What exactly does SoChange do to fulfill its ambitious vision? Although we’re a flexible and ambitious organization, our service base can be accurately summed up as follows:

Education

One of the main goals of SoChange is to raise awareness of social justice and development issues among the general public and non-governmental communities. By fostering knowledge and a sense of global responsibility on the part of individuals, we hope that they will be inspired to promote justice and equality in both their immediate geographical vicinity, as well as around the world. A specific initiative undertaken by SoChange that aims to contribute in this way is “Why Everything Must Change”, an annual conference that brings together speakers from a wide variety of backgrounds, with topics addressed ranging from the responsibility of the Christian church as an agent of change, to advocacy for specific people groups, such as PLWHA (people living with HIV/AIDS). WEMC is currently held in the Greater Toronto Area in Ontario, Canada, and preliminary plans are being made to also hold the event yearly in Hong Kong.

SoChange also feels that the NGO and for-profit communities have the capacity to continually expand their invovlement in social justice causes. For this reason, we are committed to advancing ideas such as corporate social responsibility (CSR) and meaningful community engagement and co-operation techniques.

Empowerment

All to often, organizations and individuals have the practical knowledge base and developed action plans to be effective in developing promising development programs, but lack financial or personnel capacity to transform ideas into reality. SoChange’s experience in the fields of communication and marketing can empower organizations to “get the word out” regarding their initiatives, effectively expanding their potential donor base. Once leads have been established, SoChange offers full proposal-submission services, which can prove invaluable for actors that lack experience in writing the complex applications that an increasing number of private foundations and government agencies require.  Finally, SoChange is prepared to assume the bulk of donor-maintenance responsibilities once funding has been established, such as benefactor update letters and other publications.

Although SoChange’s “empowerment” capabilities are especially relevant to grassroots organizations, they also offer a solution for already well-established actors that wish to expand beyond their traditional scope of operations. For instance, we offer assistance to faith-based organizations that desire to branch out from their traditional congregational-based funding framework to foundational and government sources.

Efficiency

Education and empowerment are obviously essential prerequisites to effective civil-society participation. However, the non-governmental community is riddled with organizations that are ineffective in inciting sustainable change, despite being blessed with both inspired workers and lucrative funding bases. At SoChange, we believe this is largely due to inefficient operation strategies. Successful development organizations are increasingly characterized by a willingness to audit their business practices, and determine which aspects are producing results, and which aren’t. SoChange offers consulting services that help organizations develop an efficient operating climate by utilizing solutions such as results-based management and logical framework analysis.

In addition to directing organizations towards smarter business practices, SoChange is unique in that by simply employing us, NGO’s have taken the first step in achieving more efficient operations. By operating in a virtual-office environment, SoChange maintains remarkably low overhead costs – savings that are passed on to you as our client. We are able to offer our services for a significantly lower fee than would a full-time employee hired for the same purposes, therefore freeing up organizations’ resources to invest in the causes they really care about. Essentially, by partnering with SoChange, non-governmental actors are adhering to the well-regarded business paradigms of decentralization and outsourcing.