatalystX, CYBF.

New projects join the platform X 2

X 2

2 new projects joined The Base: the Reading Partnership; and York Youth Coalition

Projects report satisfaction with the quality of support

X X Complete.

Program Delivery/ Partnership Development

Platform effectively leverages the expertise and experience from both within and outside the platform projects to strengthen the projects ability to achieve their results Skills, knowledge and resources to support platform projects identified Skills, knowledge and resources leveraged to strengthen the capacity of platform projects

Relationships established with community partners to support platform activities

X 3-5

X 3-5

Accessed: Innoweave/Sustainability network cloud computing workshop; SiG@Waterloo Graduate Diploma in Social Innovation; FYI’s Power of ONE volunteer network. As * above, furthering mutually beneficial/shared value relationships will create access to the assets of community partners.

Pool of pro-bono coaches/project mentors developed to support projects

X X

Initiatives have extensive networks of peer mentors and experienced coaches. Support is needed in identifying the types of supports and subject matter expertise needed, managing and engaging advisors, and partnership/relationship advice.

Platform “peer-support” network established –

X X In this initial phase, the initiative leads show a low level of interest in


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INDICATORS LL

OTF

COMMENTS

mechanism in place to track and match skills and expertise, needs of platform members

meetings/activities with other platform initiatives. Where relationships are already established and intermediary is not needed. In other areas, the type of work being done or community is not a priority.

Pilot program offered (e.g. project coaches, workshops, peer support activity, etc.)

X X

In this initial phase, the initiative leads show a low level of interest in professional development activities offered as a program. My focus has been on one-to-one, high touch leadership development and initiative support.

Projects report that support offered and facilitated by the platform is strengthening their ability to achieve their results

X X

Complete.

A supportive, effective and sustainable operating structure and programming is established for the Platform [OTF: These form part of area 4: An efficient and sustainable financial model is in place to support the platform.]

Appropriate staffing and governance model in place

X X

Complete. Staffing is adequate. Governance is in place but needs more definition, engagement. Role of volunteers needs to be mapped out (and connection to steering committee membership).

Identification of the target number of projects to be supported at any given time

X X

Allow 4 to 6 hours per initiative per week for services such as advising, providing development support and acting as an administrative intermediary. This makes 5 initiatives .80 FTE. The number of initiatives is scalable and does not affect core activities such as community involvement, operations, strategy and governance. This speaks to the need to envision a larger model, such as a social franchise Building the service fee into grants (e.g. 300 hours @ $50 per hour = $15,000 per initiative) isn’t currently feasible. We also have to watch for perceptions of “double-dipping” – when a funder is funding or


23


INDICATORS LL

OTF

COMMENTS

being approached to fund The Base while also funding or being approached to fund an initiative.

Project management strategies in place (e.g. outreach, intake/orientation, identification of capacity building needs, exit strategies)

X X

With just five initiatives, all very different in their culture, operation and operational phase, the overarching strategy is to customize the service provided and to maintain an open dialogue. A larger set of initiatives would allow us to establish common capacity building needs and interventions. This speaks to the concept of The Base as a social franchise. Equipped with infrastructure that supports collaboration and knowledge-sharing, appropriate processes and access to enabling technologies, a lean core could ignite The Base in communities across Canada.

Community partners confirmed

X

While multiple relationships and connections have been established, this is an area that requires more strategic work and time. The mutual benefit/shared value approach mentioned above requires a deep understanding of the value being offered and demonstrated long-term operational sustainability.

Governance Effective governance in place to guide the platform

Transition steering committee established consisting of members of the Trailblazers group and community partners and interim TCI Terms of Reference signed

X

Complete.

Steering Committee membership criteria and terms of reference established (informed by existing TCI ToR)

X

Complete.

Steering Committee members recruited

X ~

X 5-8

Complete.


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INDICATORS LL

OTF

COMMENTS

Steering Committee members provide feedback on their role in providing leadership to The Base and its activities

X

Report back survey will be sent out end of July.

TCI support team reports satisfaction with the effectiveness of the Steering Committee

X To be completed (end of August).

Revenue Generation

An efficient and sustainable financial model is in place to support the platform

Relationships formed with potential funders

X X Continued relationship with Laidlaw and OTF; conversation with Metcalf. July/August: connect with McConnell Foundation; research and identify other potential funders.

Revenue secured to support the platform activities in its inaugural year

X X Pending.

Three year financial plan finalized to support platform

X X To be completed (mid-June).