Educate my village is a nonprofit organization established September 2022 in Minnesota, USA by Welde Henryeatta Dubar, M.Ed., who worked as a Parent Educator for both Wayzata and Anoka-Hennepin Public Schools. The sole purpose of this organization is to provide immigrant families with resources that help them raise healthy and striving children in the United States and Beyond. After many years of supporting families, Welde was able to develop a strong passion and found the need to help immigrant families overcome the challenges they face with their children's learning abilities or attitudes in school. She realized that most immigrant families were not aware of the resources that are made available to help them support their children’s educational journey. Her work has impacted the lives of many families not just in the immigrant community, but also amongst minorities and other ethnic groups.
When Welde first thought about the idea of starting a nonprofit, she reached out to me to help her brainstorm ideas and possibilities. The history between me and Welde goes way back to 2005/2006 when we first encounter each other. We both graduated from the same high school in Charlotte, NC. We also attended the Central Piedmont Community College commonly known as CPCC in Charlotte, NC during our early freshman years of higher education and since, we have been supporting each other in our professional growth and development. So, when she reached out to me about her plans to start a nonprofit for something she is passionate about, I was fully indulged also for the fact that this was going to impact the community in a positive way.
Brainstorming
We had a series of conversations surrounding the idea and how a good business model could be developed that would align with what she wanted to achieve within the organization. But like any other business, the foundation had to be established first. Welde began to do research on how to effectively start a non-profit. A few months later, I received a phone call from Welde informing me that the nonprofit is fully registered, incorporated and has a 501c3. This was great news and hearing this even reinforced the notions I had when she first told me about her plans. I knew right then her passion and ambition about this endeavor was unquestionable. After the foundation was established, we started the process of turning it into a fully operational entity.
We discussed further goals and at the end of our discussions we were able to outline three major tasks which were to have an official launching event, establish a Board of Directors or a small management team, and build a website. As a friend and a business consultant, I agreed to take on the web-building task, while she worked on establishing the Board or management team and planning the launch event. However, I was still partially involved with the other goals especially when it comes to venting or brainstorming new ideas. Like every other business development activity, I've worked on, building of the website took the same format - a projectile approach.
The Business Case
We first developed a business case for the website project. The business case identifies the business needs that the website would satisfy. How could this website have a significant impact on the organization? What positive outcomes or benefits of the business goals that this website will achieve? And how could the organization maintain or improve the outcomes of the website to keep achieving its business goals? To fully answer these questions, we look back at our initial conversations about why the organization is being founded. What is the sole purpose and how will it benefit the community? It was concluded that the purpose for the website is to first educate the world about the nonprofit Educate My Village, who they are and what they intend to do in the community. Another business needs the website satisfied is the ability to solicit donations and create more awareness. The website would also be the central hub for connecting families to resources. Other business opportunities included acquiring volunteers, having family register or request for services, and accessing parental workshops and tips. Once the business case was agreed upon, I moved to develop the scope of the website project.
The Scope
It was in the scope where I described the goals of the project which was to build a fully operational website that met the business needs of the organization. The scope also answered questions like, how many web pages would be included, what the design would look like, what colors schemes would be use, what types of pictures would be appropriate to clearly convey the message, what types of contents would be shared on the website, who is responsible to provide the web contents, the high-level budget and the duration which was estimated to take three months.
Budget and Timeline
Next in the planning process was the timeline and Budget breakdown. Even though the total duration for building the website was estimated to take three months, the timeline did not have many activities to develop a full schedule. However, we identified some milestones, and were able to establish a logical relationship among few dependencies. Some of the logical relationships included purchasing of the domain’s name must be completed before the web design could start. Purchasing the web hosting must be completed before the website can be published. Web contents must be reviewed and approved before going on the website and the organization payment account or PayPal must be set up before listing the feature that would allow the organization to receive donations through the website. Another relationship that we identified was the desktop version could not be completed until the mobile version was developed.
There were other logical relationships identified during the actual implementation as the website was being built while adding various features. We were able to complete the project on a small budget. The budgeted items included the domain name, web hosting and other subscriptions, plug-ins or features such as forms, email, etc. The total budget excluding consultant fee summed up to about $800.00 USD. Because it was a small budget, she had the responsibility to make the purchases and all funds came directly from the nonprofit account which was generated through previous donations.
The Developmental Approach
Aspects of the planning that directly impacted the implementation of building the website include the developmental approach. I usually carry a predictive approach personality when it comes to planning and managing projects. However, to be successful in delivering the right results or products, I tend to adapt to other frameworks or approaches that are appropriate to meeting the goals. Even though my approach to planning took a predictive route, in this case, it was clear that I needed to put on my agile hat because I anticipated that work was going to be achieve incrementally, through series of iterations, adapting to changes, updating backlogs, implement-test-and-deploy - until all the features are delivered, and the final product is fully functioning as expected. In addition to the developmental approach, I also introduce the SMART goals method where all goals established for this project need to be Specific, Measurable, Realistic, Attainable and have a Timeframe tied to them.
Communication Plan
The communication plan was a pivotal part of this planning process to accomplish the project goals. We decided to meet once every week to identify what was completed, what still needs to be completed, discuss new goals, remove impediments, update the backlog, assign new responsibilities, and develop an action plan for top priority tasks impacting the overall business goals. Through our frequent communication, we were able to identify other aspects of the project that included assumption and constraints, risk assessment from an operational standpoint, internal and external factors, governance, business model, workflow, and quality review.
