From the President’s desk

By the time you read this, many of you will have returned from your holiday and will be preparing for a new year ahead.

Last year was an eventful year for us here at Social Development Partners.

Since taking on the role of President I’ve seen some great things happening with this small, but agile organisation. Our name change has now bedded in—it seems everyone has accepted our choice and new look without issue.

That’s got the horse over the line, so to speak.

We’ve since been spending time shaping our future and looking at our focus and priorities, leaving our former identity behind and embracing the opportunities offered us by our new brand.

So, we’ve asked ourselves, what does Social Development Partners offer?

The first step was to consult members along with all those we deal with regularly for feedback and input.  Our email stakeholder survey went out in late October and I’d like to thank those who responded to the survey and will now share some of the things you told us.

We received nearly 70 responses in all.  Resoundingly, the top three benefits of being associated with Social Development Partners are because we advocate on behalf of members and the sector, the fact that we work collaboratively and that we have good & regular communications.

Of all the many activities we’re involved in, most were either ‘satisfied’ or ‘highly satisfied’ with our TechSoup programme, our involvement in ComVoices, maintaining the Keeping it Legal website, as well as with our online communications. You rated these same activities as being either ‘important’ or ‘most important’ to you as well.  This was reassuring and endorses the work we’ve done in recent times on behalf of members and the wider sector.

But the attention grabber for me was the two top issues likely to impact on organisations in the next 2-3 years.  These were ‘decreased funding’ and ‘government policy’.  The stark truth here was that 100% of respondents reported ‘decreased funding’ as one top issue.

This feedback (which you can read in detail elsewhere on this website) has helped shape our thinking about where we might head as an organisation.

We’ve been giving a great deal of thought as to how best we can represent our members and the wider sector and do the work that all our stakeholders expect us to do—in a much tougher environment of decreased funding and with a stretched budget.

One of the things that interest me is the need for us all to become and stay relevant as organisations and also to be in the uppermost part of people’s minds as and when they make decisions about who they want to support and stay involved with.  We want to make Social Development Partners a force for organisations to belong to and one that stays in touch with your needs.

As the new year unfolds, I’m confident that our Executive Committee and staff will remain committed to growing a strong presence for Social Development Partners, a vital organisation dedicated to representing and helping to strengthen our member organisations, the sector, and in turn the community as a whole.

I wish you every good wish for the New Year, take a fresh look at things, determine where your strengths lie and where people value you most, and go for it.

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