Collectivity supports RISE, a Muslim women’s organization, to deliver on its mission of amplifying women’s voices.
Reviving the Islamic Sisterhood for Empowerment (RISE) identifies as a “space for Muslim women, by Muslim women”. As stated in their mission, they are committed to amplifying the voice and power of Muslim women through advocacy, leadership development and storytelling. This is especially evident in the profiles of Muslim Sheroes of Minnesota, female trailblazers who create change in their communities. Reviving Sisterhood is determined to address the lack of visibilty and anti-Muslim behaviors Muslim women face by “bridging the gap between faith and storytelling, leadership development and advocacy.” By addressing these factors they ultimately aim to address the underlying inequities that Muslim women face in their daily lives.
Nausheena Hussain, the executive director of Reviving Sisterhood, initially came to Collectivity for a technology audit; she did not imagine that this engagement would go beyond the audit and impact her work in a deeper way.
“We were pleasantly surprised that the work was not a tech audit as much as it was about strengthening our policies, procedures and the infrastructure needed for us to do our mission work.”
Image courtesy of RISE
Identifying areas of need
Reviving Sisterhood is a relatively new non-profit organization--they have been around for five years and are currently experiencing both growth in their team as well as disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Collectivity began the needs assessment project in 2019 by exploring the internal ecosystem of Reviving Sisterhood: its people, the processes they engage in and the technology that they use.
At the beginning of the project, Collectivity conducted workflow sessions with staff to discover the key processes that drive Reviving Sisterhood’s events, training and storytelling efforts. These sessions informed the one-on-one meetings that were held with staff members and leadership to draw a picture of the current state of RISE’s operations. By gaining a deeper understanding of RISE’s current state, Collectivity was able to work with their team in co-developing a vision of the future state. This exercise also helped staff and leadership articulate the processes they’ve carried in their head and get them on paper, revealing natural opportunities for efficiencies and collaboration possibilities.
By improving the functionality of the organization and creating solutions whose form is connected to the function they play, Reviving Sisterhood is in a position to more effectively deliver on its mission and great storytelling and advocacy.
In describing the engagement with Collectivity, Nausheena states: “I felt, at some times the [Collectivity] staff was part of our staff.” She also highlighted the diversity of perspectives in the Collectivity team and how that added value to the work her team is doing. She concludes: “The Collectivity staff is really invested, not just in their client but the mission of the client.”
If you are interested in working together with Collectivity, or would like to learn more about what we do, please feel free to call us at 651-276-5775 or fill out this form, we’d be delighted to set up a call and discuss your needs.
