New Charity Management Month
First of its kind, focussed on sharing learning and development opportunities for charity managers and leaders
We're delighted to be launching our first Charity Management Month to mark our 35th anniversary. During May 2024, we will be sharing online learning development opportunities to build stronger, robust and resilient leaders and managers across the sector.
The month is the first of its kind and is based on the extensive insight we gain from supporting thousands of charity leaders every year and follows findings from our research into training and development opportunities for sector managers last year. In our Charity Management Matters report, we reported that training on essential key management skills was lacking and where there was training available it was difficult to find and access or too costly for most charities.
During May, we will be sharing and signposting to online resources in the essential management areas of:
- leadership and strategic direction
- financial management and sustainability
- people management
- performance and impact.
We will also be launching a new simplified and accessible webinar library with recordings from its ‘Learn with Leaders’ and ‘Essentials to Excellence’ webinar series, as well as a new initiative to recognise charities that have shown a commitment to development and performance improvement.
The Cranfield Trust Charity Management Month will run from 1 – 31 May with information being shared through our LinkedIn, X/Twitter and Facebook posts.
Charity Management Month resources and useful links
With our first ever Charity Management Month coming to an end we wanted to make it easy for you to continue to find the resources we shared during the month. Please do also explore the rest of the many resources we have available on our website as there is a wealth of free learning opportunities available to you.
On-demand webinar library
Our new on-demand webinar library means you can easily locate and access past webinars at the time and place most convenient to you. You can also pause, re-wind and watch again as many times as you like. Even better, it is completely FREE!
Speak with one of our specialist volunteers
We know that some challenges need a direct conversation in order to find solutions.
We are therefore pleased to extend our offer for registered charities and CICs to get FREE immediate access to our expert volunteers and Regional Managers for specialist and timely answers to pressing charity management questions.
The specialist you are matched with will have thought about your specific question in advance and really get to understand your situation, so together you can explore a suitable solution or explore your options with clarity and confidence.
Leadership and strategic direction
Resources
Visit our resources page where you will find many useful resources within this category.
Business plan template and webinar
The most popular download on our website is the template for creating a three-year business plan.
Access the template as well as many other useful business planning resources, including a supporting webinar.
We receive lots of great feedback from clients who have used these business planning resources – we hope you find them helpful too!
Case study
A great deal of the support we have provided during our #35YearsOfImpact fall into the category of leadership and strategic direction. This crucial area is where small charities often need support in order to survive, let alone thrive.
In the heart of Great Yarmouth, Feathers Futures serves as a beacon of hope for women seeking support, providing a safe space for women to come together, build friendships, and grow at their own pace through a variety of collaborative services.
Feathers Futures reached out to Cranfield Trust for support in creating a new strategic business plan to allow them to stop, take stock and evaluate Feathers Futures' current position to ensure its ongoing success and sustainability long into the future.
Read about how we supported Feathers Futures in the full case study.
Financial management and sustainability
Resources
Discover the many and varied resources we have available in this category.
Top 10 financial ratios for charities
Monitoring your charity’s financial performance is essential and it’s never too late to start. Financial Ratios are a quick measurement tool which you can use to identify upward and downward trends in your numbers.
Our guide highlights some key charity finance ratios that you can use to track your charity’s financial health and find out where you might be vulnerable. By building relevant ratios into your charity's monthly financial review, you will be able to identify when you need to take action to sustain your charity and its mission.
Fighting the finance crisis guide
We're supporting many charities who have had their funding cut whilst still responding to increased demands for their vital services and they just don’t know where to turn. This FREE guide provides a 10-point practical plan to immediately support charity leaders to fight this finance crisis.
Social investment
Has your charity or social enterprise considered social investment as part of its funding strategy? In this article Suzanne Waggett, Chief Investment Officer at Fredericks Foundation shares an insight into social investing and why charities might consider social investment.
People management
Resources
Our people management section offers a wide range of useful resources.
Being inspired as a leader
We would recommend watching our particularly popular webinar ‘Being inspired as a leader: How to inspire yourself and your team’.
It can often seem impossible to feel inspired, or be inspiring to others, with so much going on and many challenges to face. In this webinar presenter Andy Bird will share the findings from his research into how leaders discover and maintain their own inspiration and then foster that same spirit within their teams.
Volunteers
Charity managers are keeping lots of balls in the air whilst also considering the needs of many different groups of people.
Volunteers are one of those groups, and some would say the most important. Afterall, without their volunteers many charities (us included!) would not be able to provide the support and services that do.
Discover the variety of resources we have available to help charities manage their volunteers, from recruitment, selection and induction through to supporting volunteers and measuring their impact.
Performance and impact
Resources
Our performance and impact resources offer a range of tools and guidance to support you.
Journey to Excellence© recognition badge
Journey To Excellence© (or J2E© as we commonly refer to it) is our unique, tailor-made assessment framework, designed specifically for charities to measure change, progress and success in the charities we help with our pro bono management consultancy.
The J2E© recognition badge serves as a visual recognition of a charity's hard work and achievements alongside Cranfield Trust. In the year 2022-23, J2E© showed that our clients improved their performance by an average of 19% as a result of the support they received through our services.
Read more about J2E© and the new recognition badge
Effective impact reporting
In this webinar, Core Insights & Aegis Digital share their tips and tricks on how to get more from your data.
From this session, you will increase your confidence and knowledge in how to collect, manage and report on your data. You will also come away with tips to implement the Impact Wheel within your charity.
Building Circles case study
Building Circles is the first charity to be awarded the new J2E© recognition badge.
Building Circles saw improvement in all four J2E© project areas, despite the main focus being performance and impact. Improvement beyond the main consultancy area reflected their commitment towards better performance across the whole organisation.
