VA
Insights

Platform organizations are currently taking a leading role in advancing the public welfare sector, with “platformization” emerging as an inevitable new movement in the industry.

Why do we need a platform?

The growth of one organization only affects the industry to a small extent. The organization’s ability to maintain its development relies on a favorable industry environment and the overall progress of the industry. A platform-based model is a natural response to the industry’s current stage of development. Furthermore, platforms have the ability to bring together various resources from different ecological niches, connect more efficiently, and improve collaboration, ultimately leading to better resolution of societal issues.

The main aim of forming a platform is to boost the growth of organizations within the system by establishing a sturdy, wholesome, and available environment that can achieve sustainable development while creating collaborations to tackle social problems more efficiently.

What is the foundation’s role in building the platform?

Firstly, let’s grasp the three concepts of front office, middle office, and back office.

Front office is directly engaging with the customer, focusing on the customer and the market, and discovering and addressing customer needs.

Middle office empowers businesses, analyzes front-end needs and characteristics, and supports front-end operations (including business models, technology, data, talent, and other resources and capabilities).

Back office builds management systems, optimizes control processes, provides professional services, and manages resources and functions effectively.

Many grassroot organizations work on the “front office”, implementing projects and serving recipients directly. Capacity building and consulting institutions often operate in the “middle office”, empowering these frontline organizations. The “back office” refers to platform-type foundations, responsible for integrating resources, building ecosystems, and providing services.

Specifically, platform foundations play three key roles and impact the platform’s competitiveness.

The first role is efficiently linking resources.

Platform-type foundations have a high demand for resources, but they strategically distribute them instead of holding them in their own hands. Some resources are used for relatively blank topics, while others are directed towards county and rural areas. Additionally, some resources are leveraged to their fullest potential.

The second role is providing support services.

As the builder and manager of the platform, platform foundations should utilize their own strengths to offer services to the organizations on the platform. This will aid in their development more efficiently and in a positive manner. Basic services consist of rule-making, technical support, and traffic introduction.

Ideally, platform foundations should have more two-way interactions with the front office. This means that based on the front office’s practice, knowledge precipitation around issues can occur and then be fed back to the front office. This will not only support frontline NGOs, but it will also significantly enhance their competitiveness.

The third tole is providing capacity building.

For front-office NGOs with limited capacity, financial assistance and project resources alone are insufficient to promote sustainable development. Therefore, it is crucial to enable these organizations through capacity building initiatives that empower them to become self-sufficient.

At this stage, platform foundations may consider bringing in third-party capacity building organizations, such as training and consulting firms, to support both the back office and middle office and facilitate empowerment of the front office. To a great extent, this has also spurred the growth of service providers in the public welfare ecosystem and played a significant role in developing the infrastructure of the public welfare sector.