• Most recent donation: Brighter Futures, the charity for Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
• Helpforce, founded by Sir Tom Hughes-Hallett to accelerate the growth and impact of volunteering in health and care. 
• Impactful training programmes: Cranfield MBA; Harvard Business School course – strategic perspectives in nonprofit management.
• Day to day resources – blogs that are thought provoking, including:
  • Steve Allman
  • Joe Saxton
  • NfP Research
  • Health Service Journal digest (for NHS specific issues).
• Structuring work and life – impact of wfh = 25 hours per week of commuting saved, more time to think, more time for the team; more time for life; thinking space is as important as working space – cycling a good place to do that, where the more creative ideas and problem solving happens.
• Prioritisation of relationships over tasks – external facing e.g. relationships with funders and looking after team members. After that, most of the to do list isn’t as urgent as it might feel. Build in time to decompress.
• Becoming a partner at an accountancy firm at 32 and thinking is this it for the next 30 years, to making an impact at the RVS – opening up the incredible world of volunteering.
• “I thought I’d do it for a year or two then go back into accountancy but within weeks of visiting projects at the RVS I knew I was never going to look back”
• Turning £3m into an annual profit share revenue stream and a £15m sale through an early social enterprise investment for RVS.
• Training as a charity income stream – “it is very difficult to make a significant income stream from training, despite notable exceptions like St John’s Ambulance and Red Cross first aid training … a lot of training departments in charities say they can make money from training but I’ve never seen a significant income stream making a significant margin”
• 13 years at RVS, 6 in my first CEO role, then 12 years of happy challenging years at the National Autistic Society (NAS) before beginning the Helpforce journey. Reflecting on 3 different CEO roles (from 4,000 staff at NAS to 18 at Helpforce). Importance of alignment with the vision and mission – even more so in a smaller organisation. The impact of mission creep. The closeness of trustees to the executive team – more of a significant resource to a smaller charity.
• “If I went back to being a large charity CEO I would do it differently following my experience at Helpforce.”
• “I would say no to more things”
• Inefficiency arises from layers of communication; getting lost in translation; losing efficiency.
• “Greater clarity brings greater impact.”
• How the NAS achieved the first ever piece of disability specific legislation – the Autism Act – clear strategy, excellent teamwork, perseverance, lobbying, relationship building, grassroots support from families and more.
• Making it easy for people to say yes to your proposal.
• The devastating consequences of service failure – abuse of people in care. What went wrong. Big lessons. Reducing the chance of it happening again.
• Charities have tremendous knowledge of how support should be provided in the areas they work. They are not consulted enough in service design by Government.
• Financial sustainability in the sector.
• The power of small local charities to mobilise community support e.g. during the pandemic – hoping we don’t lose the sense of reliance on those charities and the way funding restrictions were rolled back. The crisis we face now with the cost of living, waiting lists and issues getting GP appointments – we need these charities now and they need to be trusted with unrestricted funding.
• Should Government funds be invested less in statutory services and more in local charities who can make an impact now and ultimately prevent the need for acute services later. There is a clear business case.
• Advice for aspiring CEOs – ensure it’s a cause you’re passionate about the cause. External communication is such a big part of the role. You have to feel it. Take more trustee roles – you can learn a lot from that side.
• The Back to Health campaign – we are asking health and care organisations to create high-impact volunteering opportunities at scale that can help one million people to get more support in the hospital, community and at home. We want you (local NHS and voluntary sector organisations) to benefit from our expertise, tools and resources. Check out the web page to find out more about how you can get involved.
• “Through this campaign, we want to start a national conversation to raise awareness of the huge impact of volunteering on our health and care system and to encourage more organisations to look at volunteers as an integral part of their health and care pathway.”

You can find Mark on Twitter @Mark_HelpForce and the Helpforce website is helpforce.community.