Marika Kontellis and Gary Jacobson of Zakumi Consulting work at a strategic level with not-for-profit organisations, primarily in the community sector. Zakumi awarded me my first contract, enabling me to make the shift to working for myself, for which I’ll always be grateful.
The job was to develop a Membership Development Strategy and Communications Schedule for a membership-based peak organisation in the aged and disability care sector. The organisation was undergoing structural change to get ahead of the changes in the community care sector, and needed to change their thinking about how they engaged with their members and other stakeholders.
For this task I drew on not only research of the structure and strategies of large membership-based organisations in the same sector, I also drew on my experience in and knowledge of political parties and environmental and social justice organisations.
Rather than producing a document heavy in jargon and platitudes, I focussed on creating simple, direct processes which the organisation could implement and focus on to develop and build their membership base. After presentation, the Board adopted both strategic documents unaltered.
Since this first successful contract I have continued to sub-contract with Zakumi from time to time, on various projects, including interview-based research, sector analysis and website audits.