It is a common and well-known fact that nonprofits are in search for more effective ways to engage their communities. However, many Non-Government Organizations (NGA) wonder whether engaging their communities will actually turn them into customers. I recently sat with an experienced Non-Government Organization (NGO) from the Canadian province of British Columbia who stated, “We believe that the biggest challenge that we have is in turning our volunteer leaders and community members into customers.” Agency , I found this statement to be both surprising and disappointing.

The very reason that the above NGI gave me pause was because the organization believed that customer change should be a primary focus of the change agents that they would bring into their organization. It appears, that for that particular organization, engaging their customers and the community was not a primary objective. This begs the question as to whether engaging your community is important at all, or if it should be considered only during the engagement of the change agent.

One could ask themselves, “Why would a change agency choose to become a ‘customer’ in the first place?” Well, there are a few reasons, but I will simply list a few. Perhaps one of the most important reasons that many Non-Government Organizations (NGA) cite when seeking change agents is that they wish to have an advocate in their corner to advocate on their behalf. For example, they might run into a situation where a change is needed within their organization or for their community. They will likely have many questions about the impact of the change, or they might have a specific idea about how to address the issue. The change agent will be able to provide information on the benefits of the change and the risks that might be associated with the change.

If these organizations did not have an advocate with them, then they would not be able to engage their community and would not be in a position to make informed decisions. This is the concept behind engaging the community-the experts will help them make informed decisions while they work along side them to develop the changes. These agents will then engage the community through meetings and forums to learn about their needs and create a strategy to address the issues. This allows the change agents to bridge the gap between the organization and the people in the community.

Many organizations that engage the community in this way will also want to train their change agents so that they can better serve the people in the community. These training sessions usually last about 2 hours, and the agents are taught how to deal with various community members. The focus of the training is to teach the agents how to engage the community through dialogues, what questions to ask, what information to collect and what type of presentations to make to the community. Some training programs include cultural change exercises that will allow the agent to interact with the different cultures represented in the area.

A social change agency has two different types of employees that need to engage the community: the change agents and the community members themselves. There are Agency of hiring an outsider to handle the engagement process. One is that the agent will be someone who is not tied to the specific organization. This will give the organization more flexibility and also allow the leaders at the forefront of the change process to get input from all parties.

It’s also important for the change agent to engage with the community because the people they come in contact with will become their lifelong patrons. These patrons will help them continue to build their client base by supporting the changes in the community. People in the community may not fully support a particular change, but they will still understand the impact that it will make to their lives. When the change agent comes in to talk to the residents, they will use what they know to support the community and the efforts to change the laws or to improve certain aspects of the community.

A social change agency can be an asset to any nonprofit or not-for-profit organization. The change agents work to provide information and to raise awareness of issues that are faced daily. They provide the leadership that is needed to make change happen. Without the help from the change agency, many organizations would not survive.