Giving time

By Deborah Xavier
Chief Executive, Pilotlight London

Highlights

• Many charities are chronically under-resourced and lack the business skills in-house to grow and develop.
• The right skills, applied in a sensitive manner, can be at least as valuable to charities as financial donations.
• Consider coaching rather than consultancy, to better help the charity become self-sufficient.
• There are a variety of organisations which can match volunteers with charities.

_________________________________

Small charities need your skills as much as your money

Pilotlight specializes in working with small and medium-sized charities and social enterprises which are already experts in identifying and meeting needs in their communities, but which may not have the business skills in-house to take the next step in their growth or development.

Many small charities face similar challenges. The 85% of charities with a turnover of less than £100,000 are chronically under-resourced, generating less than 7% of the sector’s income. The majority are partly or wholly dependent on grant income, which is usually given for specific projects lasting between one and three years. Many funders favour new projects that will demonstrate the greatest impact, and will not consider applications for core costs such as management and administrative salaries. When grant-making priorities change, charities can find themselves stretching the parameters of their mission and expertise to secure the funding they need to keep experienced staff.

Charity managers have a difficult job.  They are often responsible for helping vulnerable people and juggling multiple income sources to stay operational. They therefore often struggle to find time to plan for a more secure future.

Volunteers with business skills can teach charity managers the skills, tools and approaches they use in their working lives to help them plan for stability, efficiency and growth. Our Pilotlighters bring a range of much-needed skills to ambitious organisations including financial planning, marketing, income diversification, information technology, human resource management, change management, property management and legal expertise. We have seen that the right skills, applied in a sensitive manner, can be at least as valuable to charities as financial donations. An intelligent and sympathetic eye from outside can be a great source of support and perspective.

What to consider before donating skills

As Pilotlight has grown we have learned many things about how our professional volunteers, or Pilotlighters, can make the greatest difference to our charities.

For instance, you may already have an issue or organisation in mind that inspires you. If you are passionate about the work an organisation does, it will, of course, enhance your personal satisfaction and level of commitment. But you should also consider where your particular skills and working style could make the most difference, and what opportunity there is for you to learn from the people you are working with.

The best matches are those where both the volunteer and the charity learn and develop through their partnership – so be open-minded. At Pilotlight, we find some of our most successful partnerships are created when volunteers choose to work with organisations that challenge their view of the world. For example, one Pilotlighter visited Wandsworth Prison with a charity that teaches inmates new skills, and left with a different perspective on offenders and rehabilitation.

Best practice in skills giving

First, be clear about what you want to achieve, and by when.

If you are working on a particular project, agree targets and review dates for the work you plan to do at the outset, and be clear about who is expected to do what. Whether you meet your targets or not, this helps to set expectations and ensure that you are both working to the same aim.

Importantly, this also gives you the opportunity to recognise your achievements. Take time to do this and congratulate yourself and the charity on the progress you have made. If you are bringing new approaches into the organisation, then demonstrating success as early as possible will encourage staff to apply them elsewhere and motivate them to give more time and resources to you and your work.

Second, be patient.  Take the time to understand the real issues, and recognise that significant change doesn’t happen quickly.

Before you begin, it may be helpful to understand some of the key differences between the private and voluntary sectors, such as the issues of funding mentioned above.

In the UK, trustees are responsible for the strategic direction and financial health of charitable organisations. This system has its strengths and weaknesses, and governance can be a particular challenge for small charities who may not have the profile to reach beyond their immediate community to find the right range of skills. Think about the additional complexities of organisations that are powered by passion. When push comes to shove, shareholders in a business have a single, shared objective – profit, but a voluntary sector organisation has to hold together a group of stakeholders, each of whom may have a slightly different but passionately held visions.

So, when you first meet with the charity, whatever your task is, take time to investigate the challenges they face and to understand the barriers to change, both institutional and personal.

Is the organisation able to clearly articulate its mission and objectives? How do they plan to achieve them? Addressing these essential questions and identifying the gaps will allow you and the charity’s staff to begin work with a shared understanding of your goal, avoiding time wasted on tactical projects that never come to fruition because of undiagnosed issues. If you invest more time in understanding the organisation at the beginning, you will make a greater difference by the end.

Things do tend to move more slowly in small charities than they do in the private sector, for a range of practical and cultural reasons. It is likely that, if you embark on a relationship with a charity, you will get frustrated at some point with the speed of progress. When that time comes, remember that the most profound and lasting changes come about when the management and staff change the way they think about their organisation – how it is structured and what its priorities are. It can be a slow process – but we promise it will be worth it if you persevere. We know because we see it happen.

Third, where you can – coach and advise, don’t ‘do’.

Unless you have a very specific skill which the charity will not need in the long-term, consider offering them coaching rather than consultancy. Coaching is about giving charity staff and trustees the skills they need to be self-sufficient in the future, whereas consultancy is about doing the work on their behalf. Coaching takes longer, and it can be a frustrating process at times, but its effects are more sustainable.

Pilotlight has worked with numerous charities that had a Business Plan written for them by a consultant, gathering dust on a shelf. To many of them it was a bureaucratic exercise, required by funders or trustees, with little or no bearing on their day-to-day work. Our process requires each of our charities to have an up-to-date strategic plan, which the charities write themselves. While our members advise, suggest and cajole, it’s the staff team that has to do the work. The result is a living document, which they understand and are engaged with, and can revise in line with their ambitions.

Recommended resources

Skills brokering organisations and advice:

At Pilotlight we offer a highly managed service which enables senior business people to make a measurable difference to the capacity of small charities in just three hours a month., We ask for a donation of £1,300 per year from individual members to support our work, and develop tailored packages for our corporate members who currently include Coutts, Serco, Morgan Stanley, BP, Vodafone, and Marks & Spencer.

The Media Trust matches media professionals with charities who need help with PR, marketing, design, video and online media.

Reach matches the skills of experienced people with voluntary sector organisations. You can register your skills online.

Challenges Worldwide recruits and trains volunteers with professional skills and experience to work with their local partners in developing countries.

The Cranfield Trust recruits volunteers to act as management consultants to charities with management issues.

Arts & Business develops partnerships between businesses and the arts, offering a programme called Board Bank which helps individuals to join the boards of arts organisations.

Your local Volunteer Bureau will be able to advise you on a range of volunteering opportunities in your community.

Getonboard.org.uk: Many small charities desperately need to recruit skilled and committed individuals to their Boards, although you may want to gain a better understanding of the complexities of the sector through volunteering before you take on the responsibilities of a trusteeship.

Other organisations that may be of interest to people wanting to volunteer or develop their skills in the community are:

• Business in the Community
• Impetus Trust 
• Cherry D 
• Common Purpose
• Timebank 

_________________________________

About the author

Deborah Xavier has worked for Pilotlight for five years, initially as Assistant Director to Pilotlight Group Chief Executive Fiona Halton, then fundraising for, and leading, the establishment of Pilotlight Scotland, which opened its doors in September 2007. Deborah became Chief Executive of Pilotlight London in November 2007 and heads up a team of 11, managing the skills of 190 senior business people into 40 small charities and social enterprises. Prior to Pilotlight, Deborah spent eight years working in brand marketing, initially for Scottish & Newcastle, then communications consultancy Circus and advertising agency McCann Erickson.