Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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Hello and welcome to this recording of training recorded for PCVS by Ali Lyons,
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improving approaches to funding.
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In this training,
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we're going to look at how to have better approaches to funding so we can diversify
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and have the income our charities need.
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So what does good charity income mean?
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It means having a healthy mix of income streams,
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and that might be types of income like trusts and foundations,
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donations,
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earned income,
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or it might be having diversity in each of those,
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so having more than one
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type of grant funder or many different donors.
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It means having enough funding to cover the
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costs of the services you know are needed,
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not just those that funders say they want delivered,
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but what you know is needed out there and having enough money to deliver it.
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And then it means not stop starting services
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and projects depending on what funding is available,
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which is something we have all experienced,
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and we want to reduce this.
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And the reason we want to reduce that stop start
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is because we want consistency of presence.
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So much of our work relies on trust and building relationships with people,
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so we need to be available consistently for people to trust
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in us and for us to work together with them.
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We want funding that helps us meet needs of people and the services that they want,
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not again what funders tell us,
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because so often we know what's needed but we can't
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always deliver it because funding doesn't enable us to.
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So we want funding that does allow us to do it.
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And it also means doing right by everyone.
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So often in our funding,
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it's weighted towards the funder.
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They get what they need,
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but the organization isn't necessarily getting what they want,
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and the person receiving a service of a charity or
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CIC also isn't really getting what they want and need.
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And we want to we want to make better balance
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across that picture,
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funder,
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organization,
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and beneficiaries.
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So we're going to talk a bit about the challenge of charity income,
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and the reason we're talking about it as
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a challenge is because it's important to understand
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what's really happening with charity income before we can improve our approaches.
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What does make it difficult.
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There are 2 reasons that are regularly cited as what makes it so hard
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to fundraise,
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and one of them is capacity,
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having the time and the space to fundraise or
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to generate income and write bids or develop relationships.
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And this is particularly the case for
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smaller organizations where the CEO or volunteers
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might be doing so much of this work alongside a lot of other things.
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So capacity is a genuine issue.
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Also,
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we're sometimes told that a cause isn't popular,
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that no one will want to fund it.
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There are no supporters for it.
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It's really difficult to fund,
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but I don't believe that there is any unpopular cause.
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It's just about finding the right people.
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So we're going to address both of these in this training today.
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But there are some real realities we need to face.
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First of all,
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there is a funding crisis.
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The funding for charities is changing.
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Trusts and foundations are changing their strategies.
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They're pausing funding,
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they're reviewing,
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they're making themselves more focused on particular organizations and
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causes.
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And that is affecting smaller charities the worst
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because it's more difficult,
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because it's more competitive,
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and smaller charities aren't as likely to have
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fundraisers or capacity to respond to that.
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Also,
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the significant majority of charities in the UK are small,
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so we would expect them to be those who are more likely to close.
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We also know
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that BAME led charities and organizations
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were already less likely to receive funding
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even before the current funding crisis.
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And this hasn't got any better,
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so we need to be mindful of this and the approaches that we're taking
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and the support that we're getting to enable
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our organizations to be funded,
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and there are specific support organizations and networks
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out there for BAME led charities and organizations.
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So why is it so hard?
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We're going to look at it along three lines.
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First,
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funding models,
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then attitudes and mindsets,
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and then disconnected thinking.
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And hopefully,
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by having better understanding of these,
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we'll be able to take a more proactive approach.
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So the first challenge is the impossible funding model.
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Now there are 2 types of income models,
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sometimes called business models,
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and they are closed and open.
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A closed model is a traditional model.
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For for-profit businesses
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where you have someone who provides a service
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to a customer,
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the customer pays,
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all is good,
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the costs are all covered and recouped through that charge that has been paid,
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and you can get investments,
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you can get loans,
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but you'll be able to pay them back
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by increasing your customer base or charging more,
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and your business is viable as long as this loop remains in place.
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Another sort of closed business model that
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some charities will already be working on
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is the supplier model,
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where the charity still exists there at the top with a
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heart on their top there and the customer or beneficiary or client
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is there receiving the service.
