stakeholderEven if you are not aware of it, your organisation has a number of stakeholders out there, and it is your responsibility to engage with them in an appropriate matter. Therefore, this post will give answer to some questions regarding stakeholders and will show you how to interact with them.

To start with, it is important to know what a stakeholder is.

A stakeholder can be an individual, an organisation or a group interested in or concerned with your organisation. Therefore, the relationship between a stakeholder and an organisation is a very important one, as either party can be affected by the actions of the other.

Having this in mind, it is obvious that your NFP’s stakeholders include yourself, your board members, your employees and volunteers, the donors, partners and customers and everyone else related to the organisation. Each and every one of them has interest in the organisation and can be affected by (and in many cases affect) its activity.

While all your stakeholders are important for the development of the organisation, some of them have a direct influence over its activities, goals and objectives. An example of such stakeholders include your board members who have a say in all the decisions taken at board meetings, or your creditors who would probably have a list of requirements which you will need to meet to fulfil in order to work together.

Other stakeholders, even if they do not have a direct impact on the decisions taken by the board, are still important for the organisation as they can provide you with useful information – the way your NFP is seen by others, new financial opportunities (or risks for your finances), potential conflicts etc. Therefore, it is extremely important for you and the rest of the board to be up-to-date with everything your stakeholder know and have to say regarding the development of the organisation.

In order to make sure that you know how your stakeholders think, you can take the following steps:

  • Identify your stakeholders and make a list of the relationships between your organisation and other organisations, groups or individuals;
  • Consider and articulate a strategy to engage your stakeholders;
  • Start developing policies and practices to achieve a higher level of engagement with your stakeholders and members;
  • Introduce new ways of transparent communication;
  • Promote the members’ rights and help them exercise them;
  • Work towards more activity at board meetings;
  • Plan periodical assessment of the stakeholders’ engagement with the organisation;

Taking these basic steps to engage with your stakeholders will set you on the right path to successful and effective communication with everyone who your organisation depends on. With the help of your stakeholders, you can expand and develop faster, avoid conflicts and issues, find new financial sources and improve your NFP’s brand and image, both online and offline. Poor engagement with your stakeholders, on the other hand, may result in poor morale, non-observance of the organisation’s code of conduct and corruption of the company’s culture.