Insights for Charities & Not for Profit Sector | Action Planning

insights

The charity and not-for-profit landscape is constantly changing and we are always developing new thinking, picking up good ideas and coming across valuable information that we like to pass on, in our mission to help our clients achieve even greater success.

This blog is our platform for sharing these insights as they arise, and engaging with the whole sector in the spirit of collectively striving towards excellence.

Eleanor Mitchell

16 Apr 2019, 08:00

Management: what, why, and how to do it

While management is often described as the coordination and organisation of business activities to meet a defined purpose, the management of people is not always valued. Yet as Action Planning Associate Eleanor Mitchell explains, it is the people within an organisation that create its success.

16 Apr 2019, 08:00

Action Planning Associates: introducing Mark Goldring

Action Planning has an extensive team of outstanding and highly-experienced Associate Consultants. This month we are delighted to introduce – and welcome - one of the newest members of our network, former Oxfam CEO Mark Goldring.

14 Mar 2019, 08:00

Why would anyone be a charity trustee?!

The role carries a lot of responsibility, has legal and financial liabilities, can be extremely hard work, is frequently stressful, often under-valued… and it’s unpaid… So why on earth would anyone be a charity Trustee?! For a number of (very good) reasons, in fact…

14 Feb 2019, 08:00

Managing Underperformance

Managing people’s performance is one of the key issues facing any charity. After all, in most cases the people are the charity. If, however, your organisation is faced with underperformance issues, HR professional Tracy Madgwick advises on how to manage these effectively.

17 Jan 2019, 08:00

Awaydays: Holding the Space

New Year is the perfect time to ‘health check’ not just ourselves, but our charities too. And what better way than with an awayday? Action Planning Associate Karen Morton tells us how we can “hold the space”.

17 Jan 2019, 08:00

Trading Subsidiaries: Using one, or think you should be?

Recent developments have affected the way in which payments from a trading subsidiary to its parent charity must be shown in the accounts. If your charity has a trading subsidiary – or you think perhaps it should have one – then you need to read this article by charity specialist lawyer David Kirby.

13 Dec 2018, 08:00

Charity at Christmas

Working in the voluntary sector, we spend most of our time thinking about and helping others - it’s in the job description, after all! Just occasionally however, maybe we should take a moment to really think about what we do and the good that we do for charity. And give ourselves a well-deserved pat on the back. Not often of course… maybe just once a year, at Christmas!

13 Dec 2018, 08:00

You Can't Tickle Yourself!

Interviewed at the recent Christian Resources Exhibition, Chairman David Saint speaks candidly about how Action Planning started almost 30 years ago (spoiler alert, he was fired!), and what the organisation can offer to help charities.

8 Nov 2018, 08:00

Protective Organisational Culture

In the wake of the recent crisis in the International Development sector following revelations of unacceptable behaviour by some staff, expert David Bull deliberates culture change to achieve safeguarding objectives, and advocates ten key elements to ensure a protective organisational culture.

8 Nov 2018, 08:00

What Is A Content Strategy, And Do You Need One?

Online content is the most cost-effective way to reach large numbers of people. But what is meant by ‘content’, what should it address, and what actually is a ‘content strategy’…and does your charity need one? Marketing professional Fiona Lewis helps explains!

9 Oct 2018, 08:00

Employing Trustees: Navigating The Minefield

One of your charity Trustees (or ex-Trustees) may seem like the perfect candidate to join your staff team. However, as expert Felicia Willow explains as she ‘navigates the minefield’, employing Trustees is not straightforward, and in some cases not even possible.

9 Oct 2018, 08:00

Salaries and Benchmarking

Determining the appropriate salary for a job is not always easy, and also of course depends on what your organisation can afford to pay. Charity specialists action planning consider how to decide the right remuneration for a role, including salary benchmarking.

9 Oct 2018, 08:00

Are you a Charity That Helps Women Enter the Workplace?

Are you a charity that helps women enter the workplace? If so, you may wish to join forces with Futures for Women to help disadvantaged women in the UK attain their career ambitions and become financially independent.