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But in this instance,
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a third party who has a duty to that client.
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Or beneficiary,
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so probably a local authority or NHS is paying for the service.
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And again it's closed loop because you are
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delivering something on behalf of that local authority
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to a person
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and hopefully you'll be able to charge as much as it costs to deliver it.
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So it is a closed cycle.
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There
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is acknowledgement
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that increasingly charities have been subsidizing public sector contracts,
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but in some instances
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there are still cases where it can fully cover costs.
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Some examples of closed income models for charities and CICs is a contract
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for delivery with a local authority or NHS or combined authority or government.
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charging for space that you might have if you
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have a community center and you hire out rooms,
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then that would be a closed income model
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and selling services either to the public or to businesses.
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We'll come on more to those later.
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Now,
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an open model,
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which is the charity income model quite often,
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is a lot more
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busy and messy and confusing.
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So you still have right in the center there,
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the provider and the beneficiary relationship.
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But there is no relationship between the person who's going to be funding this work,
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the donor,
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the grant,
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the uh philanthropic ways of giving.
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Uh,
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and the individual.
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They might and will have a vested interest and.
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Care about the cause,
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but they're less likely to have a direct relationship,
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they're not paying on behalf of someone.
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And this
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can generate additional costs for the organization
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in terms of searching for income,
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in terms of creating relationships and building relationships,
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in terms of communicating about those relationships and communicating to them,
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particularly if the people who are donating want slightly different
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messages to those who you're providing the service for.
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That can create real misalignment and additional work in your organization.
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And the reality is you're going to have lots of those different funders,
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not just one,
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so you need to manage all those relationships on a multiple
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basis
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and often in small charities we don't have additional people to do these.
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It's still the CEO or volunteers
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doing this work.
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The other problem with this way of working
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is sometimes we can find ourselves being
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expected to deliver different things for funding.
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People want different things to happen,
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so in this instance we've got a cat food and
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um an online service there as well.
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And that might not be what you want to deliver for your purpose,
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but you might find yourself stretching because you need to be able
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to generate income to provide that first service that you had.
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And then on top of all that we've got reserves in the middle,
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you've got to somehow find the additional money
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to generate reserves to support your charity's resilience.
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So this can be really tough,
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and this is why I think it so often feels so
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overwhelming and why I call it the impossible charity income model.
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Mary Rose Gunn from The Four says it's time spent fundraising,
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it's time away from delivering your mission.
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And this can absolutely be the case,
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and it's why we need to find better alignment between what we do and how we fund it.
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We need to embrace the complexity of our funding models.
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It is tough,
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but if we don't embrace the complexity and design and plan for it,
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it ends up controlling our organizations and how we work.
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So we need to take back control in the funding relationship.
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So the open
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models that you might have within your charity or
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CIC are trusts and foundations who give grants,
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donations,
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legacies,
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community fundraising and corporate fundraising.
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And in reality,
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you'll probably have a mix of these or be looking to create a mix of them.
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We'll come on later to what a mixed model might
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look like in terms of your cost and income models.
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So the next challenge to talk about is attitudes and mindsets,
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both the attitudes and mindsets that we hold and that others hold.
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And this can really affect our approaches to funding our organizations.
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So firstly,
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public perceptions.
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There is a public perception that once we are doing good,
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we should do stuff on a shoestring,
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that we shouldn't expect money because we're doing it for a nice purpose.
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We're trying to make things better for people,
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so we shouldn't be looking to make money out of it.
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And the example on the screen is someone
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talking about how oddbos are making massive profits,
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uh,
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conning us all into buying waste food.
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Um,
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so that they can make massive profits,
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which simply isn't the case because oddbos do not make massive profits as an aside,
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but we don't have that discomfort when someone is openly
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for profit or when we're not talking about social good.
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We have to be better at placing value on the work
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we do and have more comfort in the fact that it's OK
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for money to pay for good work
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and for there to be surplus within it so we can do more good work.
