Supporting nonprofits through strategic planning and technology: Insights from Saad Qureshi

Tasha: [00:00:00] Good morning. Could you please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your nonprofit origin story?

Saad: My name is Saad and, I work for a, firm based in Ottawa, Canada, called Design Centered Co. I’m the director of client services here. And so what we do is, support the nonprofit sector, private and public as well, but nonprofit, in sort of anything related to strategic planning, digital transformation, understanding their stakeholders or stakeholder relationships.

Is there anything that help, that helps uplift. The mission of those organizations so that it gets out to more people or gets out to the right people. So that’s what we provide in terms of , services, in terms of consulting hours, and in terms of just, resources as well, we pro we have a number of free resources.

My personal journey began in non-profit. Over a decade and a half ago, roughly. I’ve at first as a volunteer in many organizations that I saw in Ottawa at a community level where I felt there was a connection and I wanted to [00:01:00] be more part of what’s happening in my communities.

Then as I got more and more interested , while I was working in the nonprofit and I just got jaded with the work that I was doing and then I was also doing a lot of sales and marketing, so I was just. Fed up with a lot of the work that I was doing and seeing that it doesn’t speak to my need to connect with people, on a personal level and solve more community-based, issues or try to be part of those in some way.

So I just started applying to nonprofits here and there and hoping that my skills match to what they need. I was lucky enough that I worked with some really amazing, nonprofits from there on and started with, some community based organizations and then international based international development type organizations, where I was predominantly doing more admin type work and program design work.

And then I moved into fundraising. Where, it spoke more to my sales and marketing side. So I was a natural fit there. And through that kind of kept going until like around 2020. There was a big shift in the world. And it was right around that [00:02:00] time where I decided to do some consulting work in nonprofit.

’cause I’d seen some of the challenges and I’d found that, or I decided that, I thought. The best way I could give back or best way I could contribute is looking at where the need is and just being available to that as opposed to sticking to one role, one job where yes, there’s a need there, then I can support it, but i’m one of those people who can’t do one thing at a time, so I have to do 25 things. And I was like, okay, consulting might be the way to go, so let’s try that. And, I did that and through that I was working with a couple of organizations, again internationally who have some local presence in Canada as well, in education.

Then through that work I also got some work in the government joined this firm that I’m. Part of now, that, my brother started, and, we’ve been growing our business together now. Again, like I said, it’s just been really rewarding to see, us being able to support the work that nonprofits are doing.

Since my first job in nonprofits, I never want to be the person who says like, Hey, I know how to do it better. [00:03:00] You guys have to listen to me. It’s more about you guys are doing something that is matters, that is getting out there to the people who need it. If I can support and support that in some ways to bring it, to improve the quality of that, or to bring it to more people or to bring it to the right people, let me know how I can help.

That’s been my journey.

Tasha: That’s amazing and I think it’s always so interesting to hear people’s backgrounds in nonprofit because so often, almost anyone I know who is in some measure of nonprofit consulting, as kind of that similar, like path of being in-house, either finding that there was challenges getting, moving the mission forward while they were in-house.

Sometimes, it’s funny what barriers exist when you’re working in nonprofit. This seemed to lessen somehow when you’re outside of it, supporting it still. I don’t know. There’s an inter, I don’t know what that means and I’m starting to poke at it a little bit more, in the things I’m talking about because it does seem to be.

Prevalent [00:04:00] across countries, not just in Canada, but in the US and our international members very much speak to that being the truth.

Saad: Yeah, absolutely. I think. In my experience, what I’ve found is exactly to what you were talking about. I think when we are in it as an in-house person, there’s all these pressures from everywhere, that, come in and you’re everybody in a nonprofit organization, at least all the ones that I’ve seen, everybody’s doing at least the job of at least three people.

If not more. And, so you’re constantly bombarded with a lot of things. You’re always, trying to put out fires and everything. It’s hard to take a step back and look at the bigger picture or look at what are, some areas where. If my colleague is working on this, that I can use that and also help them in some other way. Instead of repeating the same thing four times, maybe we have some way of looking at it and just combining our efforts. And as a consultant, that’s what’s I’ve been able to do is look at an organization across the board and be like, oh, well you know what?

They’re doing this. Why don’t you use that ’cause [00:05:00] you are also doing something else and let them use that. so to, find those ways to collaborate not only within organizations, but across the sector, across the industry where, an organization might be doing X, Y, or Z and they’ve done it particularly well, why can’t we use that as opposed to trying to go out and, fight for resources that are already very limited.

Tasha: Yeah, I love it. That’s fantastic. And in your experience in House Now Consulting, what’s your favorite part of working in this sector?

