STRATEGIC CONSULTING
Why would you need a consultant?
We work with both charity leaders and fundraisers who need to answer a range of strategic questions. In general, we help you with strategy, planning and problem solving.
You may need an external consultant to help if you need someone with specialist skills and experience to objectively review a situation, challenge or opportunity and make recommendations for action. You may also want help with implementing those actions.
You might not have the internal resources or skill set within your charity to tackle your project, goal or what you want to accomplish.
Some of the questions we have helped organisations to answer are:
What should our fundraising strategy be?
Is our organisational structure fit for purpose as we enter a period of significant growth?
Should our fundraising team be raising more net income? This tends to include associated questions around performance, structure and process.
What is the feasibility of us becoming a sustainable, independent charity if we leave our national umbrella organisation?
How do our peers/competitors fundraise, who supports them and what can we learn from them?
What is the opportunity for us to secure funding from statutory bodies and how would we do this?
How can we generate more unrestricted income?
Is it feasible for us to raise £5 million for our capital project?
How can we better demonstrate our impact?
What are the latest trends in major gift fundraising?
What is the funding landscape for digital transformation projects?
WHAT WE DO
We use our specialist sector knowledge and expertise, independent view and consulting experience, to help clients answer strategic questions that are unique to their situation.
Our work often includes undertaking desk research, conducting discrete interviews with internal and/or external stakeholders, facilitating workshops and providing insights or recommendations.
THE DELIVERABLES AND BENEFITS YOU RECEIVE
Each consulting project will meet the objectives we agree on at the start of the process. The deliverables and benefits you receive as a result will of course be unique to your consulting project.
Your deliverables may include a strategy with clear recommendations and actions, backed up with rationale and research. You may also require support with implementing some of the actions, although you may have in-house capacity for this. You may want us to train your team in implementing the new strategy or actions. In other cases, the output may only be a simple report with information, for example to enable you to present an internal case for increased resource or strategic changes.
The value of our consulting projects are often much greater than the output produced. For example, clients often describe intangible benefits such as improvements in their internal working relationships or improved morale.
WHY WORK WITH US?
We have provided our strategic consulting services to over 30 charities. We ask our clients for feedback on completion of our work and have received 100% positive responses on the quality of our work and the way we communicate with our clients, scored excellent by 84% and 76% respectively. 100% stated they would work with us again and over 90% would recommend us to others.
Our strategic consulting is led by Alex Blake, our founding director. Alex began his career in the charity sector with roles at St Christopher’s Hospice, ORBIS International, WaterAid and the National Autistic Society before establishing KEDA Consulting in 2013, which has worked with a diverse group of over 80 charities. Alex has shared his insights with the sector through a range of leading events and publications, including Institute of Fundraising Conferences, Civil Society Online, Fundraising Magazine, Charities Management and the European Fundraising Association. Alex is also co-chair of LD: North East and a founding trustee of Future Builders Uganda. Alex brings this extensive experience of working in and with organisations from small to large, local to global, to each of our consulting projects today.
Due to our commitment to quality and integrity, we guarantee that we will not farm out your project to an ‘associate’ as a number of consulting firms are known to do. The quality of consulting practice in our sector varies greatly and so we only deliver consulting projects through our core team of consultants. Alex oversees and is often the lead consultant on each consulting project. If we do not have the required skills and expertise to meet your needs, we will tell you and where possible signpost you to a trusted consultant who does.
As well as our consulting projects, which are usually short term by their nature, we also work with a group of charity clients on a regular basis. Alongside our board roles, this means that our consulting practice is not only grounded in knowledge and process but also benefits from our ongoing work in and with charities across a range of sectors.
We are passionate about social impact and only work with charitable organisations. This passion and our in depth understanding of our sector sets us apart from consulting firms who work with charities alongside private and public sector clients.
We have developed some core principles through which we deliver our strategic consulting service.
We communicate with candour, taking a non-authoritative approach to asking challenging questions to ensure that the root causes of issues are identified. We are experienced in working with you to bring out your knowledge and expertise to express vital aspects of a challenge or opportunity, to inform potential strategies and actions.
Effectiveness is vital to our success. We know that when you are investing in our support, we need to maximise the value you receive from it. We work with a laser focus on investing our time in the tasks that will return the best results in meeting our agreed objectives.
We only work with charities where we can make a difference by adding significant value – if our service is not the best solution to meet your needs, we will tell you. We live by our reputation, which is based on achieving results with integrity. We are committed to delivering and setting best practice by always learning about what works best for you and implementing continuous improvement in our services
SUCCESS STORIES
The KEDA Consulting team gave me an efficient service which met and exceeded my expectations. They gave us the headspace and objective view which we needed to drive forward our fundraising approach and realise greater success.
KEDA provided our group with impartial advice, guidance and direction and facilitated a process which led to organisations working together to very positive effect. Without KEDA's involvement this would not have been achieved. Your involvement was invaluable.
I found the review of our trust fundraising programme, that was completed by Alex, to be invaluable. It helped us to shape our focus and strengthen the team for the future.
KEDA have been an excellent partner for our charity and have played a key role over the last few years in supporting our growth strategy.
DO YOU QUALIFY?
To benefit from our service, you will need to meet the following requirements:
Your organisation is legally registered as a charitable organisation
You are able to agree on clear project objectives and deliverables
You are able to provide pertinent information on a timely basis and relevant stakeholders are committed to attending meetings/calls
Agreement to our standard terms, which will be provided upon agreement of the consulting project objectives and deliverables.
YOUR NEXT STEPS
If you meet our client requirements and would benefit from our strategic consulting service, schedule a call with Alex to discuss your specific needs.