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Now the things on the screen now tend to
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apply to larger charities that big charities because I don't
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think any small or medium charity CEO watching this will
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think that they are having their cake and eating it
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in terms of their salary.
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But these public perceptions can filter down to us.
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We can feel like we have to keep our salaries low,
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that we shouldn't be paying people too much,
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and that when we when we pay for rent or other things to run our organizations,
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we're not actually spending them on the cause,
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which simply isn't true because if we didn't
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have all the running costs of the organization,
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the organization wouldn't be able to deliver
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the actual work.
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But these public perceptions again,
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we can start to feel like,
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oh we need to be really,
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really
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er cautious and spend as little as possible in what we do.
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And the next thing I want to talk about is partner perceptions.
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Now for some small charities,
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the reliance upon them for knowledge and access to
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communities and relationships can be quite a lot,
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but it is very rarely paid for.
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So you might have a community center where people come
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because they trust you and you have relationships with them
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and they are more open to receiving support and advice than they would be
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if they had to go to a different space or access in a different way.
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And larger organizations might come in and deliver on your site for that reason,
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but they very rarely pay for it.
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They don't build it into their cost models to say,
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do you know what,
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it costs to build those relationships and have that trust.
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We need to value that and we need to pay for it.
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And then on top of that,
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once all that happens,
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sometimes we can get round the table as a smaller organization
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and we are not respected in the same way for not being professional enough.
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Now the forums in Peterborough have definitely started
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to address some of these power dynamics that exist
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because it also exists between larger charities and the public sector.
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Um,
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so hopefully it's a little bit of a
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less aggressive position in Peterborough these days.
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But it is important to acknowledge
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that we are all equally contributing
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to the outcomes and we need to value and we
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need to place value on ourselves and the work we do
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and make sure we are getting that value back.
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And now about our individual attitudes to money.
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All of these things contribute to how
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we approach raising money for our organizations.
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So myself,
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as a fundraiser,
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um,
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grew up in relative poverty.
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There were periods where we just simply didn't have
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much money at all and it was difficult.
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And that really shaped how I approached money as a fundraiser and how
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I felt about money and the feeling of guilt and the feeling of
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discomfort around people with money,
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which really did affect how confident I was to go and ask for money,
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which is the primary function of a fundraiser.
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And on the other side,
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many of the charity trustees I worked with and continue to work
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with come from wealthier backgrounds and believe that money is abundant,
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and they have much better approaches to fundraising sometimes
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because they're so much more confident in talking about it
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and
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accessing it and being around it that they actually manage to make it happen almost.
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So we do need to understand how our own attitudes to money,
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our discomfort
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um
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about it can really affect things.
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And then there's the attitudes to payment for our work.
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So some people will think,
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do you know what,
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this is what a good neighbor does.
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I'll do this as a volunteer.
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And others think it is what a good neighbor does.
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I'm being paid,
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but I'd probably still do it even if I wasn't paid.
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Maybe not in the same way.
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And then finally we have people who think the work that
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we're doing is valuable and it should be paid for,
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and none of these is wrong.
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What's important in all of them is that you care and you're
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doing it because you want to have a positive impact on people.
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But the reality is
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that it does cost to deliver services.
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Whether you have a paid staffing model or not,
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there are costs associated and we need to make sure that those costs are covered.
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We all exist to have impact.
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That impact is valuable.
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It's valuable to the people who receive it.
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It's valuable to communities,
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to partners,
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and to wider society.
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It's really important work that you do,
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and none of us doubt the importance of our work.
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But what we often struggle with
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is putting enough value on it to make it viable,
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and that's where we need to really address our attitudes to money.
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Because the impact we have shouldn't be a burden on us as individuals.
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It should be shared with our funders so that we can have better impact together.
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The final challenge I'm going to talk about is disconnected thinking.
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All
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of the things on the screen are connected,
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but so often when we're working in our organizations,
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we can start to
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not put these connections together.
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We think of them in separate ways at separate times,
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and we don't see how they link to each other
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and how we can find alignment between them.
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One way to think about them is as a business model,
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and I do encourage people to look at the social business model canvas
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to start to think about all the connections and how they work.
