Thinking Business Group and Women’s Bank have signed a three-year cooperation agreement regarding the Thinking Portfolio® project portfolio.

Thinking Portfolio provides the Finn Church Aid-owned Women’s Bank fund with a project management tool on a pro bono basis. The programme and project portfolio, which will be implemented during the spring, will facilitate voluntary work coordination and cooperation management while significantly improving reporting.

The local groups, or cells, of the Women’s Bank organise hundreds of events every year. Women’s Bank Voluntary Work Coordinator Jaana Hirsikangas believes that Thinking Portfolio is extremely useful for the management of programmes and projects of the Women’s Bank. According to Hirsikangas, the planning and implementation of informational and fund raising activities in Finland takes place among numerous volunteers and municipalities. By centralising the planning stages, the efficiency of the operations can be increased immensely.

The objective of the project portfolio management is the optimised allocation of key resources of the Women’s Bank.

”It suddenly dawned to us that with Thinking Portfolio, we could provide concrete support for women’s entrepreneurship and financial security in the developing countries,” says Esa Toivonen of the Thinking Business Group.
”Through efficient allocation of volunteer and business cooperation resources, we are able to maximise their effectiveness. The collaboration with Women’s Bank combines values with a good purpose, which we and our numerous successful clients are proud to support,” describes Toivonen.

The Finnish Thinking Portfolio is a simple but effective method of controlling a project portfolio containing up to hundreds of projects. Thinking Portfolio is a decision-making tool aiding programme and project decision-making and monitoring. The tool was created to ensure security and to provide an answer to the questions: ”Are we executing the right projects?” and “Are we allocating our resources correctly?”

For a project manager, the project portfolio is a tool for creating project status reports describing resources, budget, schedules and quality of operations. The easy-to-use and popular Thinking Portfolio has over 5 000 happy users in over 50 countries.

Women’s Bank is a community and a fund for supporting women’s sustainable entrepreneurship and livelihood in developing countries. The donations fund projects that promote women’s economic livelihood, skills and rights. Women’s Bank helps women in the developing countries to become empowered. The four-year-old Women’s Bank has raised almost four million euros, initialising 12 projects around the world, impacting over 40 000 people. The Finn Church Aid-managed Women’s Bank thrives on active volunteers and numerous members, donors and business partners.

More information about Woman´s Bank

Sari Meller, Account Manager, phone +358 50-326 3882

sari.meller@kirkonulkomaanapu.fi

More information about Thinking Portfolio PPM

Esa Toivonen, Managing Partner, phone +358 40-733 6670

esa.toivonen@thinkingportfolio.com