Peer power can help with resourcing

For-purpose organisations struggle to secure the resources needed to maximise their social impact, but that resource gap also creates a strain on our workforce, risking the loss of employees to burnout, better-paying roles or less stressful jobs.

Even when resources are available, demands on our time, our funding and our talent mean that expectations of what organisations can achieve frequently surpass what is humanly possible.

Recently, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) highlighted a concerning trend that shows this problem is not going away. According to the ACNC, employment costs have risen almost 10% in the past year – the highest annual increase ever recorded – without a corresponding boost in funding. This financial squeeze underscores the urgent need for innovative solutions that promote sustainability and growth, as well as affordable support for sector leaders.

The benefits of peer-to-peer support

Organisations may be overlooking the power of peer-to-peer (P2P) networks as an effective way to tackle resource challenges, increase capacity, enhance job satisfaction, and provide professional and emotional support.

Peer-to-peer support involves exchanging knowledge, resources and insights among those facing similar challenges, increasing efficiency and building a sense of community and shared purpose, all of which is essential for long-term impact.

Every leader, manager and team member at your organisation operates within the boundaries of their own strengths, knowledge and experience. We can only know as much as we already know. Right? No. Unless we regularly create opportunities to learn from others – and to think differently – our capacity levels will remain stagnant. Peer connections can provide those critical opportunities.

Peer-to-peer leadership programs can bring together leaders from across the social sector, promoting a decentralised and inclusive leadership model. Key components of these programs include regular meetings, a commitment to sharing knowledge and resources, problem solving, diverse perspectives, accountability, and a culture of continuous learning and growth.

Benefits of peer-to-peer support

Peer-to-peer programs create many benefits, including:

• increased knowledge sharing
• more effective problem solving
• greater collaboration and partnership
• innovation through diverse perspectives
• improved accountability and peer learning
• stronger, more resilient networks
• collective resource mobilisation
• scalability of social impact
• sector-wide system change
• building the leaders of tomorrow.

These networks involve sharing strategies, skills and tools that have already proven effective, allowing leaders to pool collective insights and speeding up problem-solving and innovative solutions.

Increased collaboration can create cross-sector “synergies” to enable the effective sharing of resources, and to create strategic alliances between organisations. Bringing together diverse perspectives also exposes leaders to different approaches they may not have encountered previously. Our experience is that the peer-to-peer approach improves accountability and shared learning, since leaders are more motivated to demonstrate results, share failures, and improve their approaches based on feedback.

We’ve found these practices also cultivate trust and mutual support, creating resilient networks that can respond to crises, including sharing resources in times of need, in the case of funding cuts, pandemics, disasters or the current financial crisis.

These networks are also excellent at identifying resources gaps and creating opportunities to pool funding, tools, volunteers and other assets, promoting the efficient use of limited resources.

And by pooling knowledge, resources and organisational effort, it is more likely groups will be able to scale up successful (and proven) initiatives. In the end, these strong networks and cross-sector collaborations are better at generating the systems change our sector is seeking.

Leaders working together can better identify and address systemic barriers, advocate for policy change and create more integrated, holistic approaches to social challenges.