13 Sep 2018, 08:00

Marketing And Communications In Small Charities

Marketing and Communications in small charities has its own particular challenges and requirements. Expert Layla Moosavi advises that it’s about going back to basics, knowing your audience, reviewing your strengths and resources, focusing and prioritising, and planning, planning, planning.

9 Aug 2018, 08:00

Finding and Recruiting the Hottest New Candidates

It’s August, it’s Summer and it’s too hot to be thinking about recruitment. Right? Wrong! With one of the peak times of year for recruitment only a few weeks away, charities should already be starting to think about and getting ready to hire the best and hottest new candidates.

9 Aug 2018, 08:00

Building Meaningful Lifelong Relationships with Supporters

What does relationship fundraising look like in today’s world? And how should charities be balancing short-term need with lifetime value? By putting our supporters first, argues Emily Petty, valuing every way they engage with us and focusing on the experiences that they have.

12 Jul 2017, 10:41

Charity crisis: Do you know what to do when something goes wrong?

All of us, obviously, want things to go smoothly at our charity; but what to do when things go wrong? How we handle a crisis could well mean make or break. Expert Felicia Willow gives her ‘five priorities’ to best manage a crisis – and come out the other side!

5 Jul 2018, 10:41

Legacy fundraising: don’t leave it to luck!

Legacies are an important source of funding, yet more than half of charitable bequests are left by previously ‘unknown’ donors. Lucky? For the charity, yes. But effective legacy fundraising is about much more than luck. We look at the potential for your charity to develop a long-term, sustainable legacy fundraising strategy.

12 Jul 2017, 10:41

How To Plan A Capital Appeal

For most organisations, major capital projects are not common occurrences – they only come along perhaps once every five to ten years. From a fundraising perspective, what’s the best way to prepare for this, in particular to ensure that ongoing revenue...

12 Jul 2017, 10:41

Trustee appraisals – have you got yours in place?

The Charity Governance Code recommends that the Boards of all charities – large and small – review their performance and effectiveness. Do you have a plan in place for doing that? And are you implementing the plan?! Felicia Willow discusses the many benefits of the process.

21 Mar 2018, 10:41

Where are the Visionaries?

Charities pride themselves on making a difference, yet so often we seem to get caught in the rut of doing the same old same old – usually with fewer resources! How can we lift our eyes from the treadmill, and scan distant horizons?

14 Mar 2018, 10:41

The answer’s Yes. What’s the question?

Action Planning gets asked to help with an extraordinarily diverse range of issues, from an equally diverse range of organisations. Take a look through our recent caseload, and see whether any of these resonate with some of the challenges you are facing in your charity.

14 Mar 2018, 10:41

Focussing on People rather than Performance will get you to Excellence

Almost every organisation will say that its people are its greatest asset. And yet far too many organisations pay lip service to ‘training and development’. Top athletes achieve astonishing feats – often more than they themselves believed possible, and often because of the support of their coach. How much more could your people achieve if properly coached? And what is coaching anyway?

8 Feb 2018, 10:41

Learning lessons from Oxfam - To disclose or not to disclose? That is the question.

It is sad to see so many media outlets and commentators jumping on the Oxfam-bashing bandwagon – mostly with comment and posturing – so instead here is some practical advice about how to set up a framework for dealing with reputational risk – before disaster strikes.

8 Feb 2018, 10:41

How to diversify income

Any organisation that is dependent on one source for more than 30% of its income is at risk. Many charities are dependent on one source for 80% - 90% of their income! Diversification is the name of the game – but where to start? And how can we make sure it doesn’t all go horribly wrong? We explore some practical and pragmatic approaches.

8 Feb 2018, 10:41

Procurement Obscurement?

Does your Procurement Department always get you the best deal? We share some experiences of disastrous procurement processes – and one excellent one!

8 Feb 2018, 10:41

Recruiting your first fundraiser

If your organisation is planning to employ a fundraiser for the first time, here are some essential things to do - and some things to avoid - to maximise the chances of success.

8 Feb 2018, 10:41

Five Indications of Failing Trustee Boards

Poor trustees – always being bashed these days! But these observations, from an experienced governance consultant, will help trustees and Chief Executives take an objective look at how they are doing, and take some simple steps today that will help avoid problems tomorrow.