The Implementation
I performed most of the tasks to build the website and provided my expertise as a business or project consultant, while Welde as the project owner and the key stakeholder set the expectations to be met. Even though there were other stakeholders involved such as her mentors, board members and other supporting parties, throughout the project I communicated directly with her when it comes to expectations. Since we were only a two-person team, we didn’t need to go through a rigorous approval process. Some of these only require a one-on-one sit-down, lap-top and a notepad. However, what was most important was following the plans to accomplish the end goals and making the right decisions as the project goes along. During the implementation, we followed the project plans, especially the scope, timeline (the dependencies and logical relationships), the developmental approach (SMART Goals), and the communication plan. Other plans of the project were considered too, however, performances and completed tasks were measured by how well we aligned ourselves to these three plans for the project.
Wearing the Agile Hat
As we anticipated, we had backlogs of activities, most of which included features, interfaces, and designs. For instance, the icon on the top right corner that said DONATE needed to be well visible to the site visitors since soliciting donations was one of the key business needs identified. It also had to be accessible throughout the website as well and, linked to the PayPal account of the organization. Other activities that needed to be performed include building a custom form for each service on the "Our Services" page and creating a back-office workflow where information submitted through this form “Read More & Apply” are managed separately. Other features include adding another form for those who would like to volunteer under the page “Ways to Support”, adding Event Listing, Social Media links, Videos, FAQ, and organization email for Business Communications purposes.
Creating the contents of the website was solely the responsibility of the project owner. I only provided my expertise as a business consultant so that the narratives could have a more professional business outlook such as the languages being used to convey the right message to the public. Some of these contents include what you would see on the "About Us page", "Our Services page", or "FAQ" page. Like the norm of every other agile project, we went through several changes and iterations to meet the actual expectations that the owner envisions, specially making sure the contents align with the business purpose, the features are properly deployed, and interfaces (links) are functioning accurately.
Business Model
I remember in one of our meetings, I asked the question; what is going to your Business Model? Even though this is a nonprofit, a business model still needs to be considered. As a business and project consultant, I don’t just implement the business goals, I also tend to coach my clients on what they need to know to be successful in their endeavors. Moreover, what good project managers do is align the activities of the project to the business objectives and this is what I intended to do by asking the question about the business model. This resulted in another lengthy discussion on how the organization would operate or function on a day-to-day basis. The strategy for managing resources, information, processes, and stream-lining the workflow were all part of the conversation.
Since the entire organization is manage by a hand full of individuals, I suggested the lean approach for the operating strategy which would allow her to focus only on activities or processes that facilitate meeting the appropriate business goals now and avoid extra work or activities or process that take up too much time, efforts, resources and more importantly money. This includes limiting activities within the workflow, having a one-stop shop back-office to manage all activities, aligning the business performance measurements with the actual needed business goals and having short intervals for turnarounds. There can always be improvement made as the organization grows. Based on the outputs of this conversation, we had to adapt to a few additional changes for the project as well.
Quality Review
In every project that I plan or manage, quality is involved. For this project, the quality requirements to be met included having a consistency in the design outlook, color schemes, fonts size, types and positionings. The quality requirements also included free of grammatical errors, custom forms created to accompany the appropriate business information needs, brand identity, pictures selections, accessibility of the pages, features, the mobile version and more importantly the interfaces as well as the receiving end which is the back office of the website. All these requirements had to be met before the website was considered fully compete. On March 13 of 2022, we completed all requirements and officially published the website for Educate My Village.
Stakeholder Training
Before and after the website was published, I needed to provide training to the project owner on how to manage and maintain the website activities since it directly impacted the organization operations. The training included how to update events, making small or minor changes, creating email newsletters, accessing data in the back-office for business decision making, and reviewing analytics to measure the website performance. The training also included establishing boundaries of what activities she would be able to do on her own and what activities she would need to contact a person with web building or design expertise. As a business and project consultant, I usually stick around for some time after the final delivery in case the client has any questions or concerns or needs to troubleshoot anything.
I believe Educate My Village has the potential to impact the lives of many. The leadership and individuals involved with this program still have a lot to unpack and the society has not truly experienced the benefits of their services to the community. It is truly a remarkable ordeal. There is so much room for growth and the need for such services will only increase as children become school age students. I know that Educate My Village will continue to serve the community, the world at large and growth is inevitable.
Conclusion
Some people may wonder, all this just for a website. But it is not as ordinary as it seems. There are real life situations that families face in our communities that sometimes push them to their breaking points. In some cases, giving up to depression, anxiety or confusion which could be detrimental to both the parent and the child. Some parents do not know how to go about it when their child is not acting right in school or having learning difficulties. Moreover, they do not have the right resources to deal with it. Educate My Village “One Hut at a Time is eliminating that barrier so ordinary parents, not just immigrants, but every other could have access to the right information and support to be educated on how to raise their children in this ever changing, challenging and uncertain society.
Early Childhood Family Education is significant to building a better community and brighter future for all. With all that I do in my professional career, I consider myself a community enthusiast, so this project was not just about showing my professional strength or capacity as a business or project consultant. It was also about helping our community become better, One Hut at a Time. For more information, please visit www.educatemyvillage.org.
Thanks for Reading!