Nongovernmental
organizations’ travel patterns can be remote and erratic, making travel
management best practices hard to define. That didn’t stop Pam Massey, senior
manager of global travel for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, who,
along with other NGO travel managers, transformed an informal NGO benchmarking
and collaboration group into a formal organization that’s venturing into pooled
procurement.
“I was hesitant,”
said Massey. “But there was enough interest that as a group we acknowledged it
was the right thing to do.” As much as corporations want to drive savings to
support profits, she said, NGOs have a mandate to devote as many resources as
possible directly to their causes.
Fore brokered its
first consortium contract with InterContinental Hotels Group this year. The
company is a good fit, said Massey, because its tiered brands and global scope
met the needs of different types of Fore participants. “Some of us might have a
travel policy that allows full service. Others might be more budget-oriented.
I’m sensitive to the fact that the Gates Foundation is the largest
organization. We don’t want to drive the needs of the group. We want this to be
collaborative and serve everyone.”
Watch Massey talk
about the program in her own words, and keep reading after the jump.
Pam Massey On Consortium Contracting For NGOs
Pam Massey, one of BTN's 2015 Best Practitioners, co-founded Fore, an organization that serves as a community for travel managers of nonprofits but also is dipping its toe into consortium buying.
Fore is talking with
potential airline partners but has signed no contracts. “It’s pretty tricky to
put together,” Massey admitted. “Participants don’t want to cannibalize their
existing programs.” And suppliers question a strategy that would discount
business they are already getting. “We hope to create a model that works.”
It looks promising
so far. “We’re different in that we are in this sector because we have that
compassion and that passion for doing the right thing,” said Massey. “When we
said we were going to do something, we did it. We all got together. We reported
our spend. We’re tracking it. We’re meeting our commitments. We hope that will
convince more suppliers to work with us.”