5 Dec 2017, 10:41

Downloadable policies – just papering over the cracks?

In our increasingly complex society, we now need an astonishing array of policies to cover every conceivable (and occasionally inconceivable!) eventuality.

5 Dec 2017, 10:41

How to recruit a Fundraising Director

In recent issues we have considered the best approach for recruiting trustees, and Chief Executives. Now it is the turn of the Fundraising Director.

5 Dec 2017, 10:41

Simple Governance Review – here’s one I prepared earlier!

Andrew Betts, Director of Advantage Africa was very quick off the mark, by turning the piece in our last issue into a self-assessment questionnaire for his trustees.

5 Dec 2017, 10:41

'Preference Diversity' The Essential Team Ingredient

First, what is diversity? Diversity is ‘the fact of many different types of things or people being included in something’. So how do we apply this when looking to build a successful team, or board of trustees? How do we know who to include?

5 Dec 2017, 10:41

How to Recruit a Chief Executive

We turn our attention to the recruitment of a Chief Executive. But surely recruitment is recruitment isn’t it? Well, yes and no. Some posts need to be handled in very particular ways – especially in the early stages.

5 Dec 2017, 10:41

Governance – what could possibly go wrong?

The Charity Commission recently reviewed their ‘problem cases’, and came up with a list of the nine things that trustees most commonly don’t do, that could have prevented most of those cases happening at all

5 Dec 2017, 10:41

How to recruit trustees

Perhaps we should start with ‘how not to recruit trustees’ – because frankly the wrong way is the most common way, yet there are some very good reasons why it’s the wrong way.

3 Oct 2017, 09:41

The £1.19m answer: Einstein’s Theory of Happiness

I was fascinated to read recently that Einstein’s ‘Theory of Happiness’ had been sold at auction for £1.19m. Spoiler alert – at the end of this piece I’m going to tell you what it is!

3 Oct 2017, 09:41

Managing Reputation - Inoculating Against Crisis

It was Warren Buffet who once said “It takes twenty years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it” – a statement that resonates more today than ever before; except these days when a damaging social media post can travel the world in a click of a mouse, it can only take five seconds.

30 Aug 2017, 10:41

The Value of a Mentor

The most honest feedback I receive in life is after the final whistle is blown and I’m sitting in the pub with my mates. For me, the feedback is often brutal as they take turns to analyse my football skills, detailing my ‘lack of pace’ in trying to keep up with the pacey 17-year-old...

30 Aug 2017, 10:41

Challenge Events – An Antidote to GDPR - The Great Depression of People Raising (money)

Over the last few years I feel we have been in a ‘great depression’ within the charity sector. This has been fuelled by numerous negative media stories and more recently the introduction of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)

30 Aug 2017, 10:41

CV Tips – From The Recruiter’s Perspective

Having recently read 79 applications for one role, and 6 for another, I have become a bit blasé about ‘passionate’, ‘committed’, ‘high achiever’, ‘driven’, ‘results orientated’ ….. you see the same words and phrases coming up again and again.

Tim Glynne-Jones

30 Aug 2017, 10:41

Website woes? Here’s a solution

When it comes to publicising the work of your charity, a good website is essential. We hear from a lot of people who know this but feel hamstrung by cost, saying it will require £20k or more. Well, you might be encouraged to learn that our new website was designed, built and written for less than £10k.

30 Aug 2017, 10:41

When the problem is having too much money

This may seem an extraordinary topic to explore in a charity sector newsletter, but over the past 12 months Action Planning has worked with at least 6 organisations for whom this was a significant issue.

30 Aug 2017, 10:41

Project management? Never heard of it…

I’ve been a professional project manager for over 20 years and freelance for about 10. Because of that, I take it for granted that ‘project management matters’ and assume that everyone feels the same way.

12 Jul 2017, 10:41

When is it the right time to do a capital appeal feasibility study?

An appeal for a major capital project is not an everyday occurrence for most organisations, and if this is outside the experience of all the key people (eg trustees, senior management team) it can be very difficult to know where to start.

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