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There are other approaches you can take like the theory of change and
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um.
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Other things as a basis,
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but a business model approach can help you think about your funding differently.
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And behind your business model should be a strategy
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or driving your business model should be a strategy.
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I'm a huge advocate for strategy,
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and it doesn't need to be complicated,
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but you need to have as an organization made clear decisions about what you do,
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who for,
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how,
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and why,
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and that will inform every single part of your business model.
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The one that has surprised me most
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as a um
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fundraiser and now as a freelance consultant
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is how often we don't make the connection between our cost structures
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and our income streams.
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So we know what it costs to run our services,
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but we very rarely check that against where the income's going to be coming from.
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And in a closed business model,
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they're so linked because you can charge what you
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know you can get from the customer.
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And you,
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uh,
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what your costs are and how much cost you need to cover within it.
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But the breakdown in those within um the charity sector
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is quite significant,
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probably because of the complexity.
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So do any of these resonate for you and your organization?
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So,
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now we've talked about what might be getting in the way or where we need to start
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in terms of um
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understanding what's getting in our way.
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Let's talk about how to approach diversification.
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This is often the first thing that people ask when they want to diversify.
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They might know,
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they will know what funding they have and who is currently funding them,
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and they'll think,
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OK,
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which other income stream do we want to develop?
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And this might be influenced by
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knowledge of what others are doing,
- 18:04 - 18:07
by trustee perspective on what they think needs to be done,
- 18:07 - 18:10
but it is definitely not the right place to start.
- 18:10 - 18:11
Because
- 18:11 - 18:14
you need to match the income source to the work that
- 18:14 - 18:17
you're doing and find the best way for your organization.
- 18:19 - 18:23
We also need to acknowledge that mixed models are important here
- 18:23 - 18:25
and we can't do all of them at once.
- 18:26 - 18:29
It takes a long time to develop a new income stream,
- 18:29 - 18:32
so we need to be really mindful and thoughtful
- 18:32 - 18:34
and targeted in what we're going to develop.
- 18:37 - 18:39
So just a reminder
- 18:39 - 18:40
that with these,
- 18:40 - 18:42
those on the left are the open,
- 18:42 - 18:46
the philanthropic uh ways of working and er income models,
- 18:46 - 18:48
and on the right are the closed models.
- 18:51 - 18:53
So deciding what income streams to go for
- 18:53 - 18:56
is about the right funding for your organization.
- 18:59 - 19:02
You want funding that meets your funding need.
- 19:03 - 19:04
That means
- 19:04 - 19:08
that it covers the uh it pays for the activities that you know are needed
- 19:09 - 19:12
and for all of the associated costs of delivering them,
- 19:12 - 19:14
not just some of them leaving you with a shortfall.
- 19:15 - 19:19
Bad funding on the other side creates unacceptable additional costs,
- 19:19 - 19:22
which might be in terms of short term staffing.
- 19:22 - 19:22
Uh,
- 19:22 - 19:24
you can't retain afterwards cos that can have
- 19:24 - 19:27
a big impact on your wider organization.
- 19:27 - 19:29
It might be in terms of monitoring,
- 19:29 - 19:31
or in terms of marketing
- 19:31 - 19:35
or in terms of delivery expectations way above what
- 19:35 - 19:37
is being paid uh paid for through a grant.
- 19:38 - 19:41
Bad funding also undermines your mission or principles.
- 19:42 - 19:44
And often we'll think about where we might
- 19:44 - 19:46
accept donations from or where we wouldn't,
- 19:46 - 19:49
so an environmental charity might not accept
- 19:49 - 19:52
donations from a fossil fuel organization.
- 19:53 - 19:58
But oftentimes we don't think about how some of the expectations of what we deliver,
- 19:58 - 19:59
particularly for grants,
- 20:00 - 20:01
can undermine our work
- 20:02 - 20:05
because it might make us work in ways that aren't strength-based,
- 20:05 - 20:07
that don't empower people,
- 20:08 - 20:12
or that mean we can't pay a real living wage so we can be a poverty charity,
- 20:12 - 20:14
making things worse for people living in the city.
