This presentation is in response to question F of IE's International MBA application. "You have just participated in an important meeting with your superior. How will you ensure that every part of the instructions you received will properly reach all subordinates, suppliers and clients, located in different parts of the world?"

1. IE: EXPRESS YOURSELF
RESULT #1
CHRISTY SCAZZERO

2. YOU HAVE JUST PARTICIPATED IN AN IMPORTANT MEETING WITH YOUR
SUPERIOR. HOW WILL YOU ENSURE THAT EVERY PART OF THE
INSTRUCTIONS YOU RECEIVED WILL PROPERLY REACH ALL SUBORDINATES,
SUPPLIERS AND CLIENTS, LOCATED IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE WORLD?
CHRISTY SCAZZERO
QUESTION F.

3. Last year charity: water launched its annual September Campaign. We were
aiming to raise $4M for the Sahel region of Africa.
My CEO tasked me with spending the money that this campaign would
raise
In the following slides, I’ll take you through how I reshaped the way different
teams shared information to make this campaign a success.
THE GIST

4. CHRISTY SCAZZERO
WHO WE ARE
charity: water is a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe
drinking water to people in need around the world. To date we’ve
funded over 16,000 projects in 24 countries serving 5.2M people

5. CHRISTY SCAZZERO
IT USUALLY STARTS WITH AN EMAIL LIKE THIS FROM THE EXECUTIVE TEAM…
EVERY YEAR CHARITY: WATER PRODUCES
A MAJOR CAMPAIGN THAT REPRESENTS 10%
OF OUR ANNUAL REVENUE…

6. GETTING TO WORK…
» Mobilize stakeholders
» Find qualified partners in Mali
and Niger to implement water
projects with the funds raised.
They should have $5M worth of
capacity and have target areas
that are operationally secure.
» Ensure that these partners
understand charity: water’s
proposal, budgeting and
reporting requirements
» Develop a strong proposal based
on the parameters given to me
by the Executive team.
MY ASSIGNMENT
STAKEHOLDERS
1. charity: water Programs team
2. charity: water Creative team
3. charity: water Executive team
4. Implementing partner regional
staff in D.C., L.A., Bamako and
Niamey
CONSIDERATIONS
1. Information needs to be communicated
cross-departmentally, cross-organizationally
and cross-culturally.
2. The campaign was scheduled to launch in
August of 2014
3. Select members from the Programs team,
Creative team and the CEO will need to
travel to the field before campaign launch to
conduct separate campaign activities.

7. ORGANIZING THE STAKEHOLDERS
CHALLENGE #1
CHRISTY SCAZZERO

8. My team, responsible for spending the organization’s money on high impact programs, is the nucleus of the
organization. We support our fundraising department by reporting back to donors on results of the field work, we
help facilitate media trips to the field so our creative department can tell stories about the work (both to build the
brand and for fundraising) and we manage our global implementing organizations and thousands of water
projects.
The challenge, however, was that most of the information coming in from the field historically stayed
within the brains and inboxes of this small team. And they were located in three different countries. I
needed to find a way to open up the lines of communication to other departments to make our biggest
campaign the most successful yet.
WATER PROGRAM
OFFICER
WATER PROGRAM OFFICER
ETHIOPIA
WATER PROGRAM
OFFICER
PROJECT DATA
OFFICER
WATER PROGRAM MANAGER
SOUTH EASTASIA
SUSTAINABILITY
ASSOCIATE
WATER PROGRAM
ASSOCIATE
CHRISTY SCAZZERO
MY TEAM

9. DIFFERENT TIME ZONES
CHALLENGE #2
CHRISTY SCAZZERO

10. GLOBAL OPERATIONS
Working locations of campaign stakeholders
NEW YORK
7:30AM EST
ADDIS ABABA
3:00PM
PHNOM PENH
7:30PM
BAMAKO
1:30PM
NIAMEY
12:30PM
LOS ANGELES
4:30AM
CHRISTY SCAZZERO
I have several direct reports
I need to communicate with
- we live in three countries
and four time zones.
We had three partners in
two more countries
implementing projects
under this campaign, adding
two more time zones into
the mix!

11. COMMUNICATION
CHALLENGE #3
CHRISTY SCAZZERO

12. Six stakeholders I need to communicate with daily live in developing countries and struggle
with limited infrastructure. They experience frequent power outages which strain consistent
and reliable communication. Our calls often end in a network purgatory, only gathering
75% of the conversation. We have to reschedule our meetings frequently and
spontaneously.
CHRISTY SCAZZERO
LIMITED INFRASTRUCTURE

13. MY PLAN OF ACTION
CHRISTY SCAZZERO

14. CHRISTY SCAZZERO
I restructured the entire Programs
team into regional Pools. Pools
had weekly meetings led by
Program Officers (WPOs) and
were attended by all stakeholders
in Operations.
This reorganization enabled
departments to have
ongoing visibility into field
work for the first time.
WPO’s came prepared each week
with updates on field trip
planning, follow up work from
field trips, preliminary budget and
proposal reviews and and an
update on campaign milestones.
Creative and Executive team
members could choose to attend
a meeting for campaign updates.
FIRST, I RE-ORGANIZED

15. NEXT, I ESTABLISHED THE
COMMUNICATION MEDIUM
Different teams use different communication and project
management tools. The first step was to establish which
tools would be used, by whom and for what.
Creative & Engineering Programs & Pools Org-wide (all teams)
CHRISTY SCAZZERO

16. CHRISTY SCAZZERO
THEN, I DEVELOPED A MILESTONES
CALENDAR FOR STAKEHOLDERS

17. FINALLY, I SENT THE TEAMS
TO MALI AND NIGER
Nothing secures clear communication with the
field like face to face meetings.
CHRISTY SCAZZERO

18. THE RESULTS?
CHRISTY SCAZZERO

19. I DEVELOPED A CRISP PROPOSAL THAT ALIGNED WITH OUR
FUNDING PRIORITIES
RESULT #1
CHRISTY SCAZZERO

20. RESULT #1 (PART II)
CHRISTY SCAZZERO
I DEVELOPED THE $4M BUDGET THAT MET THE NEEDS OF ALL
THREE ORGANIZATIONS IN MALI, NIGER & NEW YORK
$4M. 2 countries. 296 projects. 58 pages.

21. A media trip involving our CEO,
a creative producer,
two videographers,
one photographer,
two vehicles full of armed security
escorts, six field coordinators and
a local government official, was
planned and executed.
I PRODUCED A
MEDIA TRIP TO
MALI & NIGER
RESULT #2
PLEASE DON’T
LEAVE GREY
BACKGROUND
CHRISTY SCAZZERO

22. A FOUR MINUTE FUNDRAISING VIDEO WAS PRODUCED AND
VIEWED BY OF THOUSANDS PEOPLE
RESULT #3
CHRISTY SCAZZERO

23. WE LAUNCHED A $4M CAMPAIGN
RESULT #4
CHRISTY SCAZZERO

24. IN 18 MONTHS OUR DONORS WILL RECEIVE REPORTS
ABOUT THE PROJECTS IN MALI & NIGER THAT THEY
RAISED MONEY FOR DURING THIS CAMPAIGN.
M A L I & N I G E R
COMING SOON…
RESULT #5
CHRISTY SCAZZERO

25. REPORT COMING SOON…
RESULT #5 (PART II)
CHRISTY SCAZZERO