Good Values brought together twenty CR directors to discuss the challenges and share their experiences in developing and embedding such measurement systems.

David Schofield, Group Head of Corporate Responsibility at Aviva, kicked off the evening presenting Aviva’s experiences in setting up measurement frameworks and embedding them within the ‘Street to School’ programme to effectively measure both the social and business benefits from their global community flagship initiative. He discussed some of the challenges that were encountered, such as establishing a framework for a global initiative that was also relevant and applicable to all local contexts. He also shared some of the positive results that Aviva has gained from measuring both the social and business benefits such as the community impacts, employee engagement scores and reputational benefits amongst key stakeholders.

Good Values outlined from their experience common challenges that corporates face when measuring such benefits and embedding a consistent measurement system globally or across divisions. A facilitated discussion amongst the CR professionals followed and the Big Thinkers discussed ways in which they had tried to tackle some of the common obstacles, which proved very helpful to the others present. One of the key areas of debate was the balance some companies were taking between measuring ‘values and value’. For the majority, both were required, but the balance was often determined by the different stakeholders. There was discussion around the importance of prioritising your measurement and the need for a focus, otherwise there is a risk of paralysis by trying to measure everything. This links back to understanding what is important to your key stakeholders.

This is a short summary of the full discussion. If you would like to know more, please contact us.

The evening was opened by a presentation from Peter Bull (Head of HSBC in the Community) and Jacquie Irvine (Co-Founder, Good Values). Peter has worked at HSBC for over 30 years, and has spent the last ten years as Head of HSBC in the Community. Over that period he has reviewed thousands of funding proposals from charities. Much of his work in 2011 focused on seeking a new flagship charity partner for HSBC, with significant investment planned. Good Values was appointed to create this new flagship community investment initiative for HSBC including identifying suitable charity partners and managing selection process.

The presentation provided an overview of why HSBC invests in the community as well as some key insights into what HSBC was looking for in a flagship partner. Peter described what a strong programme and good fit between a charity and a company looks like (from HSBC’s perspective), as well as some key recommendations on how to build a relationship and impress a potential corporate partner during the application process. Jacquie provided an insight into the HSBC process, including how Good Values helped HSBC to define which cause area its new programme would focus on, as well as the partner selection process. Jacquie gave an overview of how the long list of charities was developed, and how the charities were assessed in the subsequent Request for Information (RFI), Request for Proposals (RFP) and face-to-face pitch stages.

The Q&A session and facilitated discussion highlighted a number of key issues faced by Corporate Fundraisers when pitching for major corporate partnerships. The ‘Big Thinkers’ debated whether some cause areas – those that are ‘less attractive’ – will always struggle to win major corporate partnerships such as the one with HSBC. It was generally felt that where there is a staff vote, certain causes or brands still see greater success, but that times are changing and a number of high profile companies are deliberately selecting causes that have traditionally had less mass appeal e.g. Tesco and Alzheimer’s Society. In terms of the HSBC process, a range of potential cause areas were researched in depth by Good Values and tested both internally and externally. It was important that the cause area addressed a real societal need, provided a strong fit with HSBC’s values base, and gave differentiation in a crowded marketplace. The HSBC process did not involve a staff vote but during the internal consultation HSBC staff specifically said that the programme of work – not the charity brand – was of most interest to them.

Whether to involve beneficiaries in face-to-face pitches was another key topic, both HSBC and Good Values advised that if managed appropriately, this can be a very powerful way of bringing the cause and proposed programme to life.

The Big Thinkers gave their perspective on being part of corporate selection processes; generally it was felt that deadlines can be unrealistic, and that meeting high demands for employee volunteering is difficult. There was an interesting subsequent debate about employee volunteering and the challenges that charities face in meeting corporate demands, as well as the costs associated with this.

This is only a short summary of the full discussion. If you would like to know more about this ‘Big Thinkers’ discussion, or our other ‘Big Thinkers’ events, please contact us.

Twenty fundraising professionals were invited by Good Values to attend a “Big Thinkers” Round Table for NGO Fundraising Directors to discuss the role of innovation in fundraising, share their own experiences and try to find solutions to any difficulties they may have encountered with regard to innovation.

The evening began with an inspiring presentation by Gavin Coopey, ex Director of Innovation at CRUK, which highlighted the key role that innovation plays in the future success of any organisation. He outlined ways in which innovation can be incorporated into all areas of a charity – not just in the fundraising departments – through an organisation’s strategy, culture and processes. This would result in increasing efficiency and inspiring a more creative approach to solving problems and creating successful future campaigns.