- 20:15 - 20:16
Because we can't pay
- 20:17 - 20:18
wages that they can live on.
- 20:19 - 20:22
These are really important things for us to consider.
- 20:22 - 20:27
Are we making the situation worse and undermining ourselves through our funding?
- 20:29 - 20:31
So how to do it,
- 20:31 - 20:33
you need to understand your funding need,
- 20:33 - 20:34
AKA
- 20:34 - 20:36
what you need to cover your costs.
- 20:37 - 20:38
To do this,
- 20:39 - 20:39
first,
- 20:39 - 20:41
go back to basics,
- 20:41 - 20:42
know what you want to deliver,
- 20:43 - 20:45
not just what you are delivering right now,
- 20:45 - 20:47
but what actually do you want to deliver.
- 20:47 - 20:48
Start with intention.
- 20:49 - 20:53
This should be grounded in your purpose because as charities and CICs,
- 20:53 - 20:55
we exist to have social impact.
- 20:56 - 20:57
And our purpose changes,
- 20:57 - 20:59
the context changes.
- 20:59 - 21:02
So we should have a strategy to determine what we're going to do
- 21:02 - 21:04
in the next period and why,
- 21:04 - 21:05
which is based on our knowledge,
- 21:06 - 21:07
our strengths and our principles.
- 21:08 - 21:09
Once we've got this in place,
- 21:09 - 21:10
we know what we're delivering,
- 21:11 - 21:12
we can create our delivery models.
- 21:13 - 21:15
What services are we going to provide?
- 21:17 - 21:18
Then,
- 21:18 - 21:20
you need to know all the costs of running your organization
- 21:21 - 21:23
based on that model you've just created of
- 21:23 - 21:25
the check you've just had through your strategy.
- 21:26 - 21:28
It can feel onerous to look at your strategy,
- 21:28 - 21:32
but it is really important to make sure that you're working in the best way possible
- 21:33 - 21:34
in for the context you're now in.
- 21:35 - 21:39
Now we're often very good at looking at all of the costs of running our organization,
- 21:39 - 21:41
but if we haven't had a check-in,
- 21:41 - 21:42
as often we look backwards,
- 21:42 - 21:45
we need to look forwards and make sure we know exactly what we need
- 21:46 - 21:46
um
- 21:46 - 21:49
moving forward for er our structure to work well.
- 21:52 - 21:55
Once we know the costs of running our organization,
- 21:55 - 21:58
we start thinking about the costs of running different services,
- 21:58 - 22:00
which should include
- 22:00 - 22:04
covering organizational running costs in the individual delivery costs.
- 22:04 - 22:06
So if you have 3 different projects,
- 22:07 - 22:10
they ideally will be contributing to the costs of running the organization
- 22:11 - 22:12
that are not about direct delivery,
- 22:13 - 22:17
things like insurance and governance and sometimes CEO costs.
- 22:18 - 22:19
And rent,
- 22:19 - 22:22
but they're really important because without those running costs,
- 22:22 - 22:24
the individual services won't run.
- 22:25 - 22:26
Now there are
- 22:26 - 22:30
several ways you can make sure that your running costs are covered.
- 22:31 - 22:31
One,
- 22:31 - 22:34
you can include them in your delivery costs
- 22:34 - 22:37
through core cost recovery or full cost recovery.
- 22:37 - 22:42
You might know this is applying a percentage fee on the end of any grant application,
- 22:42 - 22:44
and that can work,
- 22:44 - 22:50
but rarely does it work on its own because it's not always possible to achieve all of
- 22:50 - 22:54
the costs and also it misses opportunities to
- 22:54 - 22:57
generate more income from dumps on different services.
- 22:58 - 23:02
The next way you can do it is to have unrestricted funding for your running costs.
- 23:02 - 23:07
So you can decide we will apply to trusts and foundations for delivery costs
- 23:07 - 23:09
uh for all of our services,
- 23:09 - 23:10
but we're going to generate,
- 23:10 - 23:10
don't,
- 23:10 - 23:12
we're going to secure donations which are going
- 23:12 - 23:14
to cover our running costs as an organization.
