Reviewing and Redesigning UNICEF’s Global Strategy

In 2006, UNICEF selected GivingWorks through a world-wide competition to design and lead a broad-based strategic review and to highlight opportunities to more effectively deliver results for children. We conducted a thorough assessment of UNICEF’s program, management effectiveness, and spoke with staff at all levels of the organization as well as with external partners and client and donor governments. The year-long assessment and analysis produced a set of actionable recommendations designed to enhance the organization’s strategic coherence, position it to drive systemic change for children, and build readiness to capitalize on external trends and opportunities. The proposals highlighted substantial partnership opportunities; created an organizational design that combined cohesive structures, efficient systems and processes, a platform for programmatic innovations, and concrete proposals on how to build a robust internal capacity to deliver on the bold vision of UNICEF. In January 2009, UNICEF management presented a paper updating its Executive Board on the sustained effort underway to implement the long-term shifts recommended by the review. (The UNICEF Organizational Review was co-funded by UNICEF and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.)

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Read the Summary Report by GivingWorks
Read the January, 2009 Progress Update

World Bank’s Strategic Compact

Responding to calls for change and challenges to its legitimacy, the World Bank under James Wolfensohn undertook an ambitious program of reform, embodied in its “Strategic Compact.” The Compact – accompanied by a significant infusion of new investments over a four year period – embraced a vision of excellence, aiming to increase development effectiveness through more holistic programming and increased resources to the frontlines. Four years later, GivingWorks’ Nazir Ahmad was the lead consultant to a cross-functional team of Bank staff tasked with assessing progress. Through this effort, GivingWorks was able to understand and assess the strategic thinking at the corporate level and delve into the Bank’s operational and managerial practices. The report to the Board, described by Mr. Wolfensohn as “tough but fair,” captured the considerable progress made but also highlighted areas where the Bank remained deficient. The report also recommended concrete steps to tackle organizational rigidities. Following the assessment, Ahmad was engaged to help draft the Strategic Directions Paper and its companion Management Action Plan that outlined the implementation roadmap for the following four years.

Assessing the For-Profit Subsidiary of a Major Nonprofit Organization

A major nonprofit organization engaged GivingWorks to conduct an assessment of its for-profit subsidiary, which accounts for a significant share of its operating budget and plays a vital role in attracting and retaining its membership. Building on a thorough review of the organization’s internal strengths and weaknesses and a provocative analysis of emerging marketplace and policy trends, GivingWorks’ insights spurred meaningful change. Our analysis went deeper than a traditional situation assessment and also brought forward a number of distinct business models along with their requisite conditions of success. The project culminated in a special session of the Board of Directors at which GivingWorks presented its findings and facilitated a lively discussion between Board and Management. Within a year, the for-profit subsidiary redesigned and reconfigured its planning, product development, marketing and research functions to better leverage the nonprofit parent organization’s access to its members and more effectively link its marketplace offerings to its social impact goals.

Articulating the Governance and Management Architecture of the Bipartisan Policy Center

The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) is crafting fresh approaches to several complex and consequential policy challenges, including energy and climate change, healthcare, national security, transportation and science policy. Founded by a bipartisan group of four former US Senate Majority Leaders, BPC has attracted the participation of leading political, military, and academic figures across the political spectrum – and is uniquely poised to make principled, pragmatic and bipartisan contributions to the policy debate. At the end of its first full year as a stand-alone organization, the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) engaged GivingWorks to help BPC’s Board and leadership to more sharply define and differentiate its strategic positioning and value proposition, issue portfolio considerations, engagement and advocacy approaches, and the requisite governance and organizational architecture. This effort also included helping BPC develop clear and coherent roles and responsibilities for key senior staff positions and the Board. Through in-depth interviews with management and Board members, GivingWorks developed a strong understanding of the evolution of current roles, gaps and redundancies in the allocation of responsibilities, and internal perspectives on the future design. GivingWorks then helped the Board and management define the governance and management architecture required to help BPC operate more effectively and efficiently.

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