Articles

“Mutuality” is a core value for much of the activity we label as “third sector”. Whether we are talking about a small community group, a social enterprise, a church or a large voluntary sector organisation; all can trace their roots to some expression of mutuality. It is also true many organisations in the private and statutory sectors can trace their origins to mutuality. However, many have cast away from their mutual moorings.

So, what is mutuality? A mutual activity is where I benefit when I work with others for their benefit. So, private enterprise is not mutual if focused on building power for a single person or organisation. Neither is pure altruism, where someone benefits from my charitable giving.

Many third sector organisations drift away from their mutual origins, becoming large charities or professional organisations. Sometimes in neighbourhoods, an initial grasp of mutuality drifts into mutual recrimination because it is not easy to sustain this way of working.

On the other hand private enterprise can be based upon mutual principles, once people understand they can do more by working together. Indeed, some affluent entrepreneurs form solid networks of successful businesses, who support each other in the development and marketing of products. Contrarily, some social enterprises struggle with the idea of forming partnerships and alliances.

So, whilst the neat categories of statutory, private and third sectors may seem easy, in reality the values they display cross the sectors in complex ways. We need to be careful our categories do not hide as much as they reveal.

But let’s face it, if we do not understand our organisations, how can they be effective, let alone find purpose for their websites or structure their content?

To find out more about this theme, press the button:​

Local Economy Outcome Consultancy is my trial offer for you.  It is an opportunity to sample a free session.  Follow the link to find out more.

You can find masses of information about marketing online because it is the fundamental purpose of just about anything that goes on through websites, social media and other applications. This applies just as much to organisations promoting a cause as it does to the private sector.

So, what is marketing? Whilst the word may be relatively modern, the concept growing with the grown of mass media, the idea of the market is ancient. The marketplace was never solely about buying and selling. It was always and still is a place for all types of exchanges; ideally exchanges based upon trust. Trust itself grows out of good relationships. So, it could be argued the purpose of the marketplace is to build relationships.

Third sector organisations need to build trust just as much as private sector organisations. Exchanges based on trust will not always be financial. People may offer time, expertise, votes or support. These are all legitimate activities in the marketplace; the market is where community grows.

The problem is whilst private corporations dominate the global marketplace, in the UK the public sector dominates community activity and keeps it apart from local businesses. It is only where community and the local marketplace reunite that either can meet its full potential. Their separation reinforces an ideology that insists there is something illegitimate about financial exchange in the voluntary sector.

So, this is where the categories of statutory, private and third sectors create barriers and lead away from their full potential. The third sector must reclaim its legitimate role in the marketplace.

Local Economy Outcome Consultancy is my trial offer for you.  It is an opportunity to sample a free session.  Follow the link to find out more.

Whilst marketing is a major online topic, for many third sector organisations their online purpose is a more immediate issue. Many groups are unclear about their purpose or, if they have a purpose, they do not know how to pursue it online (or, let's face it offline!)

I’ve deliberately not chosen words such as aim, goal, objective, mission or vision for this category because the word “Purpose” can have at least three meanings:

1. ​It can be your overall aim or reason why your organisation exists. Whilst many organisations can confidently state their purpose in this sense, it is not always true. Mission creep is one example of the type of thing that can undermine an organisation’s sense of purpose.
2. Purpose can be understood as the way an organisation pursues its aims. There are often many choices and the choices you make can be important to the success of an organisation. For example, a training agency may be committed to delivering face-to-face courses because they believe student-student and student-tutor interaction is important. But if this approach to training cannot generate sufficient income to pay the tutors, online training might generate the income needed to maintain the face-to-face work.
3. This hypothetical example illustrates how the purpose of an organisation online might interact with the organisation’s overall purpose. An organisation that needs to provide online courses to support its core face-to-face work, may find they get a lot of interaction online and they enjoy the financial security. To what extent will the success of online work influence your organisation's mission?

Third sector organisations can face major issues because they usually do not have a commercial ethos. They don’t think of themselves as small businesses and so they are not ready for the risks and protocols of working in the marketplace. Often there are ethical and legal barriers to trade, for example many groups feel constrained by charity law. So, even if they are committed to online marketing, they may find barriers to their work.

One problem is people think of web design as a technical issue. "It is one more thing we need to do but not really central to our work." Organisations need to review their work when they take on a website. Websites are no longer static adverts for your organisation, they are a significant means to do business. To have a website has implications for your organisation and you need to embrace those possibilities.

Local Economy Outcome Consultancy is my trial offer for you.  It is an opportunity to sample a free session.  Follow the link to find out more.