How to make the Transition

Pre-requisites for managing change effectively

Shared vision - change requires a willingness to abandon assumptions

• Creation of new opportunities
• Clarity of mission and values
• Leading to new visions for the future

Creative team

• Willing to think ‘outside the box’
• Open communication about opportunities, challenges, implications
• Able to challenge each other robustly – and be supportive
• Prepared to give each other feedback
• Build a team around you that you can trust

Realistic staging of change

• Avoid silver bullets or white knight syndrome
• Plan, plan and plan again
• Tasks, milestones and processes
• Keep up the pace, achieve some quick wins and celebrate

Communicate extensively and with integrity

• Ensure people feel listened to and heard.   
• Understand the emotion of change and that change can be painful even when it seems as though it should be a good thing.  
• Effective communication underpins successful change

Open honest leadership

• Leader empowered by their board to drive and deliver change
• Need to be decisive and determined but delusional
• Forward looking, courageous, willing to take risks
• Clear about big issues – flexible on the detail
• Willing to accept setbacks – determined to maintain momentum

What are your choices? How do you best serve your beneficiaries?

How prepared is your board and senior team to make change? Not at all,  or a lot?

Do nothing

• The funding environment has changed and doing nothing is really not an option.  The organisations that will survive and grow are those that made good strategic decisions early on.

Be reactive, evolve, renovate

• Reduce costs, services, staffing
• Look for new streams of funding
• Make small changes which you hope will tide your organisation over

Be proactive, transform

• Go back to your core – think about your objectives and what your organisation is really about
• Think about what makes you unique and why you need to continue
• Cut services which are not core
• Develop new innovative ideas
• Understand value of services versus cost
• Investigate other players and collaborations and mergers

Close

• Maintain the legacy
• Transfer assets

Thinking about collaborations or mergers

The real basis of the consideration for collaboration is understanding what is the purpose of the charity and how it might best be delivered. 

Spectrum of collaboration and mergers

• Sharing knowledge
• Collaborative working on issues/projects
• Joint venture by contract
• Joint venture through new entity
• Shared purchasing
• Shared services
• Merger

Some deal breakers

• For Mergers - who is the new leader or CEO and what is the composition of the new Board - is this all amicable or hostile? Any casualties?
• Cultural fit
• Personalities
• Compatibility of objects
• Liabilities, e.g.:
  • pensions
  • property
  • contracts
  • uninsured claims
  • Solvency
  • Tax (esp. VAT)

Top tips

• Be very clear about why and that it is worth the pain, analyse the benefits and costs
• Plan early before it becomes a fire sale or too late
• Develop the long term vision
• Choose your partner(s) carefully
• Consider deal breakers as soon as possible
• Be clear about planning, process, organisation, people
• Show leadership
• Consider VAT and other tax issues early – there is generally a solution to legal and accounting issues
• Communicate, communicate
• When it becomes painful, focus on the vision and the benefits

Increasing and diversifying your income

Most organisations will be thinking about how to replace lost income - how will you be able to compete?   Do you have the right tools in place and do you know how to make a strong case for funding?

Market Context

• What is the need for your services
• Who are your competition
• How are you positioned

Toolkit for Fundraising

• Database
• Website
• Data
• Research
• Marketing programme

Case for Support / Messaging

• Need
• The ways in which you respond to need
• Who benefits and how
• Cost
• Who else does this work
• What will happen if you don’t do it
• Impact a supporter will make

What is your current Fundraising mix

• Institutional Giving
• Individual Giving
• Social Investment
• Earned Income

How do can you diversify the mix

• Diversifying current fundraising mix
• investment required
• timescales
• ROI

Finally, don’t reinvent the wheel

There are lots of organisations that are going through the same changes at the moment. 

• Get involved with one of the networking groups and share experiences.
• Try peer-to-peer mentoring or action learning set
• Find more information about the collaboration and the support services