As I reflect on the last few months and the sad news of the passing of HRH Queen Elizabeth II, quite rightly the national anthem has been played many times of late. This does always make me think of a song released around the time of the Silver Jubilee which contained the line “God save our Queen, we mean it man”. If I am honest, I am pretty sure that they didn’t really mean it!
I have previously written on change management in this blog, and also as part of our sector outlook, and this seems to be a topic that crops up a lot at the moment with lots of questions being asked of us as advisors.
As the pandemic seems to be mostly over, and charities are returning to “normal” operations, there is definitely a sense of what now?; particularly given the events of the last 12 months and the cost of living crisis. Some charities benefited from the pandemic, either in the additional funding that was temporarily available, or through the army of new volunteers that stepped forward. Talking to charities at the moment, very few are finding they are benefiting from the current challenges to the sector.
It is quite likely that charities will find it much more difficult to generate income increases required to offset the increases in costs. There will almost certainly be heightened competition for funding and this may result in more in depth application processes. I think one of the key pieces of advice I can offer here is to keep a focus on the core purpose and make sure everyone is behind this purpose.
Having a united message, where all trustees and managers are living the charities purpose and are truly behind it can make a huge difference in setting a charity apart, making it more likely to attract support. Funders of charities will want to know that their support is making a real difference and, in my view, are more likely to support a charity with a genuine passion for their work, where it is clear that the charity really does mean it’s purpose. This could make the difference between funding being renewed or not.
People will make an obvious difference to this passion – good communication and solid leadership will help instil the right culture which in turn creates passion. As does good recruitment combined with consistent and regular training. One other easy way to help in a presentation is to reflect on past good news stories – as well as setting out what the charity plans to do with the funding from an accounting point of view, use real examples of support provided. This could be a case study on a specific party that has benefited, and the impact made to them. Funders will thrive on knowing they too are making a difference.
One area that could be a risk to the charity is in their volunteer base. Even though volunteers are often not contracted to the charity, it is vital that they too mean it when it comes to presenting the charity in public. Although not mandatory, it might be beneficial to require volunteers to have a short induction presentation and sign up to a code of conduct to make sure that there is no misunderstanding. After all, the last thing a charity needs is for someone to give the impression that they don’t really mean it….
The next step
If you would like to discuss this insight further, please contact David Allum, or your usually UHY adviser.
