Recently, I’ve come to realise that many people we meet think we are a much bigger charity than we are. This is great, and means that our reach and profile is growing, but I’m keen to set the record straight about our size (we are tiny; we have just ten staff in total!), strategy and burning desire to stick to our ethos….
Over the last couple of years we’ve been really fortunate to be able to build a fantastic network of support around our organisation. There are lots of benefits that arise directly from this: increased awareness of our work and service users, an increased organisational profile, fundraising…the list goes on.
Our profile has grown, with people now recognising the name more often than not, and more and more have direct experience of working with us in some capacity or another. This is something that has been very much part of our strategy as an independent and something that in the large part has been has built by one member of staff, in an effort to keep costs to a minimum. The result has come through hard work, commitment, dedication, passion and a belief in what we do and how we do it.
One area of benefit that is not always immediately apparent, is the added value that skills based support gives to us in terms of the “bang for your buck” figure that we strive so hard to keep high. What I mean by that is the amount of money in every £1 we receive that we are able to spend directly on our charitable activity i.e supporting those who need it most.
Charities are very like businesses in terms of the services they require to run effectively; we need marketing support, PR advice, legal advice, finance and professional standards advice, IT support and website design….the list goes on.
Our aim is to grow in size so that we can offer support to everyone across the region who needs it and who fits our criteria. Our ethos is that no one should be left unsupported. As an independent charity that receives no government funding, we rely solely on income that we can raise through fundraising, donations and sponsorship. We value every single pound that we receive and as such, endeavour to spend it on what people intend it to be spent on; supporting the people who need it most.
If we are unable to rally corporate support to help us run the aspects of our organisation that we don’t have the skills and expertise to deliver ourselves, we are faced with three choices:
All of these result in either a considerably lower “bang for buck” and in donor’s money being spent where it wasn’t intended, or in us compromising our ethos and mission of educating wider society in the deep-rooted social issues we are striving to address.
Bluntly, none of the above work for me as a forward thinking service leader who wants to have an impact on the people we support and the system that lets them down, and who wants desperately to stick to the ethos of our organisation. We HAVE to engage with the business community and build positive relationships with them that are mutually beneficial. The pro bono support we get enables us to put as much of your donated money directly where it is needed; it’s that “bang for buck” again.
In 2013 we were recorded as spending 98p in every £1 donated directly on our charitable activity. Many charities will struggle to rival this figure, not because they are doing anything at all wrong or unethical, but simply because they haven’t been fortunate enough to secure the support to address their wider business needs.