March 24, 2010 // Franchising.com // When it comes to sustainability, every little action counts.
Julian Ilich and Gary Warden, the Australian duo and founders of Days of Change, a non-profit helping people everywhere take simple steps to reduce their emissions through a simple pledge system, are using the collective power of big numbers and relatively small actions in their quest to create a brighter future for all.
When ActionCOACH announced its global pro bono coaching program for the not-for-profit world and appointed Cameron Rogers as the International Director for the Coaching for a Cause campaign scheduled to run from October 1, 2009 through March 31, 2010; Rogers decided to bring Days of Change to into the program.
Rogers had been coaching this organization on a pro bono basis prior to the campaign. On October 1, 2009, he joined hundreds of fellow Business Coaches in pledging his time to his favorite non-profit with the aim of helping it in its fund-raising efforts -amongst other things. He pledged to help Days of Change raise their donations by $500,000 in six months and most recently, hit that goal.
Being a start-up, the founders of Days of Change are excited about being involved in a global pro bono business coaching program launched by ActionCOACH's founder and Chairman Brad Sugars.
"Through this program, we endeavor to avoid the many pitfalls new businesses usually fall into as well as gain support for the CEO who often doesn't have anyone to speak to about certain aspects of business development," Ilich said.
Rogers feels it is critical for a start-up organization like Days of Change to have the basic foundation blocks of planning, management, reporting, finance, etc. in place.
"Doing this will release the potential and the passion in the form of focused fundraising," he said. "While there is no doubting Julian's passion for the program, the management fundamentals of the organization have not been learned and installed. Julian, an engineer also needs a sounding board occasionally apart from the Board and Gary."
Ilich and Warden understand that without the community active and leading the change for sustainability, there is much less possibility that the big changes from business and government will occur.
Days of Change operates through a social networking website where people can make a pledge to change, access simple 'how to' information on how to make that change (and the savings associated with it), connect with others who are making a change especially friends and family and finally see visually via Google maps and participation numbers that they are part of a large number of people doing this.
"So their little bit along with lots of others adds up to a whole lot," Ilich added.
On March 1, 2010 the program was officially launched with a target of 200,000 people in Western Australia making a pledge to change.
Days of Change aims at turning into a massive, global movement, and consists of four phases. The first phase is seeing people in York, Western Australia pledge to act more sustainably and act upon a simple plan to make it possible. In phase 2, this extends to the entire Western Australia region. Phase 3 will see this program extend throughout Australia and during Phase 4, the program will go international.
"We have just run a pilot program in the town of York just outside of Perth here in WA. The program was a great success and showed that daysofchange.org really works. The next program will be across the entire state with 200,000 people participating," Ilich said.
"Charities and non-profits are often doing amazing things on a shoestring budget, with people who have little experience in running an organization, so coaching can help make sure they become more efficient, create a great charity, which really makes a difference and avoid wasting money on mistakes that can be avoided," he said. "This could create significant change in approaches from senior managers in major organizations as well."
Coaching for a Cause is an innovative new program from ActionCOACH, the world's number one business and executive coaching firm that makes pro-bono coaching available to charities and non-profits worldwide.
ActionCOACH specializes in coaching small to medium sized businesses as well as executive teams and group coaching.