Allison Meyer of Strongsville, Ohio spent seven months in Phnom Penh, Cambodia completing her University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service International Public Service Project and final Capstone Project. Meyer worked with Sarus, a non-profit specializing in peace-building and service-learning programs. Meyer’s efforts for her Capstone Project were successful in developing an organizational theory of change for Sarus, evaluating stakeholder relationships, and ultimately improving stakeholder involvement to help the organization more efficiently and effectively achieve its goals.
Allison created an organizational theory of change, which outlines the results an organization must achieve to be successful, and how it, working alone or with others, will achieve them. Then she conducted a descriptive analysis of the relationship Sarus has with its key stakeholders outlined in the theory of change: participants, partners, and organizational staff. In order to analyze Sarus’s three key stakeholders quantitative and qualitative data were gathered to determine the interests of designated parties, and how those interests should be taken into consideration as Sarus moves forward.
The results show the strengths and weaknesses of Sarus’s participant selection process, partner management methods, and staff recruitment and retention strategies. In order to help Sarus better align its stakeholder involvement with its theory of change Meyer developed action steps for Sarus, supplemented by an asset map displaying Sarus partner organizations as well as a memorandum of understanding template to strengthen partnerships.
“Allison was a tremendous asset to Sarus. During her seven months working with us, Allison created a groundbreaking and exhaustive impact assessment of our Cambodia-Vietnam peace-building programs, undertook a detailed stakeholder analysis, and facilitated our development of an organizational theory of change,” said Wesley Hedden, Founder and CEO of Sarus. “Allison’s work has helped us to more clearly understand our impact and our relationships with stakeholders and will help guide our work for years to come.”
About Sarus
Sarus was founded in 2010 and currently operates five different programs, each with community service activities, working with university students throughout Asia. The long-term goal of Sarus is to create a diverse international network of adaptive leaders whoact as catalysts of change to foster open, inclusive, and resilient communities in Asia. Sarus believes investing in young leaders will help neighboring countries in Asia emerge from their turbulent pasts and experience social and economic growth.
More information about Sarus is available at http://sarusprogram.org/
Responses