- 23:15 - 23:17
Now you can do a mix of these things,
- 23:17 - 23:19
you can see where you think it will come from,
- 23:19 - 23:21
what you can generate through full cost recovery,
- 23:22 - 23:24
what you can generate through donations.
- 23:24 - 23:26
And the other thing you can do is to look at
- 23:26 - 23:30
what services you can deliver that can generate a surplus.
- 23:30 - 23:33
And these will be on the earned end of the income,
- 23:33 - 23:35
but they can really help you to
- 23:36 - 23:38
understand where more money can be made,
- 23:38 - 23:41
which can support other parts of the organization,
- 23:41 - 23:43
which might be more difficult to fund.
- 23:46 - 23:46
Ideally,
- 23:46 - 23:49
we're going to move away from those funds that don't
- 23:49 - 23:51
really work for us and don't really cover our costs.
- 23:52 - 23:53
But as we do that,
- 23:53 - 23:56
we need to acknowledge it's not a perfect situation,
- 23:56 - 23:58
er and we need to take it one step at a time.
- 23:59 - 24:01
What's important though is we know those costs
- 24:02 - 24:05
and we know that it's not acceptable not to achieve them,
- 24:05 - 24:07
because it makes our organizations not viable.
- 24:10 - 24:11
Now we consider
- 24:11 - 24:13
who will pay for a different services,
- 24:13 - 24:15
who are the people that fit with this?
- 24:16 - 24:18
Is this part of the service a good for trusts and foundations?
- 24:19 - 24:21
Are we a really good fit for corporate partners?
- 24:21 - 24:23
Is this a statutory responsibility?
- 24:23 - 24:26
Does it have an impact for statutory services?
- 24:26 - 24:29
We come on more to people who will pay for services shortly.
- 24:32 - 24:35
I really recommend looking for the common ground.
- 24:35 - 24:38
I talk a lot about alignment and that's what we want to do.
- 24:38 - 24:40
So know your audience at the moment,
- 24:40 - 24:43
who are the people that do support your work already,
- 24:43 - 24:44
who are your partners,
- 24:44 - 24:46
who are the people who receive your support,
- 24:47 - 24:48
and who are your funders already?
- 24:49 - 24:51
Look for those who are really your fans,
- 24:51 - 24:53
who support your way of working,
- 24:53 - 24:55
who have values alignment.
- 24:55 - 24:57
Look for those whose lives you make easier.
- 24:58 - 24:59
So that could be a corporate,
- 24:59 - 25:01
it could be statutory partners.
- 25:01 - 25:04
It could be other partners who you're working with,
- 25:04 - 25:07
who you're enabling things to happen by working with them.
- 25:07 - 25:08
Make sure you're placing value on it.
- 25:09 - 25:10
And you want those who have money
- 25:11 - 25:14
and finding alignment between those three things help
- 25:14 - 25:16
you determine where to focus your energy.
- 25:19 - 25:22
And then you want to design your cost and your
- 25:22 - 25:25
income model to match the potential sources of funding.
- 25:26 - 25:27
Now this is an iterative process.
- 25:28 - 25:29
It doesn't happen in this order,
- 25:29 - 25:31
12345,
- 25:32 - 25:34
because they all inform each other a little bit.
- 25:35 - 25:38
But having the different sections will help you determine
- 25:39 - 25:41
and check as you go through the process.
- 25:42 - 25:47
And it's really important as you design your income model and your cost model,
- 25:47 - 25:50
is to think about what it's worth to the person who's paying,
- 25:51 - 25:52
not just what it costs.
- 25:53 - 25:56
So often as charities we think only in terms
- 25:56 - 25:59
of restricted costs and working to the bare minimum.
- 25:59 - 26:03
And that's because a lot of funding encourages us to think that way.
- 26:03 - 26:04
Restricted funding
- 26:04 - 26:10
really asks us to go down to to the bare minimum and to justify every single penny.