Saad: I think what’s been really rewarding has been to really see the, difference that we’ve made in terms of the digital transformation of some of these organizations.

And at the heart of that the way we operate is really about the impact that they want to create, the organizations want to create, right? So I, love it when I can see that aha moment of like, Hey, I have been doing this for five, 10 years this way, or like even three months and now I’ve unlocked this new insight and now I’m gonna be able to do X number of things better or [00:06:00] more efficiently.

And that doesn’t come from us. That comes from them, you know? It’s not that I gave you those insights, you had those insights yourself. It’s just a matter of going through the motions of doing that.

Tasha: I think sometimes consultants. What they bring to the table. Actually, one of our partners, Corrie Oberdin, posted about this today.

It’s like there’s a little bit of therapy. That comes out in consulting, right? You need me to just provide that space for you to go, yes, this is true. Absolutely. Here’s this extra, external opinion going, no, you’re on the right track, right? Let’s move forward on this together.

And it’s just that support system that I think is lacking so often.

Saad: It’s the validation that they need to know that, you know what, whatever you’re doing, you’re doing it right. Just keep going. You’re on the right path. Just try to not, get bogged on with all the voices that are coming at you.

Tasha: Yeah, absolutely. We kind of ended up into the next question, naturally here, because I always like to ask what some of the challenges you are seeing that you feel are the biggest challenges nonprofits are [00:07:00] facing. And here’s one, but do you have an additional one you would add?

Saad: Yeah, apart from funding, ’cause that is always going to be the big sort of overarching, challenge in nonprofit. I think right now is a great time for nonprofits to really look at their digital strategies broadly. So the sector historically has always been behind in terms of technology has always been behind in terms of support and to, get those technologies to amplify their mission, amplify their impact, amplify all the work that they’re doing.

I think right now is the time for them to invest in that. Right now is the time to advocate to funders to fund that, to fund, whether, it could be as simple as like, just look at your donation page and see if it’s optimized to the right users, or for people to actually come in and click through and be able to donate to you.

A simple way that, might be the simplest solution there. Or just looking at your systems and seeing, we’re doing x number of processes, can we bring it down to 10% lower than that. Or whatever it is to just make the technology work for you as opposed to you [00:08:00] working so hard to try to do everything.

Tasha: It’s an enormous role. And even particularly if it’s marketing digital technology. Things are moving so fast, my primary role and what I do and what I love is marketing. I can’t keep up to save my life. And this is what I do all the time. I’m not trying to multitask hat with fundraising at the same time, or heaven forbid, you be the executive director slash founder of a small nonprofit, you’re probably doing.

All the rules and you’re in it for passion and because you believe in something, not because you wanted to learn best AI use cases. Right. So hard.

Saad: Absolutely. And I think one thing that keeps getting missed in this is, so another challenge, I think it’s related to this. Is the impact measurement.

There’s a lot of ways out there that people are measuring the impact that they’re having in the communities that they’re serving. But I think it’s not getting out there, it’s not being communicated in [00:09:00] the right way. So whatever it is that you’re doing and you’re maybe doing an amazing job and your beneficiaries are so happy with you, but you’re not able to communicate that, and that is a huge issue I think when it comes to renewing funding, when it comes to just getting more people on board with your mission.

That just, and even for internal staff to really understand what is the impact that we’re making. Sometimes that communication is lacking for good reason. Again, these organizations are very under resourced. Sometimes they’re just overwhelmed. But that is an area that I would really, personally love to see improve over the next little while.

Tasha: That’s fantastic. So I always like to ask about peer support. And I love that you’re working with your brother. That’s really cool. I don’t hear very many. I do know a couple like husband, wife teams that are working together in the sector. I’m not sure. I can imagine working with my own sister, who I love deeply, but man, we do things in different ways, so I’m not sure how that would work, but, you know, peer support.

In your role, in your work, how does that [00:10:00] factor into your success and, feeling supported in your work?

Saad: I think it’s huge. when I, decided to make that leap and, join my brother with. What he was doing. It was a concern, obviously with family, it always is.

But I think we’ve been really good with, managing each other’s expectations, making sure that we also understand what our strengths are and what our weaknesses are. So we’re not fighting about like, Hey, I know how to do this better, or whatever it is.

It’s always about what’s best for the people that we are trying to serve. And also for our internal team. We have a team of five or six people now. So, other than the two of us. It’s also important for us to be able to support them, we have an open door kind of policy where if you have any issue, come talk to us.

Doesn’t matter, there’s no barriers to, you can’t talk about this or you can’t talk about that. Talk about whatever you need to talk about. ’cause we want to be able to provide you the support and with each other as well. We’re the same way if I’m struggling with something, I’ll just mention it to him or, he’s struggling with something, he’ll mention it to me.

