Journey to Excellence ©
UPRAWR Mental Health Foundation
Background
UPRAWR Mental Health Foundation is a brand new mental health charity committed to helping people between the ages of 18 and 35 who can relate to the rock and alternative music scene with which the UPRAWR brand has become synonymous. UPRAWR launched twelve years ago as a rock, pop punk and metal club night.
After Chester Bennington took his own life UPRAWR decided more needed to be done to help the rock and alternative community, and with rising numbers of young people suffering from mental health issues in the UK it seems obvious that someone had to take action and create something new – turning traditional means of getting help on it’s head to create something that truly understood the needs of the alternative community.
The project
UPRAWR turned to Cranfield Trust for support when they needed to raise money and build a strategy and discovered that many grant providers wanted to see a Business Plan. They were also planning some events which could bring in significant income and were conscious that the events be successful, they needed a strong plan in place.
CEO Jack Davis was matched with Cranfield Trust volunteer Mark. Working with Mark, UPRAWR put together a strong three-year plan, with an extra two years outlined for potential outcomes. The charity found the project acted like a catalyst to spark other ideas and bring other plans to fulfilment.
The solution
With the Business Plan in place UPRAWR can now manage its waiting list better and can guide potential service users to how long they will be waiting. There are also a lot more people that are now aware of their services, but still within their own (rock) community.
UPRAWR can now obtain anonymous feedback on a more frequent basis and can prove that they have improved outcomes via a quantitative survey which enables them to measure feedback much better to use with funders.
Jack Davis, CEO, reflected on the project:
“Cranfield made the process of finding and working with a consultant simple and enjoyable. The signup process was simple, and they found a consultant who understood the needs of a business and really got what we were doing.
The business plan we have as a result is a powerful and robust plan for moving
forward and displaying our commitment to our cause.”
Journey to Excellence
Journey to Excellence(J2E)©, is Cranfield Trust’s unique evaluation and impact measurement framework and has been specifically designed to help charity clients to focus on their development needs.
The J2E© framework helps charities to identify management strengths and areas for development across four key areas and is used to evaluate the impact of Cranfield Trust’s consultancy support to charity clients.
The project had a direct impact on improved J2E © scores for UPRAWR on the main project area, as well as the other three J2E© areas.
The impact
Jack concluded, commenting on the impact that the project with Cranfield Trust has had:
“The project has given us the confidence and direction we needed and we are planning a major event at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham. We are hoping the event will attract approx. 1000 musicians to play led by a few famous rock stars! We feel more professional in our approach to potential service users and funders. If the event goes as well as we are hoping, the Business Plan will really come into its own in providing much needed additional service provision and capacity.”