- 26:10 - 26:13
And we should be accountable in what we spend,
- 26:13 - 26:16
we have to be for the charity commission and we should be mindful,
- 26:16 - 26:19
but we shouldn't need to be apologetic for spending
- 26:19 - 26:21
money in delivering the good work that we do.
- 26:22 - 26:24
And for some of the funding sources,
- 26:24 - 26:27
particularly thinking about paid for services,
- 26:28 - 26:31
the value that someone places on that product that you are providing
- 26:32 - 26:34
might be much more than what it actually costs you,
- 26:34 - 26:37
and that's your opportunity to generate surplus.
- 26:37 - 26:41
You don't need to justify every single penny to every single person,
- 26:42 - 26:44
you can achieve value for your work.
- 26:45 - 26:48
And I encourage you to reframe thinking about
- 26:48 - 26:51
profit or surplus because we can't make profit,
- 26:51 - 26:53
but we can make surplus in some services
- 26:54 - 26:57
because it will help us achieve value to deliver greater impact.
- 26:58 - 27:02
Any additional money you secure through any means is
- 27:02 - 27:05
all going to enable you to deliver better impact.
- 27:10 - 27:13
In creating your cost and your income model,
- 27:13 - 27:15
it is important to consider a few things.
- 27:16 - 27:17
Firstly,
- 27:17 - 27:18
they are part of the same puzzle.
- 27:20 - 27:22
Our cost model is how we,
- 27:22 - 27:25
how we cover all of our costs in the organization,
- 27:26 - 27:27
so how we cover the running costs,
- 27:28 - 27:30
how much it costs us to deliver a service,
- 27:30 - 27:31
how we're making sure that we
- 27:32 - 27:35
know all of that and our whole model fits together,
- 27:35 - 27:39
and our income model is where that costs are going to be covered from,
- 27:39 - 27:41
where is that funding coming from?
- 27:42 - 27:43
And that might
- 27:43 - 27:46
align directly with the costs if it's a grant,
- 27:46 - 27:52
but it might also er look slightly different if it is a earned service.
- 27:52 - 27:55
But they are part of the same model and we need to check them together.
- 27:55 - 27:57
We need to embrace the complexity.
- 27:58 - 28:00
It's going to continue to be um
- 28:01 - 28:04
a complex situation with different sources of income for different things,
- 28:05 - 28:09
but we've got to embrace it and design our models properly and intentionally
- 28:09 - 28:11
to be able to do this well.
- 28:11 - 28:15
And we need to get the balance right between accounting and fundraising
- 28:15 - 28:19
because accountants and finance specialists are very detail oriented,
- 28:20 - 28:23
often will look to the past to understand what we want to do next,
- 28:23 - 28:27
and we'll be all about having absolute scrutiny of every
- 28:27 - 28:30
single penny and what we're doing because that's their job.
- 28:30 - 28:33
Whereas fundraisers will be looking at opportunity,
- 28:33 - 28:35
they'll be looking at where we can generate income,
- 28:36 - 28:36
what we can do,
- 28:36 - 28:38
what is possible.
- 28:39 - 28:41
And you need a real balance between them,
- 28:41 - 28:44
because if you have too much focus from the finance side of you,
- 28:44 - 28:47
it really constrains you and you probably won't
- 28:47 - 28:49
really achieve the value that you can.
- 28:49 - 28:52
Whereas if you just work from a fundraising perspective,
- 28:52 - 28:55
then that was where the complexity can really come in
- 28:55 - 28:56
and you can start to get things
- 28:56 - 28:59
really confused because the fundraiser will be bringing
- 28:59 - 29:04
in all sorts of income without checking it against how that impacts on your costs,
- 29:04 - 29:04
uh,
- 29:04 - 29:07
and the overall financial picture for the organization.
- 29:07 - 29:08
So you want real balance there.
- 29:09 - 29:10
And I would recommend,
- 29:10 - 29:14
if you don't have a finance person or a fundraiser
- 29:14 - 29:16
looking how you can find um
- 29:16 - 29:18
space for them in your organization,
- 29:19 - 29:19
either through a.