Meet Michael, Associate from our Africa region. Michael recently had the opportunity to work on a Corporate Social Investment engagement with Partners in Performance in Johannesburg. Read on to hear his about Michael's incredibly rewarding experience at Door of Hope... 

The Johannesburg team has been working together with Door of Hope, a non-profit organisation that saves abandoned babies and aims to find them a safe home through uniting families, adoption or the Door of Hope Village.

Abandonment of infants in South Africa is, unfortunately, a common occurrence. Sadly, many newborn babies are abandoned due to poverty, rape and abuse faced by their mothers. Only one out of three babies that are abandoned in dustbins or in an open field are found alive. That’s why Door of Hope has come up with the “BabyBox” initiative where mothers can leave their babies anonymously at Door of Hope without endangering the life of their baby. The BabyBox is monitored 24/7 to ensure that the right care is given as soon as a baby is left in the box. Door of Hope has saved 1,661 babies since their inception in 1999, of which 215 came through the BabyBox.

I arrived at Door of Hope’s premises in Johannesburg with fellow Partners in Performance consultants, Christine and Nielsen. Our office for the next two weeks would be the toddler house, which provided a very lively atmosphere for our work. Our mornings were filled with laughter, songs and adoring faces as the toddlers went through their morning routines. Even after the first few days, we all felt that we were part of the Door of Hope team.

Here Christine (image on left) and Nielsen (image on right) can be seen greeting the toddlers one morning

We immediately got started by setting up a Brown Paper exercise in the boardroom in order to map out how they manage donors from introduction to Door of Hope, to getting them signed-up for donations, managing the donor relationships and reviewing the effectiveness of fundraising initiatives. We interviewed the team and worked together to map out the process with some amazing opportunities for improvement. After an Idea Generation Session, we prioritised numerous ideas into three broad strategies to increase their annual donations by 125%. In between we also managed to map out their ideal donor journey, improve their Zapper recurring payment option and compare possible software solutions for managing donor relationships.

Brown paper session with the client team

I am so thankful for the opportunities we get at Partners in Performance to really make a massive difference in the world and communities around us. As consultants, we are powerful agents of change and in the words of Door of Hope’s CEO: “You managed to accomplish in two weeks what we struggled to do in two years”. That in itself is incredibly rewarding and sums up what an amazing experience this has been for myself and the team. 

The Door of Hope journey does not end here for the Johannesburg office, as we will continue to support them and future projects like the village they are in the process of building. 

Nielsen, Christine and I on our last day with our gifted Door of Hope T-shirts!