There are various factors that impact your program.

If you’re a nonprofit or social service agency, chances are you run several programs and services.

These programs and services don’t exist in a vacuum. In fact, a variety of factors make up a complex system in which your program or service operates within, including budgets and available funding, policies (organizational as well as federal/state/local), organizational structure, staff leadership capacity, participant perceptions, internal and external stakeholders, and more.

We often lose sight of these and we can be in the thick of it, doing what we can to keep the program afloat. However, when we take a bird’s eye view, we see the context that programs and services operate under.

This activity is ideal for:

  • Staff responsible for developing and overseeing the implementation of programs, services, and strategies

Here’s what you need:

  • Sheets of paper or an erasable whiteboard
  • Writing utensils (pens, pencils, markers, or dry erase markers)

The steps:

Take your preferred writing utensil and either a sheet of paper or erasable whiteboard. Draw a large circle, and a smaller circle in the middle. Write the name of your program or service in the middle, like this:

Hopefully your program has a catchier name

Next, around your program name, list the contextual organizational factors that drive your program. Here’s how it can look:

What other organizational contextual factors can you list?

Now, around your organizational factors, list the external contextual factors that impact how your program runs. It can look something like this:

What other external contextual factors can you list?

Let’s process what we have:

Now that we’ve identified the organizational and external contextual factors, let’s do some processing by responding to these discussion questions:

  • Review the organizational and external contextual factors. Circle the factors you feel are most essential and directly impact the functioning of your program. What are your reasons for circling these? Based on your staff role, your reasons (and the factors you circle) may vary.
  • To build on what we have, add in these guiding questions to formalize the structure of your program.

Key takeaway

The external factors that influence the functioning of your program are just as important as what’s going on internally. When we take a bird’s eye view of our program, it becomes easier to be clear about our program’s purpose, assign key roles, and develop the appropriate program activities. Try this activity and let me know how it goes for you.

Raise Your Voice: Choose a program. What contextual factors impact its functioning? Share below in the comments section.