Supporting Small Charities to achieve their potential

Why hire an external consultant?

Small charities sometimes struggle to develop and transform due to time, staffing, financial, and knowledge restraints.

Strategic planning is essential for long term sustainability of a voluntary sector organisation, but is often relegated to the bottom of the priority list when staff and volunteers are attempting to provide a support service on limited resources.

Hiring a consultant, with experience and expertise, will bring an external perspective to the operations of your charity without the need to invest in developing the permanent staffing team.

Supporting small / medium charities and community groups to achieve their full potential

Why hire an external consultant?

Charities and community groups sometimes struggle to develop and transform due to time, staffing, financial, and knowledge restraints.

Strategic planning is essential for long term sustainability of a voluntary sector organisation, but is often relegated to the bottom of the priority list when staff and volunteers are attempting to provide a support service on limited resources.

Hiring a consultant, with experience and expertise, will bring an external perspective to the operations of your charity without the need to invest in developing the permanent staffing team.

Ensuring your charity is compliant

A vital component of organisational effectiveness is ensuring compliance with legislation.

Trustees are legally responsible for ensuring that charitable funds are properly used. Trustees are the custodians of their charities, they are publicly accountable, and have legal duties and responsibilities under charity law to safeguard their charity, its funds and property.

Acting as a 'Critical Friend'

A 'Critical Friend' can be defined as someone who is encouraging and supportive, but who also provides honest and often candid feedback that may be uncomfortable or difficult to hear.

In short, a critical friend is someone who agrees to speak truthfully, but constructively, about weaknesses, problems, and emotionally charged issues.

I understand that every charity, or community group, is unique and will, therefore, have different needs and budgets.

I know that running a small charity with big ambitions can be challenging and exhausting.

I also know that a voluntary organisation has the ability to provide extremely effective support services for the local community given the right leadership and ethos.

I can adapt my services in order to ensure the most effective support for your organisation, for as long as you need it.

I can assist with a variety of issues from the writing of a policy to mentoring the staff, volunteer or trustee teams.

I have extensive experience of the Voluntary Sector including ten years as the Chief Executive of a successful charity, and currently, as a Trustee of the Wiltshire Community Foundation.

What makes Phoenix Charity Consultancy Unique?

Unlike other charity consultants, I will not simply write and deliver a report to your charity with the expectation that you have the resources to do the work yourself.

I will, initially, carry out a basic organisational health check and advise you on any issues that I find and suggest subsequent remedies.

I strongly believe in providing a long term support package to an organisation, whereby I will actually assist you with the implementation of any recommendations I make. This may well involve writing additional policies, devising risk assessments, setting up a volunteer recruitment process, developing staff performance management tools, carrying out a trustee skills analysis, or writing a staff handbook etc