Background

Founded in 2017, NEYDL is an award-winning and community led charity that seeks to improve the lives and prospects of disadvantaged young fathers and expectant dads and in so doing to improve the outcomes for children, families and communities.

The charity’s founder and CEO had been successful in securing a number of large grants in the first few years, which had enabled NEYDL to deliver some great work and become established as a charity with a team of staff, which included young Dads who had moved from being beneficiaries to volunteers and on to paid members of staff supporting other young Dads.

We were asked to help develop a fundraising strategy that would enable the charity to take the next step forward in its ambitions for growth. The two main objectives were to grow annual income and to diversify income to reduce the risk associated with relying on a small number of large grants.

During this work it became apparent that while the charity had a clear understanding of the need it addresses, its approach and its outcomes; it hadn’t yet articulated its vision, mission or an organisational strategic plan, so our work was expanded to also develop the vision, mission and strategy.

Process

We undertook a strategy development process with NEYDL’s management, trustees and staff, including meaningful engagement with people with lived experience of the issue.

In the information and analysis stage of the process, we built on work the charity had already undertaken (e.g. prior reports on the sector and workshops on delivery and impact) by reviewing existing internal documentation; holding 1-2-1 and group discussions and undertaking research to understand the external environment.

We shared our findings and insights from this research and analysis to set the context for a series of workshops to explore key topics for the organisational strategic plan and the fundraising strategy, including vision, mission, needs, opportunities, ambition, scalable operating models and services, resourcing requirements and structure.

Following the workshops, we shared a write up of our notes and then worked with the CEO to develop further detail for the strategic plan and the fundraising strategy, which we co-presented to the staff team and the board, providing a further opportunity for discussion.

Outcome

The charity will now move forward towards a shared vision by implementing a strategic plan with clear measures of success, supported by a robust fundraising strategy that is ambitious but realistic. Importantly, resource recommendations have been accepted by the board, such as contracting a fundraiser, which will free up the CEO’s time so that they can focus on leading implementation of the strategic plan and developing relationships with public sector partners, which will be key to the charity’s growth and long-term sustainability.