Here you can find helpful tips and materials to keep your initiative running. This guidebook provides answers to questions you will stumble over at different times while working at your initiative. That’s why we follow a life-cycle of order of an initiative: from the first idea of an individual to the foundation of the initiative further to the collective organisation and professionalisation and finally to the cooperation with others and the evaluation of your own work.
Activation & Motivation
Let’s start: You want to realize your ideas? Here you will find useful tips for the foundation of an initiative: other members, motivation (especially when you loose it), development of visions and goals (which carry the initiative and creates identification with it), spaces for meetings, public relations, protection of “too much” (such as tasks, meetings, decisions), questions about commitment and much more.
Collaboration & Management
A good collaboration of an initiative will not happen automatically: How to detect/identify needs and skills of each member, to find a collective language, create decision– and communication processes in a manner that every member can articulate his/her opinion, nobody gets overchallenged and everybody gets valued.
Professionalizing
In some cases, it is useful to transform a voluntarily sustained initiative into a formal corporation/company. Here you can learn more about requirements to professionalize, the right choice about the suitable legal structure, how to deal correctly with the legal framework, how to develop a business- and financial model and how to find the right balance of working live, voluntary activity and private life.
Cooperation & Networking
You can always achieve more when you gather with like-minded people and/or supporter. Cooperation – with authorities, science, economy or media – needs permanent professional attention. Umbrella organizations and networks are also useful to promote your concerns. Here you learn how successful cooperation and networking is achieved. (more…)