Strategy
PTF Strategic Plan 2010-2014 – Highlights
In October 2010, the PTF Board of Directors approved a new strategic plan. It seeks to build upon the solid base that has been developed in recent years and to scale-up many of PTF’s activities in coming years.
Some of the key aspects of the new strategy are:
Growth and Focus
PTF will seek funding to make grants totaling $2 million by 2013. That would allow PTF to support 50 grants a year and program $650,000 for other programs (partnerships, workshops, dissemination and program support not provided for with the project budgets etc.) and $100,000 for management and administration overheads. This assumes that most staff and related costs will be covered under program support. For the longer-term PTF will explore the option for order of magnitude growth – i.e. 5 times the current $1,000,000 in grants awarded to CSOs and program support.
Systems and Knowledge Sharing
PTF will put in place improved management systems that ensure efficient and effective operations while preserving the volunteer spirit and informality that has defined the unique strength and character of the organization. In particular, the PTF will establish operating systems for:
- Program management—up-to-date information on project activities, deadlines and deliverables
- Financial management—tracking and reporting on revenues, commitments, disbursements and generating the necessary information for the balance sheet, profit and loss statements, audits and financial reporting
- Records management—maintaining up-to-date records of all important documents and correspondence
- Fund-raising—developing and maintaining information on potential donor strategic priorities, support for anti-corruption work and contacts, and (v) lessons of experience—developing and maintaining an information system that captures the lessons of experience from PTF-funded work, distills these lessons and enables others to search for information.
Support of PTF Volunteer Advisers, Members and Staff
Composition of PTF’s Human Capital:
The lion’s share of PTF’s human capital consists of volunteers. The Board, President & CEO, Secretary and Treasurer, the Project Advisors who are in direct contact with the CSOs that implement PTF-supported projects, the Regional Coordinators and Specialist Advisors are all volunteers. PTF has been operating without full time paid staff and with a minimum of outsourced services such as financial management, program management, website management, and project completion assessment specialists provided by independent contractors. As PTF continues to grow, careful consideration needs to be given to whether or not the prevailing approach of relying almost exclusively on volunteers will be sustainable in the longer-term.
Tasks and activities required to make PTF function:
There are seven broad categories of tasks that need to be accomplished to make PTF function effectively, namely:
- PTF project portfolio management
- Targeted Volunteer Advisers Management
- Financial management
- Updating and maintaining website, communications, data base management & archives
- Reporting, Monitoring & Evaluation
- Support to Board and Annual Members meetings
- Fund raising, Partnership Development, Networking and Outreach