In this episode of Executive with a Cause, host Tammy Ven Dange chats with Chris Hatherly of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.
Like many Not for Profits, The Academy’s funding sources include government grants. Chris shares his experience in adjusting to changes in government funding models, and how the organisation is reducing their reliance on a source that can change with government agendas.
Chris also talks about the organisation’s transition from a secretary to a CEO approach and how they manage to work with high-profile members to create a cohesive strategy for lobbying. We hear how regular, coordinated efforts are more successful than once-off interactions with policy-makers, and Chris provides further tips on how to build influential relationships with government members.
Finally, Chris explains how he has tailored Salesforce to handle their complex member election process and the benefits of customising the platform for grant management. Chris also outlines his interest in innovative employee benefits, as Not for Profits face the continual challenge of attracting quality talent in a competitive labour market.
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Topics from this episode:
- 0.00 | Introduction
- 01.07 | The Academy of Social Sciences
- 04.15 | Funding
- 05.38 | Backstory
- 10.25 | Membership
- 13.33 | Recent work
- 18.32 | Lobbying
- 20.40 | Salesforce implementation
- 32.26 | Engagement
- 34.34 | Upcoming challenges
- 39.14 | Lessons learned
- 42.00 | IT in Plain English
Quotes from Chris Hatherly in this episode:
“These organisations in the Academy of Social Sciences covers everything from economics and anthropology through to history, law and psychology. But they’re basically a membership organisation of leading academics, for the most part, some high profile public policy people or, in our case, we’ve got, you know, Supreme Court retired judges or politicians as well as members. But people have to be elected into these organisations. So, they’re fairly exclusive kind of clubs if you like, and the roots actually go right back to the Royal Society of London, which was formed 350 years ago by Isaac Newton as these kind of bodies of esteemed thinkers and commentators and scholars of the day.”
“We’re always trying to diversify as much as possible and wean off government grants because it’s lovely to have, but unpredictable and subject to change at the whim of a minister. So, we’re trying to diversify as much as possible, including through financial investments and things for the small reserves we do have.”
“I’ve actually really appreciated being able to work at the interface between research and that kind of academic world, and then the public policy and program space and almost acting like a broker in a way. Knowledge broker is a bit pretentious for me, but in some ways, that’s what it is. It’s trying to interface between the experts who are at the cutting edge of the research world and the public policy people who are trying to put things into practice.”
“We’re in the position where we can act. We are a membership organisation, but we can act more like a peak body and focus exclusively on being that peak body. Because we don’t, we’re not tied up in all of the professional development, career development, credentialing kind of stuff that many other membership organisations are. And the organisation I’m with, as I mentioned, they were formed by these members for a purpose. So, the purpose was to try and create umbrella organisations through which they could come together to influence policy outcomes, or international outcomes, or to influence the shape and direction of their fields and disciplines.”
“Many of our members are current or former Secretaries of federal departments, or they’re heads of universities or big departments, or schools or universities, in many cases. They’re well-versed in talking to decision-makers and having a seat at the table. And they do that individually. But there are issues and times where it’s more beneficial for them to be able to do that collectively through an independent organisation rather than through their university hierarchy or whatever. So that’s really the value.”
“There’s a huge amount of stuff there, and we can’t do everything. We have 750 members, but only nine staff and two people in a policy team. So, we have to be selective and creative in where we try to draw on interns and secondments and all kinds of things to research some of the work we try to do.”
“In a context where there was no budget, I just started in the role at the time, and it was a kind of an IT disaster that was presented to me: “Our system is not working. We’ve got this old falling apart physical server, eight-year-old desktop computers that are unreliable. What do we do?” And in a way, I was actually fortunate to have started on all of that before the pandemic because we got a head start on everyone else having to do it at a moment’s notice when people could no longer turn up to the office. But Salesforce appealed, I guess, for those reasons, because it was so customisable.”
“We cut a lot of corners and took a lot of shortcuts. And probably, if we’d had a million dollars to work with a (Salesforce) vendor over a couple of years, we would have a much more polished system. And we wouldn’t have had some of the mistakes and frustrations for ourselves and for members that we had along the way. But we have gotten to a good spot now. And it’s working pretty well.“
Links & Resources
- Connect with Chris on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-hatherly-6a064a3a/
- Learn more by visiting the Academy of Social Sciences website https://socialsciences.org.au/
If you love insightful podcasts on topical issues (you obviously do if you’re here), you might also like the Academy’s own podcast, Seriously Social. Hosted by award-winning journalist Ginger Gorman, this podcast delves into some of the critical issues facing our society, drawing on the expertise of the Academy’s expert Fellows, as well as representatives from business and the community. Find out more at http://www.seriouslysocial.org.au.
Other Episodes Mentioned in this Show
- Watch our interview with Kate Luke of Little Oak Sanctuary
- Watch our interview with Heidi Prowse, formerly of MIEACT
Credits
Thanks to the entire team at Lonsdale St. Studio. Thanks also to our Digital Content Creator, Laura Kleinrahm.
Tammy Ven Dange is a former charity CEO, Not for Profit Board Member and IT Executive. Today she helps NFPs with strategic IT decisions with her business, Roundbox Consulting.