How Catchafire helps strengthen members of the Bold Solutions Network

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Earlier this year, Lever for Change launched its Bold Solutions Network to match donors with nonprofits and social enterprises proposing solutions to significant social challenges. Lever for Change supports Network member organizations—whose “bold solutions” were highly rated after rigorous evaluation in its competitions—by providing ongoing learning and networking opportunities to strengthen their work, raise their visibility, and increase their potential to secure funding. In April 2020, Lever for Change launched a partnership with our skills-based volunteering platform, Catchafire, to help strengthen Bold Solutions Network members on organizational and operational needs.
Photo of Jamie Moon, Director, Partnerships, Catchafire
Caption: Jamie Moon, Director, Partnerships, Catchafire
Credit: Catchafire

Through this partnership, organizations have access to our virtual, skills-based volunteers all over the world, empowering Bold Solutions Network members to address urgent COVID-19 crisis response and recovery needs in the short term and organizational and operational needs in the long term.

Catchafire offers more than 130 different pre-planned project templates that organizations can use, spanning categories like marketing and communications, as well as fundraising and business plan development. Immediately after the outbreak of COVID-19 and the resulting shutdown and office closures, Catchafire added new projects to better address organizations’ needs spurred by the pandemic, including remote team strategy, tech systems setup, chat setup and training.

Since the beginning of our partnership, Bold Solutions Network members have saved more than $230,000 through working with Catchafire’s volunteer community on 70 different engagements.

Mumbai-based organization Tata Trusts, one of India’s oldest, non-sectarian philanthropic organizations and a Bold Solutions Network member, has used Catchafire for 26 different projects and saved $100,000 in short-term costs. One of Tata Trusts’ consultants, Disha Sadhnani, was matched with London-based UX designer Olga T. to brainstorm ideas for setting up communication and branding guidelines.

On her time with Olga, Sadhnani told us, “We have been working to set up Communication Strategy and Guidelines for one of the entities of Tata Trusts. Ms. Olga shared with us great insights leveraging her experience. She was very well prepared for our discussions and addressed all the agendas we had set. Her experience as a professional helped us a great deal, but her humble approach towards understanding our problem statements made it easier to collaborate with her. It was a great experience working with her.”

Other projects that Tata Trusts has worked on with Catchafire include facilitated strategy sessions for their team, new employee onboarding and online research. In a recent survey conducted by Catchafire, Tata Trusts employees indicated that, through the platform, they were better positioned to complete strategic projects, expand their network and access professionals with skills their team lacked.

World Mosquito Program, a Melbourne-based Bold Solutions Network member dedicated to reducing the threat of mosquito-borne diseases around the world, has used Catchafire on eight different engagements, ranging from business plan reviews to coaching support. Enrica Longo, World Mosquito Program’s External Relations & Philanthropy Director, was first motivated to use Catchafire because, for three years, she had not been able to find professional development opportunities within her industry. Since using Catchafire, she has been able to pair up with two different coaches and has used this opportunity to refine her goals and practices in order to bring out her best performance for her organization.

“Personally, from my area in the organization, I feel very supported, and the 1:1 coaching has helped me lift performance and feel supported at this difficult time,” Longo said.

Longo also shared that, by partnering with Catchafire, not only have she and her colleagues been able to improve their skills, but they have also saved on organizational costs. Because of improved workflows and relationships, they have seen an improved impact on their programs and beneficiaries.

For organizations who are just getting started with Catchafire, the team offers weekly instructional webinars about how to best use the Catchafire platform and has dedicated Nonprofit Advisors who host individual project planning consultations and general customer service.

We invite more members of the Bold Solutions Network to take advantage of Lever for Change’s partnership with Catchafire to improve their organization’s offerings. If you are interested in learning more about our strength building services, please contact us or visit Catchafire's website.

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