Anyone who follows WECHANGE closely will have noticed: lots of job advertisements, lots of requests to pay a voluntary contribution for using wechange.de, a postponed redesign release - what's going on at WECHANGE? We would like to give you a brief overview of our last year.
A TEAM LIKE AN OCTOPUS
Wechange eG has grown out of its infancy and has developed over the last few years into a cooperative with a wide range of work areas. Different minds, ideas and financing approaches have shaped the cooperative. We currently work with a team of just 20 volunteers and part-time employees and manage a lot:
- We have developed the free open source platform wechange.de, which offers changemakers a digital place for organization and networking, and continue to operate it for a voluntary contribution.
- We also offer our platform solution - a digital place for networking and project organization - as tailor-made portals for (non-profit) organizations, associations, cities and municipalities. These tailor-made portals in turn support the further development of wechange.de by implementing new developments in the wechange.de platform.
- Last year we brought the Mitwirk-O-Mat team into the cooperative. They developed a digital tool that supports municipalities and volunteer agencies in giving their citizens playful access to suitable volunteer positions.
- In addition, we organize international projects and events that promote exchange and further education in civil society between Germany and Eastern Europe. We operate and maintain the civilsocietycooperation portal for these projects, where the events are organized and published.
- Last but not least, the team also carries out the organizational work that is required in a company. For example, we have a human resources group that looks after the needs of employees or a finance group that regularly makes spreadsheets glow.
Are you still there? It's quite a lot for 20 people to handle, isn't it?
JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG
wechange eG has grown enormously and the demands and costs have grown with it. After seven years, our portal needs a technical and visual makeover or redesign. Why?
- to improve usability, accessibility and mobile use
- to improve the ability to develop further
- to become even more sustainable
- and to remain attractive to you
A huge and expensive project that was launched in 2022 and raised questions about the strategic direction of the cooperative. Last summer there was a kick-off meeting with the topic "VISION". We asked ourselves the questions "What is our vision? What is our mission?". There it was confirmed for us once again how many areas wechange eG is now active in and that a common vision & mission is not easy to create. Especially if it is supported by everyone in the team and not simply decided from above.
So we embarked on the journey of the "Vision for WECHANGE" and more and more questions came to the surface. Is a common vision even possible or are the business areas too far apart? Do we want to act as a civil actor or as an IT service provider? How can wechange.de finance itself independently in the future? Can we integrate our civil society activities more closely into our portal business? Can we do justice to all business areas with the current corporation? And so on and so forth. We realized that we needed to reflect on the entire strategic direction of the cooperative.
Phew – we just wanted a vision to sharpen our brand.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
With our team meeting, we "slipped" straight into a change process, and this has cost us a lot of time over the last year, brought us insights, but also caused conflicts. Some team members had different opinions, others had too many hats on at once and had exceeded their capacities, and still others found themselves in new roles. All of this led some people to leave our team, and the change process left its mark on other team members. Change hurts. Change also involves uncertainty and getting used to things.
But just as rain brings new life to the desert after a drought, this process of change is bringing out new skills in team members. And so, alongside our daily business, we continue to work on our vision for WECHANGE. The process is not yet over, but we are on the right track and would like to take you along with us. It is not without reason that we are a cooperative - we want to shape change together.
THE FIRST LEARNINGS AND MEASURES THAT FOLLOW THEM
- We want to hire a full-time, executive board member who will combine strategy and business model development. application process is currently running.
- Together with the existing cooperative members, we are considering how we can exploit the advantages of a Cooperative can make better use of.
- We want to strengthen the financing of wechange.de and thus the entire wechange.de community. We want to remain an independent platform that has sufficient capital available for continuous development and optimization. This is possible with the current funds from the voluntary contributions not guaranteed.
We look forward to the further process and the strengthening of our team through new members as well as the support of you, our community. Be it by contributing your knowledge or your capital through the subscription of cooperative shares or through your content or financial contribution on wechange.de!
Cover photo: kindel media//pexels
Featured image: Jane Telkmann