6 ways of getting the culture right at your NGO

Regardless of size, budget or mission, every nongovernmental organization needs a well-defined culture — a set of values, beliefs and perspectives underpinning how its people do their work — and encouraging this is at the core of any CEO’s duties. But building a culture can be tricky, especially for nonprofits who face the inherent challenge of increasing their NGO’s financial bottom line without compromising its social values. So, how do NGO leaders inspire an organizationwide culture which strikes a balance between a strong social mission and a strong bank balance? Devex spoke to Charles Lyons, CEO of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and asked for his insights. Lyons, who took over at EGPAF in 2010, has worked within a range of different NGO “cultures” through his extensive career holding senior positions for the UNICEF and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. His main message was a simple one; the CEO does not create the culture, but they play a pivotal role in reinforcing it and ensuring it becomes “infused at every level of the organization.” Here are his suggestions on how to make that happen. 1. Have a strong, simple mission which everyone can get behind. EGPAF’s culture is a “blend between revering the mission and revering the origins of the Foundation with an overlay of really outstanding technical capability and smarts,” Lyons said. EGPAF is named after its founder Elizabeth Glaser, who became infected with HIV in 1981 after receiving a blood transfusion. She unknowingly passed the infection to her two children, one of whom died a few years later. Elizabeth made it her life’s mission to raise money for pediatric HIV/AIDS research and when she lost her own battle with AIDS in 1994, the foundation was renamed in her memory. Out of this powerful origin story comes the simple EGPAF mission — to end HIV/AIDS in children — a mission which the NGO is making good progress in achieving as demonstrated by the fact that the number of new pediatric infections has fallen by 60 percent over the last five years, Lyons said. While not all NGOs will have such a heart-wrenching backstory, any organization can have a similarly simple, aspirational but ultimately achievable mission, which inspires passion, collaboration and a sense of purpose, he said. 2. Communicate your mission and culture widely and to all levels. Like many NGOs, EGPAF is heavily decentralized, with 90 percent of its staff based in developing countries. This can make maintaining a cohesive organizationwide culture a challenge. “It’s important to make sure everyone at every level has the same vision,” Lyons said, and the way to make sure this happens is through lots of communication and in-person time to “re-emphasize the culture.” In reality, for Lyons this means a lot of time spent visiting the field and talking with staff — not just senior management, but every member of the organization through all-staff meetings. The organization’s county directors also come together twice a year for intensive sessions, once in Washington, D.C., and once at a country office. 3. Give credit where credit is due. How you communicate your mission and culture goes a long way to making it stick, and Lyons said the best method he has found is through “repetition infused with an understanding of the progress that has been made.” For Lyons, talking about success and progress within the organization is key to keeping staff motivated and unified. “There’s nothing like progress to reinforce the idea that everyone is contributing to a mission and achieving it,” he added. 4. Marry your mission with professionalism. “A strong social mission and professionalism are not mutually exclusive by any stretch”, said Lyons. He went on to explain that the most effective organizations are those which use business acumen and professionalism to move their organizations close to achieving their mission. “We apply business principles — we have to invest our finite resources for the best return and we have a keen sense of the return on investment. This is intended to move us measurable steps toward achieving our mission,” he said. 5. But at the same time make sure staff know you’re a mission-driven organization. While EGPAF is managed according to business principles, this does not come at the expense of it’s child health-centric mission, and Lyons is keen to make sure staff understand this. “For us, growing the budget isn’t the principal marker of our culture or success. What we value is whether there are fewer maternal child deaths as a result of AIDS, that more kids with HIV are on treatment, for example,” he said. He wants staff to come to work focused on problem-solving and furthering the mission — not worrying that if they don’t meet certain budget targets then they’ve failed, he said. 6. Leave the ego at the door. In an organization such as EGPAF which is renowned for its technical expertise, which includes advising ministries of health about how to implement new World Health Organization treatment guidelines, it’s important to make sure that nontechnical staff recognize their value, Lyons said. “Our grant managers, accountants, and drivers are all a part of the mission. Our most brilliant technical colleagues can’t succeed in what they’re doing without support of all the staff and we need a culture which reinforces that,” he said. But for Lyons this is a purely hypothetical problem — EGPAF has a culture of “humility” and a “noticeable lack of ego” which he says was there when he took over. “I don’t exactly know how we’ve created that. It’s in our DNA and I think in part it comes from Elizabeth the founder. This place isn’t about any one individual or their ego, it’s about a collective commitment to the strategy we are working together to achieve,” he said. 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