RESEARCH
We conduct research in four areas that collectively encompass
the development funding sector.
The aim is, inter alia, improve NPO performance, give donors freedom
of choice and communities certainty
of delivery.
Corporate Governance
=
quality (the
“insides” of funding organisations and project partners)
Enabling Environment
=
quantity(The
“outsides” of funding organisations and project partners)
Technical Innovation
= performance (The
policy and practice of funding )
Institutional Development
=
sustainability of NPO's
Map of the development funding sector
Programme 1:
Corporate Governance
Without good governance and management,
organisations cannot disburse development funds ethically and
effectively. Good corporate governance is the foundation for healthy
relationships between donors and recipients, enabling mutual
responsibility and accountability. Good governance has a direct
effect on success. An important additional dimension of this
programme is the implications of new governance codes, in particular
King, for the social responsibility activities of business. XE4 is
advocating for integration of corporate social responsibility and
investment activity with over-arching governance and business
imperatives. XE4 is working on technology to
assist donors to plan and implement high-performance programmes, and
with its members and partners in civil society to increase strategic
planning and management skills in both donor and recipient
organisations. XE4 is working to fill the absence in South Africa of
donor fund management in the curricula of management schools and
technikons. XE4 improves methodologies, shares best practices and
instructs on hard management skills.
The more decisions an organisation makes,
the bigger its impact. The better all those decisions are, the
better its impact. Corporate governance therefore expresses the
ability of a management structure to sustain the quantity and quality
of decisions required for the biggest and best impact.
XE4 focuses on improving standards for the
management structure of two organisation types: the donors we
represent, and the project partners our members fund.
By setting standards for corporate
governance, XE4 expects that organisations will be more accountable,
transparent, better run and more effective. This anxieties that might
obstruct more generous public and private giving (and thereby maximise
the volume of funds available) and remove defects that obstruct
economical and efficient operation (and thereby maximise the return on
the social investment).
An enabling environment is crucial to
incentivise the highest level of development funding, the greatest
number of donors, and the most relevant and effective of programmes.
XE4 is a membership-based organisation, and as such has the
responsibility to advocate on behalf of this constituency for the most
favourable policy and legislative frameworks for funding and
development programmes. XE4 undertakes advocacy and public awareness
campaigns with key strategic partners in order to create an enabling
environment for all forms of grant making, to encourage development
partnerships, to raise the public profile and legitimacy of
developmental grant making, and to publicise critical development
issues. Through this programme XE4 is building its reputation as the
legitimate voice of effective grant making, and representing the
interests of members in Parliament and other public policy forums.
Inappropriate public policy and company
legislation still currently obstructs the emergence and operation of
donors and implementing civil society organisations. In particular,
poor tax legislation limits the level and distorts the purposes of
development programmes. XE4’s programme of environmental change seeks
first to advocate for removal of obstructions, and then to suggest
incentives for development funding.
XE4 works
with public and private decision-makers to remove obstructions to and
add incentives for human generosity, organisational focus and
programmatic achievement, thereby aiming to support effective
development funding programmes that support positive social change.
XE4 aims
at the presence of all incentives and the absence of all obstacles to
bring the quantity of role-players and funding to their potential
maximum.
 XE4
researches and promotes innovative approaches to development funding.
This programme therefore covers funding innovation in institutional
form, practice and stakeholder relationship. XE4 is working on
technology to assist donors to plan and implement high-performance
programmes, and with its members and partners in civil society to
increase strategic planning and management skills in both donor and
recipient organisations. This programme aims to fill the absence in
South Africa of donor fund management in the curricula of management
schools and technikons. XE4 will also develop uniform project cycle
methodologies, research and share best practice, and perfect impact
assessment and social accounting for funded development programmes.
“…
combinations of donors, NGOs and CBOs often form the core of the
‘delivery systems’ responsible for the implementation of development
initiatives. The overall health and ability of these ‘systems’ to
deliver is highly dependent on the nature and quality of the
relationships between the key elements of the system, which itself is
inextricably coupled to the ‘health’ and level of development of the
individual member organisations.”[1]
The
excellence of development funding is decided by the economies,
efficiencies, effectiveness and equities in the causal chain. The
longer the causal chain between the collection of funds and their
application, the less will be the control and the more will be the
number of people involved, so the less certain will be the outcome.
Development funding involves unusually long production sequences and
unusually weak management systems, so good technology is essential to
avoid disappointing returns on social investment. Given the need for
massive upliftment, and in thanks for donor generosity, technical
innovation is necessary to increase the expected value or ‘social
return’ on investment.
XE4
focuses on innovation in the technical relationships between donors
and funders, between XE4’s members and their project partners, and
between those partners and the needy communities. In this way, XE4
follows the funding flow.
XE4’s
innovations offer improved project planning, implementing and
monitoring and more sustainable, relevant and effective programmes.
This will remove anxieties that obstruct public and private giving
(and thereby maximise the volume of funds available) and remove
defects that obstruct economical and efficient operation (and thereby
maximise the return on the philanthropy).
Programme 4: Institutional Development
XE4
strives to develop its operational, financial and human resource
management systems to satisfy its strategic mandate.
We strive to ensure that
our vision and values are reflected externally in
our programmes,
and internally in its operations. Specifically, governance, technical
innovation, and sustainability projects have both internal and
external relevance. Our
twin identities as
a non-profit organisation, and professional service provider to
donors, make us an ideal laboratory in which
to build best practice in donor/funding partner corporate governance
and sustainability. We have commissioned
research on management and organisational efficiency and effectiveness
that will be piloted internally and then marketed to clients on an
income-generation basis.
To give their best, development funders
need corporate governance and an enabling environment. To continue
doing so, year after year, however, those funders, their programmes
and project partners, need to be sustainable. Our
Institutional Development programme focuses on acquiring
organisational sustainability for itself in ways that funders and
their project partners can adopt.
XE4’s sustainability depends on our
relationships with donors, members and clients, and the value,
quantity and quality of the services we offer. To do so,
we review and improve our
corporate governance (to maximise its economy, efficiency and
effectiveness), our management (especially
Financial, HR, Programmes, Marketing and MIS/IT) systems, and
our day to day running (especially the
relation between our strategic plans,
operational plans and performance contracts).
XE4 seeks to acquire
economic (especially financial) and political (especially
intellectual) independence by winning respect, trust and loyalty from
ongoing performance in a range of key areas, such as accountability,
delivery, reliability and predictability.
Donors: The challenge to add value, Taylor, J, CDRA, 1996
Corporate Governance
Institutional Development
(Sustainability)
Sustainability Model
Sustainability Audit Tool
Specification Document
Technical Innovation
Curriculum
New Ventures
Strategic Planning
Tool
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