Staying relevant can be challenging for a local branch. The way services are delivered, how these are resourced, how the branch is organised, and how it is perceived impacts the relevance and the longer-term sustainability of a branch.
Tips and ideas:
Lessons on sustainability from branches around the world include:
Design services that are relevant and visible and that will attract community resources.
Design services that the branch can sustain using local resourcing.
Focus on simple services that reduce the need to access external inputs.
Do not change your services frequently, otherwise resource mobilizing and organizing resources will become more difficult.
Keep processes simple so that you can focus on action and not administration.
Using donor project funding only for one-off activities.