Archive for the ‘Civil Society Groups’ Category

Civil Society > Case Studies

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

Malaria No More UK

Service Area: Strategy Development, Fundraising Strategy

Malaria No More UK has been one of the most successful launches of a new international charity in recent years. Firetail has worked with MNM(UK) since its launch from initial business planning and budgeting, through to project management.

  • Business planning and budgets
  • Fundraising strategy
  • New media
  • Programme management

Global Campaign for Education

Service Area: Campaign Evaluation

Firetail conducted the mid-term review for the Global Campaign for Education, a global coalition with around 5 million participants in 50 countries. The coalition has a 15-year remit to campaign on the UN’s Education For All goals.

Firetail:

  • analysed the relationship between GCE’s activity and changes in policy and social outcomes over the period of the campaign;
  • assessed the strengths and weaknesses of GCE’s operations;
  • drew insights from GCE’s group of stakeholders, board members and employees, who were based in countries across the world and had very different perspectives; and
  • provided recommendations on how GCE should approach the second half of it’s term

Our final report to the World Assembly can be downloaded here

Society of Archivists

Service Areas: Market analysis, Merger planning

Several groups representing professionals in the archive and record management sector were concerned that they were duplicating effort and confusing their members and stakeholders.
Firetail:

  • reviewed the remits and activities of each group;
  • surveyed the groups’ members, executives and boards to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each group and issues in the sector;
  • benchmarked the groups against comparable sectors; and
  • recommended a merger and a plan for carrying it out.

As a result, the groups are now in the process of a formal merger. Progress on the merger can be found here.

Make Poverty History

Service Area: Campaign Evaluation

Make Poverty History was one of the largest and most successful mobilisations of civil society. It used a range of innovative techniques to engage a new constituency of supporters. We gathered and analysed views from a full range of observers and stakeholders, including ministers and special advisors, as the official end of campaign evaluation for MPH.

The report can be downloaded here

Cancer Research UK

Service Area: Fundraising strategy

Based on the organisation’s goals, a clear analysis of the macroeconomic environment, operational reviews, supporter segmentation and organisational structures, we developed a fundraising strategy that set a five year agenda for the charity.

This work resulted in a strategic re-organisation, significant investment in systems and the acquisition of new capabilities.

We worked hard to translate the aims of the strategy into simple, but meaningful themes for managers to incorporate into their planning work. We also used this framework to drive a programme of work to support the implementation of the most critical elements of the strategy.

Translating these strategic intents into operational plans required robust analysis, strong communication skills, wide engagement across the organisation and monitoring systems that tracked progress without inhibiting the development of good ideas.

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Civil Society > Our Services

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

On this page, you can learn more about the services we offer to civil society clients.

  • Strategy Development
  • Business Development and Marketing Strategy
  • Fundraising Strategy
  • Public Engagement and Campaign Evaluation
  • Mergers and Integration Planning

Strategy Development

For us, strategy comes first. A good strategy is informed by an understanding of your desired goals, the realities of your organisation and the world in which it operates. It should be clear enough to communicate internally and externally, giving everyone a framework for decision-making. It should help you understand the trade-offs you make as an organisation and when to say no. It should be realistic but ambitious and translate into a plan that you can achieve.

We have led strategy development for small pre-launch NGOs and the largest charities in the country. We have facilitated short ‘quick-hit’ strategy workshops with senior management and long-term engagements working with whole organisations.

In all of these cases, a new strategy delivers a clear sense of direction, priorities for action and renewed sense of purpose.

Our work in this area covers issues such as:

  • Strategy development
  • Strategic and operational reviews
  • Linking strategy to action
  • Senior stakeholder engagement
  • Communicating strategy

Business Development and Marketing Strategy

More and more civil society organisations are delivering services, either directly to beneficiaries or through long-term contracts. Once in this position, they start to think about expansion into new products, markets or regions. Without proper planning, this is dangerous territory. For any organisation delivering services, it is vital to think properly about customers, propositions and markets.

