Fulbright Academy joins NGO GRI Reporting Pioneers
Joining the likes of , the and the , the released its firstt. Why?
The describes itself as an independent global network of Fulbrighters, collaborative partners and friends. It takes prides in its multi-national, multi-generational and multi-disciplinary network that supports local and international collaboration. And it differentiates itself from the , the U.S. Department of State and some 200 other Fulbright alumni organizations around the world.
The has delivered and participated in many events around the world. Some of these are described as case studies in its . Given the tumultuous events in the Middle East and North Africa, interesting initiatives to point out may be those related to (events held in Morocco and USA). Other events ranged from a (USA) to a (Qatar).
The has demonstrated convening power. It has leveraged its network to engage and collaborate with diverse institutions and participants. These ranged from minority students to Nobel laureates, and business executives to non-profit leaders. They come together to share knowledge and find ways to collaborate and explore how to improve the state of practice.
But what explains why the , one of over 200 formal and informal Fulbright alumni networks around the world, chose to include GRI’s triple-bottom-line and stakeholder-centric sustainability reporting process? After all, GRI reporting in the NGO/Non-profit sector is just emerging, as I recently blogged about here. Before offering my answers, allow me to disclose that I am a board member of the and that I assisted with the reporting process.
There are several reasons to adopt GRI and its : a well-known and trusted reporting framework was adopted to shape a more credible and shared understanding of purpose and activities, clarify positioning and provide an opportunity for learning. The latter was leveraged by discussing drafts of the Review with an External Advisory Panel. Their letter to the readers of the is reproduced on pages 27-28.
Another reason became more obvious to me while drafting this blog: similar to a Fulbright experience at an individual level, the GRI reporting process provides an opportunity for self-discovery and engagement at an institutional level. It also provides an opportunity to lead by example. As Fulbrighters, how could we have resisted these temptations?
Do you fel that the gained value by adopting and integrating GRI in its reporting process? Or was this perhaps a waste of limited resources of an NGO? – Your comments and reposting invited.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011 at 8:55 am and is filed under Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) sustainability reporting, Integrated Reporting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 24th, 2011 at 2:01 pm
Great initiative Mehrdad, as I hope I am correct in presuming you were involved with this report. Many NGO’s like to play a leading role in their areas of expertise, so it would seem fitting that Fulbright Academy would demonstrate its leadership by publishing a GRI report. Hopefully this will reflect well on them and the value will become apparent over time.
March 27th, 2011 at 5:28 pm
says:[...] About « Fulbright Academy joins NGO GRI Reporting Pioneers [...]
March 29th, 2011 at 2:06 am
says:[...] is reason to believe that the tide may be turning. Recently, Fulbright Academy joined an elite group of NGOs publishing sustainability reports, with GRI standards being the most [...]
March 29th, 2011 at 6:45 pm
says:[...] GRI's NGO Sector Supplement and benefitted also from an External Advisory Panel (see also my blog: Fulbright Academy joins NGO GRI Reporting Pioneers). [...]
April 4th, 2011 at 7:03 pm
I think it’s a good use of their time as GRI is a great standard to follow and sooner or later all orgs, whether NGO or for profit would need to study their sustainability impact through proper reporting
April 7th, 2011 at 6:09 pm
says:[...] US has approached 30%. We are even seeing some NGOs producing GRI reports (see also my blog here: Fulbright Academy joins NGO GRI Reporting Pioneers). GRI Reporting in Canada and [...]
April 11th, 2011 at 10:10 am
says:[...] Academy for Science & Technology (the latter now also a GRI reporter about which I blogged here). Needless to say that this was not any sort of lottery or betting scheme – and you did not have [...]
October 8th, 2012 at 10:08 pm
says:[...] Although engaged in GRI-certified training since 2009, I am somewhat surprised to see that LEAD Canada (and LEAD International?) has yet to adopt GRI-type reporting. However, this may first require LEAD Canada to disclose its annual/financial report, something any NGO worth its salt should be doing rountinely. In my experience, GRI reporting for a small NGOs is not very complicated (see example described in another blog: Fulbright Academy joins NGO GRI Reporting Pioneers). [...]
February 11th, 2013 at 8:24 pm
says:[...] GRI reports in the NGO sector at the time. This report was generated with Prizma’s support (see here) and featured a distinguished External Advisory Panel of reviewers who were recruited from Merck, [...]
March 7th, 2013 at 8:21 am
says:[...] Prizma has supported numerous organizations with their GRI-based sustainability reporting efforts, including Lucara Diamond Corp, ScottsMiracle-Gro, Lundin Mining Corp., Red Back Mining (now part of Kinross) and the Fulbright Academy. [...]