Third Sector

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Third Sector

I’ve been consulting in the Third Sector since 2004 and have also provided pro bono support to more than 25 organisations. This work has included projects such as developing business plans, re-designing services and developing performance measurement systems. It has also included non-project support such as running training workshops, facilitating away-days and providing one-to-one coaching and mentoring to trustees, directors and staff. Download my Third Sector Services paper here (pdf). Read my Third Sector Blog posts here.

Some of the organisations I have worked with:

Marie Curie Cancer Care
Julian Support
Rory Peck Trust
Media Legal Defence Initiative
BBC World Service Trust/BBC Media Action
Participle
The Officers’ Association
Community Action Southwark
Save the Rhino International
Interlink
Nottingham CVS
Royal Hospital Chelsea
On Purpose
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Wish
Help Musicians UK
Internews
CDAC

There’s lots going on in the UK Third Sector and “Third Eye Daily” is my one-stop-shop for capturing, sharing and keeping an eye on the things I think are interesting and exciting…

Third Sector Case Studies:

The Challenge: A UK-based charity operating overseas needed to develop the skills to run large-scale development projects with foreign partners and NGOs.
The Solution: I designed and ran several 2-day Project Management workshops tailored to suit the governance requirements of their projects.
The Results: Staff developed their own action plans for individual projects and some over-arching Trust-wide project processes. They have also used the skills to coach their local partners in complex multi-cultural projects.

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The Challenge: A newly-formed charity, operating to support “freedom of speech” clients overseas, needed an Operations Plan to support the Trustees’ Strategic Objectives.
The Solution: I interviewed the Trustees to identify their views on the Strategy and objectives. I then worked with the COO to translate the Strategic Objectives into themes which could then be cascaded into 12-24 month operational objectives and clearly phased plans.
The Results: We created an Operational Plan that was signed-off by the Trustees. It clearly identified a number of resourcing gaps which the Trustees would need to address. It also included a performance measurement framework.
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The Challenge: A regional charity providing support to people with mental health difficulties to help them lead independent lives needed to develop a new operating model for service delivery.
The Solution: I designed and facilitated a Clean Sheet Design workshop which involved key service staff and senior managers. We defined the success factors for the service including stretch targets for reduced service operating costs and created a new service delivery process, together with definitions of roles required to operate the service.
The Results: The outputs from the workshop were used to build a competitive bid for winning new services, together with a Transition Plan to give Commissioners confidence in the organisation’s ability to deliver as promised.
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Read more case studies in my Third Sector Services paper here (pdf).

I presented some of my experience and learning on pro bono projects to the OR Society’s Third Sector Special Interest Group on 17th October 2013 and my slides are below…

I’m currently a member of the OR Society’s Third Sector (pro bono) Steering Group, which is a small team that aims to make connections between organisations needing help and experienced OR specialists.