Good Values then shared their experiences and insights, and facilitated a discussion. A key subject for debate was the way in which it was possible to change the internal culture of an organisation to promote innovation. This included effective methods of securing senior management buy-in and also adopting an incremental approach which can demonstrate early success and encourages support to innovation within the organisation. Evidencing and demonstrating previous success is also crucial– and “making it real” helps to properly understand and test the concept.

This is a short summary of the full discussion. If you would like to know more, please contact us.

Our next NGO “Big Thinkers” Round Table will be held at the RSA in Spring 2012. If you would like to attend, and/or have any suggestions for future discussion topics please let us know.

Good Values opened the evening with a summary of findings from its recent corporate volunteering report. This in depth qualitative research, which interviewed 30+ companies, aimed to provide practical insights into how corporate volunteering programmes are delivered, and evidence-based learnings to help corporate volunteering practitioners with the development of their own programmes.

Following this, Rachel Allan (former UK Community Strategy & Development Manager, Barclays) gave an insight into corporate volunteering at Barclays. Rachel outlined why volunteering is a priority for the business and what has ensured the programme’s a success – 40% of Barclays employees engaged in volunteering last year.

The final presentation from our panel of speakers was from Colin Jones, former Director of Youth Volunteering at the London Development Agency. He gave a perspective on the political imperatives and social drivers for the Mayor’s Office Team London initiative, and highlighted the challenges and opportunities that embedding a new volunteering programme within an organisation presents.

After a Q&A session, Good Values facilitated a general discussion about corporate volunteering. This highlighted a number of key issues and challenges faced by those responsible for delivering corporate volunteering programmes.

The ‘Big Thinkers’ debated the impact of traditional volunteering (e.g. gardening/decorating) verses skills-based volunteering. They shared ideas on sourcing skills-based volunteering activities, increasing skills-based volunteering, and how to ensure the right balance of types of volunteering opportunities within a corporate programme. This led to a discussion around NGO capacity and the challenges that companies face in partnering with NGOs on volunteering programmes (equally recognising the issues that companies’ demands for volunteering opportunities can place on NGOs). There was a feeling that this is the time for a sea-change, where companies and NGOs can work together to co-create volunteering programmes.

Securing the support of senior management and the challenge of truly embedding volunteering within an organisation was another key topic of conversation, with examples of how companies have ensured this.

Measurement and reporting also featured highly in the debate. Most CR leaders are struggling to capture data on their volunteering programmes and many senior managers are still only interested in the ‘big’ metrics such as number of hours volunteered. It was noted that whilst measuring business and community impacts is key to those running the programmes, it is more difficult to capture this type of data.

This is only a short summary of the full discussion. If you would like to know more about this ‘Big Thinkers’ discussion, or our other ‘Big Thinkers’ events, please contact us.

The evening began with motivating presentations from Tom Lawson, CEO at Leap Confronting Conflict, and Sandra Osborne, Director of External Affairs & Knowledge at Sense. Tom talked of his experiences of fundraising for difficult causes at smaller charities, and Sandra then looked at these challenges in larger organisations. Both shared their experiences as well as strategies for overcoming the difficulties involved.

The lively round-table session that followed covered a number of important subjects – including Good Values’ critical success factors for innovation.

A key topic for conversation was thought leadership and the need for organisations, large and small, to focus on a single issue to “own” and “ be famous for”. In particular, there was interesting debate about how most charities and causes have their challenges – and that it’s therefore important to be positive, to focus on the areas where you are most likely to maximise your return on investment, and to be ruthless about not spending time on those where you are less likely to succeed. Alongside this, audience insight and an outstanding stewardship programme were both factors that were deemed essential.

Finally, there was discussion on how it was more critical than ever for charities in difficult sectors to ensure their brand is helping not hindering fundraising efforts. Some also find they need to think about re-branding their entire issue if it is widely misunderstood. Before this can happen, it was noted that it was vital first to get internal communications right, before expecting you can communicate successfully with the outside world.

This is a short summary of the full discussion. If you would like to know more, please contact us.

Such was the level of interest in this topic, that the initial session was repeated to enable more CR leaders to participate – a total of 25 across the two events.

Sally Shire, previously Aviva’s Global Brand Director and now CEO at the Consortium for Street Children, opened each evening by sharing the successful launch of Aviva’s inspirational ‘Street to School’ global community programme, detailing their journey, the elements of the programme and its full integration into their new global brand campaign, ‘You are the Big Picture’.

