51 Developing a Network of Outsourced Partners

Given the limited resources available for NPOs, many of its staff often wear multiple hats and perform various roles within the organization. However, in some cases, the person(s) may not be able to perform all the tasks for developing and managing an IMC campaign and requires an outside party to help.

Defining the Organization’s Needs

Before looking into outsourcing activities, the organization needs to understand which tasks require outsourcing and which can be performed in-house. In doing so, an NPO can then establish a partnership with a third-party agency that the organization can reliably work with to avoid costly oversights.

For example, if you find you’re preoccupied with marketing and outreach, while the core functionalities of your organization are falling by the wayside, outsourcing marketing challenges can help you reallocate your internal resources to your core business requirements. Choosing strong outsourcing partners is often cost-effective in the long run, and in marketing scenarios, can lead to more effective outreach.

To make a well-informed decision when outsourcing, the organization should first begin with the essential information that encompasses the scope of work required from short-term contractors or long-term partners: 

• Define the campaign goal: Have a clear understanding of the type of services the organization needs to outsource. Set out the list of tasks along with the expectations and goals that the outsource team will need to achieve. A well-defined campaign goal will help negotiate appropriate terms and prevent paying for additional items or services that are not necessary for the campaign.

• Set a realistic budget: Depending on the campaign requirements, having an allocated budget can set the range of acceptable pricing that the organization is willing to spend. Setting an unrealistic budget, however, may constrain the selection process and even lead to unreliable partners.

• Establish a timeline: Clearly stating a deadline will help narrow the selection process even further. The organization can easily communicate the degree of commitment they will require from the outside partners.

Common Intermediaries

Identifying Resources

There are two methods when it comes to identifying  and utilizing the resources available within your organization:

1. Create your strategy and goals and then find the resources required to achieve them.
2. Identify the resources you currently have right away then work within those parameters.

Creating a rough budget early on will help you assess what resources and funds are available to you. Resources you will want to consider are:

• Human (people, skills and time)
• Financial (funding)
• Intellectual (access to information)
• Material (access to equipment, tools, etc.)

Budgeting

Once the resources available to you have been identified you can now create a budget. If funding is likely to be an issue, there are organizations, foundations, and even government grants that can help. If you can identify resources within your organization, such as a video camera, or a filmmaker, you can limit the overall costs of finding those resources elsewhere. Also, partnering with other organizations that have similar goals can help bring together resources that don’t currently exist with your organization.

Contracting Outsourced Activities

Once the above key information is established, the organization can identify and compare potential third-party partners. There are various methods and channels an organization can use to find reliable and credible partners:

Comparing Outsource Partners

Comparing outsource partners can be based on the following group of criteria:

• Quality of service,
• Flexibility and adaptability,
• Ease of communication,
• Experience,
• Payment terms,
• Value-added service.

Price and delivery time are not mentioned here deliberately since they are the tangible factors that can be easily compared with each other but are usually threshold factors. The tangible factors are generally the criteria of the greatest weight in the evaluation process.

When choosing outsource partners, all types of criteria can be considered. Often, they form close relationships. For example, price is inextricably linked to the quality of their work or their experience. However, immeasurable factors such as payment terms and the partner’s flexibility have an indirect effect on the price of the service. The organization can also base the selection process by the type of projects the agencies or the freelancers have done and compare public ratings like Google and Facebook reviews.  

The criteria presented may not always meet the needs of the organization. Therefore, they should be regarded as a starting point. If required, the list of criteria can be extended or shortened.

The qualifying partners that meet the organization’s standards and requirements will then be shortlisted as potential candidates.

Assessing and Choosing Outsource Partners

The next stage of the selection process is the assessment of the shortlisted agencies. Having established the criteria, an organization can analyze the agencies in the given circumstances by applying weight factors. Each criterion is assigned a weighted factor reflecting what is most important to the organization. The agencies are also graded on a scale range from 1 to 5 (1 being the worst-rated and 5 the best). The grading is multiplied by the weight factor and then tallied to achieve a total rating.

The organization can use a simple decision matrix to measure the alternatives (pictured below):