CASE STUDIES
COLLABORATIVE COMMUNITY INVESTMENT MODEL
CLIENT PROFILE:
Large multinational employing people in the UK and Ireland
CHALLENGE:
To align volunteering and CSR more closely with the company's purpose
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WHAT WE DID:
Redesigned company’s CSR model, taking a collaborative, locally-funded approach. Gained buy-in from all stakeholders.
Set up a ‘community investment’ fund, as well as new governance structure.
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IMPACT:
Set up grant making capabilities, supporting education, community, health and environmental volunteering
(21 projects funded in Y1).
Annual reporting and impact measurement embedded into new structure.
Met employee fundraising targets for national charity.
Improved employee engagement and made CSR more visible.
NATIONAL CHARITY PARTNERSHIPS
CLIENT PROFILE:
EMEA operation of global investment bank.
CHALLENGE:
Identify new charity partner following successful three-year relationship with children’s hospital. Get employee buy-in and overcome pockets of resistance. Ensure partner complements company ethos and community strategy.
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WHAT WE DID:
Created transparent selection process with committee representing each division responsible for determining shortlist. Ran week-long employee engagement campaign and voting process. Oversaw implementation of new partnership including fundraising event management.
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IMPACT:
Delivered £1m fundraising target.
High-level of employee engagement with both new charity and existing partner.
Employees regularly volunteered at charity as well as raised money for them.
TACKLING STEM TALENT PIPELINE THROUGH VOLUNTEERING
CLIENT PROFILE:
Large multinational employing 20,000 people in the UK and Ireland
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CHALLENGE:
Move the needle on diversity of STEM talent entering the business.
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WHAT WE DID:
Carried out review including mapping existing partnerships & best practice.
Worked with key contacts across diverse businesses to create a co-ordinated approach to STEM outreach.
Identified areas of focus that matched business priorities e.g. digital skills & diversity.
Identified strategic partnerships to broaden reach and impact.
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IMPACT:
4,500 girls taken part in flagship volunteering programme.
Gender parity reached on key engineering leadership scheme (2017).
VOLUNTEERING ASÂ LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT
CLIENT PROFILE:
Multi-national banking group
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CHALLENGE:
To build a business case that recognises and formalises the value of volunteering to support business learning and development needs and to address the lack of coherence to the range of community activities.
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WHAT WE DID:
Reviewed the current situation of relevant business areas to gain insight into priorities and gaps surrounding L&D and volunteering through desk review and stakeholder interviews.
Developed a business case that supported the integration of volunteering into the L&D agenda by mapping the range of volunteering opportunities against specific skills, building on pride, culture and employee engagement. Iterated a user-centred framework including metrics for employee development and community impact.
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IMPACT:
Volunteering embedded into the L&D strategy, measurably supporting business needs and charity partners are supported more effectively.
TACKLING YOUTH VIOLENCE THROUGH PEACE-BUILDING LIFE SKILLS
CLIENT PROFILE:
International development agency running three-year programme to reduce youth violence in Panama formed public-private partnerships to fund a life skills curriculum for the Panamanian Ministry of Education.
CHALLENGE:
Youth violence in Panama is exacerbated by a lack of opportunities for vulnerable young people to develop skills and competencies for a life of peace, healthy
lifestyles, positive relationships, good citizenship and constructive decisions. The clients had previously unsuccessfully commissioned three teams of consultants to design a life skills curriculum in the public secondary school system.
WHAT WE DID:
Set up inclusive, user-centred journey plan to co-design methodology and content with young people, educators and youth development specialists. Incorporated positive and developmental psychology, restorative practices, experiential learning and the arts to write a six-volume series of theory and lesson plans for teachers and facilitators. Developed train the trainer programme to build capacity in Ministry of Education.
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IMPACT:
Programme adopted in all Panamanian public schools, reaching over 700k young people
Youth centres in Panama’s most vulnerable communities adopting programme.
Telefonica adapted training to eLearning now running in all its Latin American locations.
ADVISING SOCIAL ENTERPRISE START-UP
CLIENT PROFILE:
Group of young men who renounced their former lives of gang violence and wanted to set up a social enterprise.
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CHALLENGE:
Based on their own experiences, the client had devised film-based workshops to deter young people from following the path of gang violence. To succeed in this endeavour, they would need to learn about non-profit management from scratch, persuade people of their credibility, gain trust, and attract their first funding.
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WHAT WE DID:
Coached client to clarify mission, determine organisational structure and develop workshop content. Identified potential funders, liaised with them & other stakeholders, wrote bids and proposals.
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IMPACT:
Client successfully set up as a social enterprise.
Attracted seed funding from The Funding Network, William Wates Memorial Trust and Big Lottery
Pilot workshops ran in three local Birmingham schools.
Two employees on payroll and eight others paid for service delivery.
SYSTEMATISING WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT AND TRAINING PROGRAMME
CLIENT PROFILE:
Non-profit that protects heritage of Panama’s Casco Antiguo, or old town, through community, education and conservation.
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CHALLENGE:
For eight years, the charity had been running an eight-week women’s empowerment programme, but each time a facilitator moved on, they had to reinvent that subject. The Board wanted to systematise the programme to expand its reach and to safeguard and improve its methodology.
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WHAT WE DID:
We designed a participatory process involving and interviewing all stakeholder groups, from participants to facilitators and board members. We observed the methodology in practice, gathered existing and new material, benchmarked best practice, gathered a team of experts to write dynamic facilitator manuals and participant workbooks, designed impact evaluation methodology and a train the trainer model for replication in other regions.
IMPACT:
Improved methodology
Maintains consistency in programme quality and less dependence on individual facilitators or charity employees.
Measuring impact now possible for future improvement and attracting further engagement and funding.
More effective and efficient internal processes.
Saved time, money and energy
More than doubled the number of women reached in less than two years.
Expanded to a new location in first year.
SUPPORTING CHILDREN OF CANCER PATIENTS IN PUBLIC HOSPITALS
CLIENT PROFILE:
High net-worth family who lost a daughter to cancer and sought to honour her legacy.
CHALLENGE:
Due to the vulnerability of care, Panama’s public oncological hospital does not allow entry to children under 14. With low-income patients travelling for treatment from across the country, a lack of childcare options means children travel with them with no choice but to wait for their parent outside the hospital, unsupervised and uncertain about their parent’s condition.
WHAT WE DID:
Supported family in setting up a foundation, defined the project’s mission and facilitated a partnership with Panaman’s largest cancer charity. Designed the programme, backed by research and global best practice, and strategy for launch.
IMPACT:
Established the country’s first centre for psychosocial support to children of cancer patients.