After a Q&A session on Aviva’s programme, Good Values facilitated a general discussion about how best to deliver returns from CR. The ‘Big Thinkers’ believed the next big thing for CR as a discipline, was to help companies and brands move from ‘value’ to ‘values’. This unsurprisingly quickly focused on the need for CR departments to build stronger links with brand/marketing and product development functions if a company/brand is to be truly aligned with its CR agenda and be seen to live its values. It was also noted that success relies on managing expectations, agreeing the right objectives and jointly planning the measurement metrics which will demonstrate the impact of the investment.

The ‘Big Thinkers’ also debated the need for CR to strike a balance between a single focused cause, and a range of “local” causes that resonate with employees.

Finally, there was discussion about the difficulties in finding a meaningful measurement framework that meets the needs of different stakeholders and includes hard numbers and the ‘stories’. It was noted that a comprehensive framework can give local flexibility whilst ensuring a clear global focus, that provides the ability to quickly and simply gather data for CR reports at a global level.

This is only a short summary of the full discussion. If you would like to know more about this ‘Big Thinkers’ discussion, please contact us at sue@goodvalues.co.uk

Our next CR ‘Big Thinkers’ Round Table will be in June 2011. If you would like to attend, and/or have any suggestions for future discussion topics please let us know.

At Good Values’ first ‘Big Thinkers’ Round Table for NGO Fundraising Directors, twenty senior fundraising professionals came together to share their experiences and insights as they explored these questions.

Jo Swinhoe, Director of Fundraising & Marketing at Alzheimer’s Society, kicked off the evening by sharing the story of the Alzheimer’s Society’s fundraising growth – detailing their journey, some key principles and focus areas. Good Values then presented the findings from Fundraising Monitor (our recent annual survey of fundraising directors) and facilitated an open discussion.

The discussion confirmed the changing position of fundraising within many NGOs. Whilst fundraising is still sidelined within many organisations, there is a real sense that in a number of others, fundraising is being regarded as more central – and fundraising leaders are responsible for leading this change. Personal leadership is critical not only in team development – but also in helping to get buy-in and engagement from the rest of the organisation. Without this, fundraising will not achieve its full potential.

Another key area for discussion was the growing importance of impact measurement and the barriers and challenges being faced. Some innovative solutions were being developed as fundraising departments were working in partnership with, and even leading operational colleagues in creating tools to capture and demonstrate impact and value.

Finally, the discussion confirmed some of the other key areas that were critical for success –creating a cut-through case for support, investment and innovation.

The session finished with a challenge to participants to “score” themselves and their own organizations on progress in delivering on these ‘fundraising fundamentals’.

This is only a short summary of the full discussion. If you would like to know more about this ‘Big Thinkers’ discussion or our ‘Fundraising Monitor’ research findings, please contact us at sue@goodvalues.co.uk.

Our next NGO ‘Big Thinkers’ Round Table will be held at the RSA on July 25th 2011. If you would like to attend, and/or have any suggestions for future discussion topics please let us know.

‘You are the Big Picture’ will utilise traditional advertising and social media as well as seeing landmark buildings in London, Paris, Warsaw, Singapore, Delhi and Mumbai wrapped in portraits which celebrate and recognise the people who are most important to Aviva- customers, employees, business partners and communities.

‘Street to School’, Aviva’s global flagship community initiative is fully integrated into the global brand campaign which features street children in India who are being helped through Aviva’s community programme.

To raise money to help the ‘Street to School’ projects in India, Aviva is offering people all over the world the chance to upload their photograph through www.youarethebigpicture.com and be projected onto a landmark building in one of the six cities to have their own moment of recognition. For the first 250,000 photos uploaded by the public, Aviva will donate £1 per photo to support street children in India.

Good Values has worked with Aviva to create and help implement their global community initiative ‘Street to School’ which is being rolled out across the 28 countries they have business in. It is a five year commitment which aims to help half a million children living and working on the street.

To read more about ‘Street to School’ www.youarethebigpicture.com/street-to-school

Good Values has worked closely with Barclaycard for four years, helping to advise and support them on maximising the impact and effectiveness of their Horizons programme. Horizons is a partnership that brings together the knowledge and expertise of three charities (Citizens Advice Bureau, Family Action and Gingerbread) to offer a comprehensive approach to tackling the poverty faced by single-parent families. The programme covers debt advice and financial literacy training, grants for education and training and an employability programme under the three strands of– Your Money, Your Education and Your Work.

Anand Shukla, business director at the Daycare Trust and one of the judges, said: “There was an impressive range of partners and variety of sectors involved. What was also impressive was the scale of the project and how the partners were making a very tangible difference.”

For more information on Horizons www.yourhorizons.com

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