Supporting the sector - webinars & resources
Our free webinars & resources provide learning and development opportunities and valuable materials and guidance on essential management areas.
Webinars
We have two webinar strands: ‘Learning with Leaders’, which provides fresh thinking and original insight from academics and leading practitioners, and ‘Essentials to Excellence’ which focuses on practical skills development and knowledge sharing on key charity management topics.
During the year, we had a total of 2,239 delegates at our 19 live webinar sessions, with some individuals attending one or more sessions. This is a 55% increase on attendance figures last year. 98% of attendees at the live webinars said they would recommend our webinars to others. In total, we had 3,895 registrations for webinars, all of whom received a link to the webinar recording, the slide deck and signposting to wider reading related to the webinar topic.
Our most popular webinar, with 20% of the total attendees, was on the topic of sustainable fundraising, with a focus on how to reduce reliance on grants, and increase income sources.
The next most popular was another funding related topic, ‘Unrestricted revenue without tears.’ This reflects what we know to be the most challenging area for charity leaders at this time: 49% of our webinar attendees in the year told us that raising funds and generating income is their most difficult task.
Our two webinars on Artificial Intelligence (AI) were our next most popular, the first gave charities practical advice on where to start with AI, and the follow up webinar was delivered by the same volunteer, who answered delegates’ questions from the first webinar.
Online resources
The resource area of our website hosts a range of valuable materials, information and guidance on essential management areas: leadership and strategic direction, financial management and sustainability, performance and impact and people management.
The ready to use templates, tools and guides are free to download for all charity leaders and managers from across the sector. We have seen a 54% increase in downloads from our website this year.
Cranfield Trust volunteers and colleagues contribute articles, thought pieces and blogs to our website throughout the year to share views and guidance on topical issues. Our selection of case studies helps charity leaders to see the impact our consultancy, mentoring and wider services can have on similar charities to their own, and encourages them to think about how support could be of benefit to their charity.
“Cranfield Trust is an invaluable resource for charities, providing expert support and guidance that helps organisations like ours navigate challenges and build resilience.”
In total we responded to 1,122 enquiries during the year of which 48% became consultancy projects or mentoring assignments. We signposted 177 enquiries from charities outside our welfare remit to other sources of support. Charities which contact Cranfield Trust never leave without some form of advice or signposting to other services or information resources (our own or others).
For the first time this year, we introduced a Charity Management Month in May. We created this month to raise awareness of the services we offer and to encourage leaders and managers to prioritise organisation and management development. During the month we shared and signposted to learning resources to help build confidence and capability amongst leaders and managers in the sector. The top pages visited during the month were those proactively shared during the campaign. These included Top 10 financial ratios (449 page views), Fighting the Finance Crisis Guide (323 views), and the refreshed on-demand webinar library (213 views).
The Three Year Business Plan template was the overall top download on the website during the campaign period.
Find out more
Discover more about our online resources, upcoming live webinars and our on-demand webinar library.