So we’re there. And I think that also comes from both of our [00:11:00] experience in this and the social enterprise and nonprofit sectors of, we’ve seen, we’ve lived and breathed that, sort of environment. So we tried to bring it in our own work now.

Tasha: That’s great. Having people to talk to about the work is so important.

And there’s something magical. I have found at least teams of I dunno, something changes when you go over 10 for sure. Right? , Then you really need somebody, whose role is, my friend Evan uses the word, chief Human Behavioral Development Officers. He has this like crazy hilarious acronym for it.

But there is something there, right? Like at some point the heart and the culture of your team has to exist within someone. It doesn’t mean they don’t have another role as well, but, you just kind of get outta that like six to 10 group. And all of a sudden things change. And oftentimes organizations don’t acknowledge that there is that shift.

Maybe their EDU’s role has gotten so big that they can’t be on, top of a 20 person team and managing everybody that way. And it really [00:12:00] does shift things, but that, smaller team size and then getting that opportunity to support everyone, I think is a special thing about smaller teams that we often feel under-resourced in nonprofit, but a smaller team’s pretty special.

’cause you can be pretty, pretty quick and feel more supported.

Saad: Yeah, personally, I feel like we very much, so a small enterprise like ours, is very much like a nonprofit , because all of us are working collaboratively all the time. There’s no project where my team doesn’t know what I’m doing, or, I don’t know what they’re doing or whatever it is.

Because we’re so involved and trying to solve a problem together all the time. And I think that. Comes from having that mentality of like, I’m not going to sit here and try to solve everything on my own. That, just doesn’t make any sense to me to try to solve everything on my own. ’cause I don’t have all the answers, but somebody on my team might have experience with this, might have the expertise, might have the knowledge that I don’t.

So why not just put it out there and see if anybody has any insights into what I’m working on? That’s how we support the work that [00:13:00] we do and just continue those conversations and build that environment for everybody to feel comfortable bringing up anything that they want to talk about.

Just yesterday we were supposed to have a meeting in our team and we couldn’t, ’cause everybody had, their schedules we’re really busy , and instead of rescheduling it, we were just like, you know what, why don’t we just send our updates on Slack? And see where we can support each other.

Just a quick note of like, what are you working on? What do you need support on , if anything. And just keep the conversation going and then we’ll meet again. That’s obviously gonna happen, but it’s just making sure that those things don’t fall through the crack of like, we have to talk about it, but we’ll deal with it later.

No, let’s talk about it. Let’s put it out there. Let’s see where we can help each other.

Tasha: Awesome. So. We’ve met today for the first time officially, but you’ve been a member of the nonprofit Hive for quite some time now, which I love. We’re only about less than 20% Canadian, even though I’m Canadian, but it just, haven’t seen the exact same uptick as we have from the us but what have you gotten out of being a [00:14:00] member of the nonprofit Hive

Saad: The best part has been the conversations, just meeting people from a variety of, backgrounds, variety of, organizations and hearing them talk about their work. Just , gives me that sort of boost I need to continue with my work, understanding where the challenges are.

Obviously that helps. You were talking about peer support. Some of the conversations I’ve had have been around that of like, what, I might be able to help you just send me a message, out, here after this and we’ll connect, something along those lines, whether or not.

That materializes into anything. The secondary, it’s more just making that connection. And I think that’s been great. So I, thank you for putting together this network and allowing us to be part of it. ’cause I think the value is in the relationships that we’re all making.

Tasha: That’s awesome. What’s the best way that people can get in touch with you, connect with you, and just like a quick blurb overview of services again to wrap it up?

Saad: Absolutely. So the best way to get in touch with us or me personally, is either through [00:15:00] LinkedIn, just search my name Saad Qureshi, or go to our website, which is designcentered.co

You’ll see a list of our services there, but just to quickly mention, we support nonprofit with strategic planning. Anything to do with digital transformation. So that could mean like optimizing, donation pages, optimizing internal processes and technologies like your CRM systems.

Figuring out how to support your marketing and your impact. And at the center of that is our own proprietary methodology called impact center design, which was created. While, we were working in the social enterprise sector, so it really speaks to the needs of the nonprofit slash social enterprise sector of really putting the impact first by assessing the people, processes and purpose of what you’re trying to achieve.

So again, you can find more information about that on our website. We do have some free resources, available as well, but if you ever need anything, just message us. We are very easy to reach and available to talk.

Tasha: That’s awesome. Thank you so much for doing this with me today.

Saad: No problem. [00:16:00] Thank you so much.