Supporting organisations - On Call
Cranfield Trust On Call supports charity leaders with critical and challenging issues that do not require a full consultancy project.
Through a call and conversation with a subject-matter expert volunteer, charity leaders share particular challenges that need immediate attention. On the call, they explore possible solutions to problems, which help to provide clarity and confidence, enabling charity leaders to address the challenges.
We offered the opportunity to book an On Call conversation at key times of the year, including in May, Cranfield Trust’s Charity Management Month, and in Small Charity Week in June.
For the first time this year, we also offered charities a diagnostic conversation through the On Call service. Regional Managers talked through our Journey to Excellence questions with each charity client.
The answers the charity leaders gave to the questions helped them to identify a baseline position for the charity, identifying strengths, and clarifying future development priorities. These diagnostic On Calls accounted for 24% of the overall number during the year.
Most calls this year were on finance topics (27%), closely followed by the diagnostic calls. We saw a drop in the number of calls on strategy and planning during the year as this area was mostly addressed through consultancy projects. Governance and people management were also important areas addressed through On Call.
“With support from a Cranfield Trust volunteer we were able to calculate ratios on programme spend and the methods and options for doing so. We are now able to base a decision on the information we gained and can use the resulting calculation as part of our marketing and fundraising. We are very grateful to Frank our Cranfield Trust volunteer for all his help – his knowledge has had such an impact!”
Andrew Jackson, Operations Manager, Zimbabwe Educational Trust
Find out more
Discover more about our On Call service for charities on our On Call page
On Call in action
Read our On Call case study about our project with Zimbabwe Educational Trust
