Healthy Organizational Culture

The Cause

Propellus is fundamentally non-profit organization seeking to improve the effectiveness of charities and non-profits in the Calgary community. Through our own growth, extensive research and experience working with 500+ local non-profits and charities, Propellus knows that healthy culture is essential in running an efficient organization. With a disciplined approach, we honed our understanding of our own organizational culture, which involved testing, then major organizational changes. We focused first on providing an experience for staff and volunteers that made Propellus a great place to work and to grow a career. We centered ourselves around a set of values and brought them to life through our work with teams. Our employees feel empowered to contribute and share their ideas and are confident to bring their whole self to work. We are an innovative team that is mission focused and impact driven. This valuable process has resulted in Propellus providing our members with the highest quality support.

We want to share our knowledge of healthy organizational culture with our members. Our idea is to develop culture content for our existing educational platforms. We want to work with our members to determine what a healthy culture looks like for them and align that to their mission. We recognize that organizational culture is unique for every organization and our approach to learning allows us to meet our members where they are at and provide them a solution that fits their needs. This project will help charities get the help they need to strengthen their organizations and in turn increase the impact they have on our community.

Who Will it Benefit?

Our mission is to strengthen our 500+ member organizations by improving the capacity of their non-profit managers so they can be more effective in building a thriving engaged community. Our services are learning opportunities carefully designed to improve the management and governance abilities of the non-profits and charities we serve. Whether through online learning, in person training or consulting, all Propellus services are designed to build capacity. We are a leader in the measurement and evaluation of capacity building services and offer investors clear evidence of our impact.

Currently there is a 40% turnover rate in the non-profit sector. Dealing with ongoing human resource issues limits the impact these organizations are having on the community. We surveyed our membership and found that only 17% have a culture that attracts and retains talented staff. By implementing and developing content that teaches organization how to create a healthy culture, Propellus will enable them to more effectively support the needs of the community.

Once this content is developed and implemented into our multiple learning platforms, 500+ organizations will have access to it. That means that over 1900 non-profit leaders and managers will learn how to create a culture that empowers direct service staff to support tens of thousands of community members more effectively. Healthy organizational culture involves meaningful work that inspires staff to work hard and a leadership team that rewards staff appropriately for their effort. An organization that cares for its people has every chance to succeed.