Our network of community leaders posed us a challenge. Should the work be led by individuals or a community of people? Could we use Give a Day to create new connections to lead the work in each place?
We aim to find out. It means some changes to our plan.
One option, suggested by one of the network of community leaders, is to offer Give a Day to existing informal associations, that is groups that are not registered as a formal organisation.
Another option is to introduce another stage to the Give a Day start up process. Stage one would involve a ‘tiny box’. This would be sent to individuals interested in Give a Day, and contain materials that encourage and facilitates establishing a group of five to 10 people to take the work forward.
Once the group is fully formed, they would receive a ‘big’ Give a Day box, containing similar materials to those used in the current phase of testing.
(Street to Scale, which brings together groups of 10 people, and gives them £1,000 to do good in their community, uses a similar approach).
The are reasons to be optimistic and pessimistic about this revised strategy.
That Give a Day might create connection in the set up phase would be welcome, and consistent with our values. Having a group leading might contribute to continuity over time, are arguably greater spread within a place.
On the other hand, group leadership may slow decision making or complicate the simple relationship between local projects, people giving a day for their place, and local businesses.