IPE Organizational Development

IPE Mission

The many needs of students and families, beyond that of secondary school fees, led to discussions about expanding the IPE mission. However, expanding the mission would also detract resources from the primary one of supporting secondary education and perhaps discourage local involvement. The value and uniqueness of the IPE mission to support secondary education was affirmed. IPE hopes that through the support of their secondary education, students’ experience the joy and value of learning are better equipped to make a living wage, and have better life skills to improve their own lives as well as life in their community. Though not everyone will attend college, it is the sincere hope of IPE that students are able to keep that as a possibility and that this hope is actualized for some. IPE’s mission calls for a focus on educating girls, and to fund boys as funding permits. The questions of whether to specify the gender balance further will be placed on the next board meeting agenda. Regarding the discussion of whether to allocate funds for either college or vocational training, participants affirmed the IPE mission of supporting college level education only at the tertiary level.

Financial Process

The discussions surrounding the visits and recognizing that there is a need if IPE is able to fund more students, led to a proposed annual budget cycle. By the end of the fiscal year (December 31^st), IPE will identify the available funding for the following year. Based on previous partner data on the costs per students, IPE, in collaboration with partner sites, will project the number of students that can be supported at each site. This will occur so that each site has enough time to identify new students.

As IPE has grown, the financial issues have become more complex. The complexity is from the increase in partners from one to three and from the international scope of the organization. IPE deals in three currencies with exchange rates that vary. In addition, when partners retrieve the funds it is less than they requested because of the international exchange. Because of the newness and small size of the organization, it is also difficult to know how to manage growth in student number. For all of these reasons, IPE is seeking volunteer financial consultation to help us continue to develop our financial systems. It is necessary to more firmly establish current systems to have a base for expansion.

As noted above, Lesotho expects to request more funding than originally planned by IPE. This request will be carefully considered, and based on the successful process of accountability, will be honored if the budge allows and based on board approval.

Building on past discussions, the following steps will be proposed to the IPE board to support college education in the future. After reviewing IPE financial resources, and determining the cost of tuition, room and board for college in each country, IPE will establish an account for college education for each site. This will allow IPE to plan for college support at each site, invest reserve funds, and offer an option for contributions. In other words, some contributors might wish to donate to a college fund.

IPE recognizes that partners in Africa contribute not only their time, but also their financial resources. IPE welcomes the chance to recognize such contributions in their records and the newsletter and requests that partner sites share the information they wish to be recorded and published in the newsletter.

Networking

US visitors to Malawi and Lesotho were inspired by the very committed IPE partners in Africa and by the students. IPE US visitors witnessed the need for support of secondary education first hand. It is perfect timing to build on this knowledge and inform others of the IPE mission and seek support for future needs. Toward that end IPE hopes to plan a fund-raising event, find opportunities to present the needs of students in Lesotho and Malawi and the mission of IPE, and to issue the next newsletter very soon. IPE will plan an end of year appeal as another means to establish the funding base for 2010 and if possible, increase the number of students who are supported.

Organizational Development

Ways to enrich the organization emerged through the recent visit.

First, future board meetings will be open to all IPE partner volunteer staff in each country. This will facilitate better communication, generate more dialogue, and widen the IPE perspective.

Second, IPE will review how its mission is enacted. Specific issues to address include assessing if the way funds are allocated to girls and boys meets the IPE mission. In addition, the group needs to discuss the best way to allocate funds for post-secondary education.

Third, it is important the board membership continues to evolve to meet organizational needs. A partner from Lesotho will be nominated to ensure they have representation on the board. The board will consider the financial work of the organization and the board member roles needed to best meet financial goals.

Fourth, there is a need for IPE to support more students. In order to do this, IPE must develop its financial process so that the flow of funding is efficient and effective with workable accounting systems.

Finally, IPE would benefit from data bases to record student activity and financial activity. IPE is seeking a volunteer (s) to assist with this. Development of IPE activity in these ways may necessitate some by-law revision which will be addressed in 2009 board meetings.