Are you a not-for-profit or charity wanting to learn project management skills or write government grants? Anywise has recently launched its Anywise AIDE program, which is one of many ways that Anywise gives back to the communities in which we operate in.
What is Anywise AIDE?
Anywise AIDE is a program that Anywise has started to help charities and not-for-profits because we realised that our team possesses skills that can help organisations in different ways. We can help smaller organisations with:
Complex project delivery
Large tenders
Agile processes
Digital marketing
Process automation
What is the purpose of Anywise AIDE?
The purpose is to develop a framework that an organisation can utilise and complete projects. It's about the Anywise team showing them how to implement the right strategies, whether it's for tender writing, grant applications or other projects, which they'll then be able to take away and use for other projects.
As they continue using the agile processes that our team has shown them, they'll rely on us less and less but we're still there if they need assistance. It's about building long-term enduring relationships with community groups so that we can leave a legacy.
Listen to the full episode below. You can also find us on any platform you listen to podcasts.
Full Transcript
Any.Talk Episode #7: Anywise AIDE
Annie-Mei: Hello, I’m Annie-Mei Forster and welcome back to Any.Talk. Today we’ve got a couple of extra guests on the show to talk about a new product that Anywise is launching. But first I’ll introduce you to someone you’ll have heard before on the show. We’ve got Anywise General Manager Steve Kouloumendas. Hello, Steve.
Steve: Good morning, Annie-Mei. Thanks for having me.
Annie-Mei: And our two other guests on the show today are Senior Consultants Catherine Jong and Chris Mackellar. Hey Chris and Cj.
Cj: Hey Annie-Mei, how are you?
Chris: Hey Annie-Mei.
Annie-Mei: Good, thank you.
Anywise is launching a new product called Anywise AIDE. Chris, can you tell us how the idea of this came about?
Chris: Initially came about through Anywise’s contribution of 20% of its profits going towards community and non-profit organisations. And that’s sort of, been running since Anywise started.
We wanted to look at putting some structure and formalising how that happens, and we had an initial project with an organisation in the Launceston area of Tasmania. That’s where we started putting some formal parametres and framework around that.
Annie-Mei: Ok great. Cj, I understand that you were working with the Northern Suburbs Community Centre in Tasmania to assist them in obtaining grand funding for two different programs. Can you tell us about the mentoring process and what they were able to achieve through that?
Cj: Yep, so the Northern Suburbs Community Centre, we worked with one of the people there. She basically wanted to grow a couple of her programs. They were pretty grassroots when we started. What she wanted was ongoing funding instead of applying for tiny little grants here and there and she also needed some help in growing these programs as well.
So we took her through some of our processes that we’re quite familiar with. Agile processes and how to get ongoing funding with having to constantly apply for things over and over again.
So it was quite successful in that she took away a lot of those skills and was able to apply them to her organisation. With the funding itself, we’re not sure if we’ve won that yet. But so far, it was quite a success, I think.
Annie-Mei: Ok great, and have you spoken to her since to see how they’ve progressed?
Cj: Yep, we’ve spoken to her. She sent us an email recently just to thank us for helping her. We don’t know when the grant – it’s still going to be a couple of months before they release those details. But she is still growing some of the programs. I’m not sure if I mentioned a dance program and an IT program. So, she’s still developing those.
Annie-Mei: Ok, thanks Cj. So Steve, how does this program fit in with Anywise’s company values as a whole?
Steve: Yeah thank you, Annie-Mei. So right at the core of Anywise and I know we’ve discussed this in the past, is this ethos of giving back to the communities in which we operate in.
We are a B-Corp Certified organisation and part of that is giving back to communities which we operate in. We set aside 20% of our profits to give back to the community. Now that can take a monetary form and we often give back in terms of cash donations to community organisations and causes that we’re passionate about.
In addition to that, what we’ve found is that we possess skill sets that can help organisations in different ways. Sometimes these organisations may have an abundance of cash but it’s actually how they use those cash and resources to achieve the impact to the community they’re setting out to achieve.
In that process we’ve found all our skill sets that are built on complex project delivery, large tenders and work, can really help and be of benefit to these smaller organisations.
So in this respect, it’s certainly something that we’ve piloted once and we realised it was a winning formula that can give back to these organisations. So we’ve made that step now to formalise this process and formalise this as a dedicated offering to initially target not-for-profits and community organisations. But really targeted towards not only how we can help them achieve their goals, like Cj just mentioned if that’s an application for a grant, but to give them additional tools to help them moving forwards as well.
So just returning to our core values, it’s fundamentally about making an impact on our communities we operate in and this product is specifically targeted at finding ways we can give back to them.
Annie-Mei: Ok, thanks Steve. Chris, how does the Anywise AIDE service differ from other companies?
Chris: It sort of, works along the lines of that old adage of give a man a fish. So we basically want to take the organisations on a journey to help then gain more tools and more skills. There are practices that we do in our professional work and take them on a journey. Then they’ll be able to come back in, utilise the skills they’ve had and do another project.
We’ve developed a framework which is web-enabled, which they’ll be able to come onboard, utilise that framework and complete projects. So it’s not just about a first project with assisting in some tender writing and grant applications, but this is able to be used on any different project that an organisation might want to do.
They might be digitising some of their processes. They might need basic project management for a task. Anything you could possibly think of, they’ll be able to run through this framework. They’ll get exposed to the agile methodology which helps promote the low risk iterative development cycle. So they’ll be able to tackle larger projects one piece at a time and have confidence in tackling larger projects.
Once they’ve gone through the process with us, they’ll be able to go back, utilise the system and engage with Anywise. As they keep going, they might need us less and less, but we want them to know that we’re there if they need assistance. So we want to build long-term enduring relationships with these community groups and leave a bit of a legacy.
Annie-Mei: Cj, why do you think it’s important to introduce this agile approach to these organisations that haven’t used them before in the past for previous projects?
Cj: I think it’s important even just as a cultural thing because it’s a process where it’s iterative, so you are actually getting something at the end of each – what we’d call – a sprint, where we’re developing something. You get to see something tangible at the end of each sprint.
Compared to the traditional ways of working where you’re working, working, working and then this is the final product at the very end. This way you get to see little bits and pieces and you get to have that feedback loop developed. So your final product could be better and has a lot more collaboration involved compared to the old waterfall style approach of working.
Annie-Mei: Ok great, well we’ll end that there so thank you Steve, Chris and Cj for talking today about Anywise AIDE.
Steve: Thank you, Annie-Mei
Chris: Thank you.
Cj: Thanks, Annie-Mei