For an organisation looking to improve its sustainability it is hard to point to specific steps. So much depends on where the organisation is starting from.
Governance
Some organisations will need to look at governance. If an organisation is employing staff, has leased premises, or is thinking of contracting to run a service they should look at limiting their liability. All of these examples could potentially lead to the organisation being liable for substantial costs. If the organisation is unincorporated the trustees are liable to pay these. If the organisation is incorporated in most cases the liability falls on the organisation rather than the trustees. Another area to examine is whether the right skills are available to the Management Committee.
Other areas of Risk
Other areas of risk may include a failure to carry out adequate risk assessments, not having equal opportunities policies, failing to take professional advice over investments, not having relevant insurance in place, a lack of financial controls etc.
Financial Controls
Particularly when facing turbulent times a tight control on finances can be helpful. If there is a chance that funding may be cut, having up-to-date financial records, a cashflow-analysis, and a good idea of costs will make planning far easier. This may make the difference between an organisation closing and being able to continue. It may also mean that some organisations close rather than continuing when they should not (and breaking the law by doing so).
Planning
Some organisations may benefit from looking at improving their planning. This will usually require the financial information mentioned above. In addition to Business Planning or Strategic Planning, in turbulent times it may be a good idea to look at contingency planning. This involves looking at a number of scenarios. For example, what would happen if funding was cut by 5%, by 15%, or cut entirely? Having already explored the options available, a funding cut becomes easier to cope with, as decisions do not have to be made immediately with inadequate information. Instead it becomes possible to respond proactively rather than reactively to a situation.
Another type of planning that would be useful for organisations is a form of Emergency Response Planning. This deals with questions such as:
What would happen if we couldn’t access our premises (due to fire, flood, etc)?
What would happen if we lost our computer server?
Who are the key members of staff and how would we cover for their absence?
There are many more questions that could be added and the questions will differ from one organisation to another. Like the contingency planning they enable an organisation to respond to a crisis.
The consequence of not addressing sustainability
The consequence of failing to address sustainability is to remove the choices available to an organisation. Some areas will have an immediate effect, other areas will only become apparent in times of crisis, still others will act to drain the organisation over time. Many can be prevented by acting in advance.
This is a summary of a report prepared by the CRIB Project entitled “Towards Sustainability”. This summary was first printed in the March edition of Grapevine. A full copy of the report can be downloaded from here.
Some factors affecting sustainability may go back to when a group was first formed. Three in particular are:
Vision The group thinks through what it wants to achieve and draws up ideas of how to achieve it. Once this has been agreed it can be hard to change even if the original vision was flawed or duplicates other work
People The people that come together to form a group each bring their own strengths, ideas, skills, contacts and experiences. Unfortunately they also bring weaknesses, prejudices and attitudes or beliefs. The precise combination of strengths and weaknesses can either reinforce or reduce the viability of the organisation.
Structure Decisions on a legal structure are often made at a comparatively early stage. Unfortunately since these decisions have an effect on how the group operates they can also affect the organisation’s long-term viability. While it is possible to change a legal structure it can be a very difficult and time-consuming process.
Other Critical Factors
There are many more areas that affect sustainability in addition to those already mentioned. They include:
Having a diverse range of funding sources that are stable and sufficient
Having the skills needed by the organisation. These skills change over time depending upon the stage an organisation is at in its life-cycle and the work it is doing.
The way the group understands a problem, plans and breaks the problem down into manageable chunks
Access to information such as funding opportunities, local and national policies and strategies, best practice, etc
How adequate a group’s financial controls are and whether the group has up-to-date knowledge of its finances and commitments.
Whether an organisation duplicates the work of other organisations
How well the projects run by an organisation fit into its long-term strategy. Sometimes a project may attract short-term funding but be counter-productive to long-term strategy.
The vision an organisation has of its work and whether this is able to sustain the group’s activities
How an organisation views the long-term and whether it plans for the future
How an organisation responds to a changing environment. Local and Central Government strategies and policies can change drastically with comparatively little notice. Voluntary organisations need to be forward looking to adapt to these changes.
Whether an organisation is able to devote adequate time to reducing risk, planning, making funding applications, preparing policies, etc
Whether the organisation monitors the results of its work, communicates this with funders and other stakeholders and uses the information to inform its future work
Although leadership styles differ a good leader will help their organisation be sustainable by:
Providing direction and impetus
Being forward-looking
Making timely responses to opportunities and threats
Promoting the organisation
Being knowledgeable about the environment their organisation works in
Embodying the culture of the organisation
This is a summary of a report prepared by the CRIB Project entitled “Towards Sustainability”. This summary was first printed in the March edition of Grapevine. A full copy of the report can be downloaded from here.
Gimme, Gimme, Gimme is the name of a new report from nfpSynergy. While it is intended as a guide to organisations new to fundraising it is also useful for organisations reviewing their fundraising.
Students at the University of Westminster are offering voluntary and community groups the opportunity to have a free video made for help in fundraising or campaigning. According to a report in Third Sector:
The students, who specialise in TV production and have taken a course on how to make campaigning and fundraising films for charities and voluntary groups, will produce films lasting between 30 seconds and six minutes for small charities that could not otherwise afford to make promotional videos.
The charities will be allowed to use the films on their own websites and on social networking sites.
Ged Maguire, a senior lecturer in TV production at the University of Westminster, said students wanted to give their time free of charge in order to gain experience.
"Charities can approach us with their requirements and we will work with their marketing departments," he said. "The charities will be given full editorial approval."
He said the students would prefer to work with London-based charities, and were free between now and August.
Missionfish, along with Help the Hospices have produced a guide to using ebay for charities to raise money. They report that some charities are now raising in excess of £100,000 per year by selling on ebay.
More details and a link to the report are available on the Fundraising UK website
A report on the Institute of Fundraising conference, entitled 'Fundraising in an economic downturn', including responses from some of the larger charities is available from their website (external link), or available to download from iTunes.