Firetail can help by putting in place the building blocks of a solid business plan. We work with you to assemble the evidence you need to grow with confidence. Our work in this area includes:

  • Market and feasibility studies
  • Customer and stakeholder engagement
  • Proposition development
  • Market research
  • Business planning

Fundraising Strategy

Organisations reliant upon fundraising, philanthropy and voluntary giving know that conditions are tough and getting tougher. Existing lines are delivering lower revenue and the remaining growth areas, such as corporate donations, have become highly competitive. Acquisition remains as difficult as ever.

A strategic approach can identify opportunities to increase the returns from an existing portfolio.

Whilst growth is difficult with traditional fundraising approaches, most charities have opportunities to squeeze more value from their existing portfolio and focus on profitable lines.

It should also position you for the longer term, delivering the innovation and new models of fundraising required to grow charity income. This is a time of innovation, with venture philanthropy and new forms of social finance offering interesting new avenues for funding.

For clients looking at their fundraising strategy, we offer the following services:

  • Market reviews and analysis
  • Portfolio reviews, including customer lifecycle modelling
  • Fundraising line strategies
  • Innovation strategy
  • Supporter engagement planning

Public Engagement & Campaign Evaluation

Campaigning and public mobilisation are important tools for civil society. However, campaign evaluation is often an afterthought to an intensive, highly charged period of activity. It can feel like a tick-box exercise and doesn’t always inform the way campaigns are run in the future. We believe that a structured approach to evaluation can make sure that the lessons you learned during a campaign are captured and that people take notice of them.

Firetail has conducted independent campaign evaluations for coalitions, campaigns and other organisations involved in advocacy for change. We completed the official campaign evaluation for the Make Poverty History coalition (download here) and the official Mid-Term Review for the Global Campaign for Education (download here) . In addition, we recently addressed an OECD Seminar on successful campaign evaluation and participated in the NPC working group on advocacy evaluation.

Our approach to evaluation:

  • Focusses on actionable analysis;
  • Encourages campaigners to reflect on their experience and also builds buy-in to the output;
  • Builds an understanding of which factors contributed to the success of the campaign, and which were within your control; and
  • Uses evaluators you can trust to take an objective view and handle sensitive issues.

We offer specialist advice, strategy development and project management to organisations working on public engagement and participation. This has included working with Oxfam GB on campaigning and activism and Stop Climate Chaos on communications and strategy development. We worked with Bristol City Council and Friends of the Earth to develop an award-winning online campaign tool (www.campaigncreator.org) to promote community activism.

Mergers and Integration Planning

Mergers between charities are becoming more common.

Some of the country’s highest profile charities, including Cancer Research UK and Livability, are the products of mergers. According to the Charity Commission, 5% of charities are the result of mergers in the past 10 years.

We believe that this trend is set to continue due to a range of pressures

  • More competition for supporters
  • Public service contracts requiring large charities
  • Economies of scale

We help charities in the planning and implementation of a merger or other strategic partnership. Our services include:

  • Market Analysis: Understanding the context for joint working
  • Option Analysis: Finding the most beneficial future state
  • Operational Due Diligence: Evaluation and planning the change
  • Financial Modelling: Developing new budgets and financial scenarios
  • Implementation: Programme management and delivery

More Information

For more information about any of our work in these areas, please contact us.

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Civil Society > Overview

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

Strategy is important.

Charities and civil society groups need to approach strategic planning with the same rigour and discipline as private sector organisations.

Successful organisations take the time to develop a clear point of view about the future and their place in it.

Civil Society groups need to understand their external landscape, their stakeholders, their strengths and their weaknesses. In a world of limited resources, they need to make the most of their assets.

Firetail has served organisations from global coalitions to small social enterprises, helping them develop robust strategies and plans.

Among our services, we offer long-term strategy development, support with fundraising and marketing, core service reviews, business planning and financial modelling.

Our support is clear, practical and always based on strong evidence.

To learn more about our work, read about the services we offer and some recent client case studies.

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