It’s a useful exercise to take a long look at your organization’s structure from time-to-time. It should be designed to:
A) Enable you to reach your goals with the most amount of coordination and the least number of obstacles;
B) Be clear and easy to understand;
C) Maximize the talents of your staff.
Easier said then done.
At jhr we are going through a bit of an organizational shift right now. It’s far from complete, but here are some things I’ve been wresting with:
jhr has traditionally been split up like this: Executive Director (me); International Programs; Domestic Programs (Chapters), Fundraising and Communication; Financial Management.
Problems with this include: fundraising and communications are in one department–different skill sets are needed for both and, when push comes to shove in this arrangement communications usually takes a backseat to fundraising. Also, what do we do with non-Chapter volunteers? Who manages the content on our websites? What about the fundraising we do through our School chapters? There is quite a bit of overlap across departments.
To address many of these challenges, we’ve recently moved communications and the events part of fundraising to our Domestic Programs (that previously managed only our school Chapters). The goal here is to intergrate our communications with our work with students. Plus, it allows us to expand our Domestic Programs outside of just students, building a community of engaged media practitioners.
There is no such thing as perfect organizational structure. But it’s worth taking a long look at yours and seeking improvements. You can’t do it too often or you’ll confuse and frustrate your staff (just ask CIDA). But if you do it right you can make your life a lot easier.
