Knowledge Peers

Following the money - Part 1

First, find your corporate….

With a growing number of charities chasing dwindling public funding, if it’s not statutory, increasingly it’s not even on the list.

Public donations are falling so ‘following the money’ in today’s bleak economic climate leads inevitably to corporates. Having worked for the charity regulator for many years, I thought I was pretty familiar with the ‘do’s and don’ts’ for prising cash from big business. That, however, was before I started working for it. With the help of my company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) team, I’ve pulled together a series of key tips for charities seeking corporate funding which I’ll post over the next couple of months.

How to use Twitter and LinkedIn for networking

Much has already been written about how charities can use social media to develop their brands and build relationships with their stakeholders. I want to talk about how you can use social media tools to network and to build your own personal brand. As resources become scarcer, and the job market more competitive, I think Twitter and LinkedIn can help us all achieve more at work and widen our networks further. 

Bonuses – the good, the bad and the downright ugly

It is people’s abilities and behaviours that drive business success (and also failure).  

Training, leadership and motivation are critical to success. For people to perform well they should understand the purpose of what they are doing and its relevance to the organisation as a whole;  it is also important for them to have feedback.  Something that may also encourage people to go that extra mile is a bonus.  Bonuses are likely to influence behaviour, however behaviour can be good, bad or downright ugly:

One client operated a number of depots and was experiencing problems in collecting money from customers. When I looked into the reasons it became apparent that the credit controller was having problems in getting depot managers to respond to customer queries, which in turn was delaying payment.  The managers received bonuses based on their depot’s profit and I suggested that this was changed to also reflect the collection of money from their customers – this together with some other improvements resulted in the equivalent of an extra two weeks’ sales in the bank.

New business landscapes are emerging for charities

As 2012 austerity drives begin and generating revenues becomes an acute challenge for charities, supporter acquisition, revenue streams and looking at trading in new ways are all going to be undoubtedly key themes for the coming year.

From the vantage point that Visceral Business has as change strategists and developers of social capital value, for charities and commercial organisations, we’re involved in creating new social engagement business models that eliminate the ‘for profit’ or ‘not for profit’ conundrum by simply being ‘beyond profit’. These ‘beyond profit’ user-led social business models can make a tremendous difference to charities as they reconcile the challenges ahead and seek to improve operational performance.

The Child’s i Foundation, for example, of which I’m privileged to also be a Trustee, has a cost of donor acquisition rate of 19%, compared to the average standard of around 30%. It uses retailing channels like Shopify to develop event experiences online that give supporters a real stake in the charity that enables them to see the charity as a work in progress, happening in front of their eyes.

Charities and Trading... A Conflict of Interests?

Money has been touted as the root of all evil since biblical times, whereas charitable acts have only ever been seen as undoubtedly good. Yet it is actually generating income that enables our charity, Leap Confronting Conflict, to do some of its most profound, life-changing work with young people caught up in chaotic lifestyles in prisons and gangs.

Charity Trading, Tax and the Law

With our upcoming event on 12/12/11, 'Charity Trading: Cashing In?'  one of our speakers, James Maloney - Associate at Farrer & Co, has written a guest blog on some of the legal issues that surround Charity Trading.

As grants are cut and donations fall, it is natural for charities to look at other ways to generate income.  One way is through trading which, more often than not, involves the establishment of a subsidiary trading company.

However, while many charities benefit from the profits of their trading companies, their use gives rise to a host of tricky legal and governance issues – particularly in the current climate.

Is IT strategic for the SMB?

There is no doubt that large organizations today simply could not function with their IT. The cost, indeed the ROI of particular IT systems might be questionable. But empirical evidence (eg from benchmarking by consulting firms like The Hackett Group) shows that higher levels of automation do improve both efficiency and effectiveness.

But for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs – say those up to 250 employees) then this is not so clear cut. Clearly some IT is very valuable – such as a website to allow a small company to reach a wide, even global, audience for its customers. But IT can cost a lot. Without wide-ranging in-house skills a lot of time and money can be burnt on solutions that prove ineffective, or on vendor-mandated upgrades to systems that were working pretty well already. Companies can easily struggle with networking issues, interfacing problems and seemingly insurmountable bugs. Often, one hears comments to the effect that “this IT stuff is just a pain….weren’t we better off without it?”.

Growth: Time for direct action?

The Government’s “Plan for Growth” was published in March 2011.  When you hear Ed Balls (and others) shouting “there’s no growth plan”, well perhaps they could just go ahead and download it here. When I first read it back in April, my reaction was “good ideas, right direction, a bit thin on substance”.  When we interviewed Mark Prisk, Minister for Business, there was more of the same - see here. Not really a lot to disagree with.

White Lace and New Beginnings

Walking around the Royal Wedding exhibition at Buckingham Palace on Monday I decided that my brother-in-law had a lot to answer for! 

‘White lace and promises, a kiss for luck and we’re on our way…’

His 1970s music obsession was responsible for the saccharine words of The Carpenters drifting around my head whilst looking at the lacy opulence of the Sarah Burton for Alexander MacQueen wedding dress worn by Kate Middleton in April.

What will shape business in 5 years time?

At a recent Knowledge Peers gathering we had some debate and discussion on what will shape business in five years time. Inherently these tend to be more “strategic” influencers and, with the help of our network, we ran a research poll asking executives to rank their top 5 opportunities and threats in the longer term horizon. If you want to read through the full results and commentary take a look at our Survey Results.