UNAGB
Moving at the Speed of Trust
For two years and counting, the United Nations Association of Boston (UNAGB) has fully outsourced their operations to Query Partners. While keeping costs low, QP delivers strategy and implementation for evolving needs at all levels of the organization to strengthen the effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability of UNAGB’s operations and administration. This allows UNAGB, a small-but-mighty non-profit of only four full-time staff, to “punch above its weight” and directly educate over 5,000 students in the Greater Boston area each year.
Our Work
Our work together started with just one project, and has grown to include on-going partnership across other functions of the organization, so that UNAGB's operations are now fully outsourced to Query Partners.
Finance & Bookkeeping
Query handles UNAGB's entire financial system, from paying bills and tracking revenue to bookkeeping and monthly reporting. We run their board finance committee meetings and greatly reduce ED time spent on financial compliance. We built systems that empower staff to spend the money they have and independently monitor expenses and revenue. We manage their budget development and monthly reforecasting, and help strategize to make sure every dollar goes as far as possible.
HR & People
For human resources, we collaborate on hiring decisions, strategize around the org chart and job descriptions, and ensure that appropriate policies are in place. We provide guidance through challenging HR situations, connecting with specialized resources when needed. We support salary decisions and comb the budget for money to provide increases whenever possible. We work hard to ensure that team members are cared for and set up for success. ​​
Tech & Tools
UNAGB prefers gentle, intuitive tech solutions. Over time, we have set them up in bill.com and transitioned to an easier, cheaper payroll system. We have improved their CRM workflows and norms to create a reliable source of truth, and automated donor data entry and reporting.
We've built forms to track receipts, reimbursements, and payment requests, and we've built spreadsheets and dashboards to reliably answer questions.
Internal Process
We act as a key thought partner to the Executive Director, ensuring that we have eyes on the whole organization and the complex needs of a resource-constrained environment. Together, we maintain a "Long List" of solutions that we implement as capacity and priorities allow. We troubleshoot issues with understanding of how problems connect across systems and communicate solutions to staff with varying levels of operational experience.
How did we do it? In deep partnership. With UNAGB’s team, we employed a series of principles that guided everything:
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Make the process as simple as possible, but no simpler than excellent.
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Maximize employee time spent on the area of greatest impact.
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Avoid systems churn. Think through implementation and use-case all the way “to the end” before creating a new process or bringing in a new technology.
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Move at the “speed of trust" in bringing in efficient systems, respecting the workflow of those involved.
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