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Skylark
Charity Support Network
An Introduction to Skylark
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Skylark
What is Skylark?
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Charity Support Network
Skylark is an informal network of business people who help growing charities.
We offer our professional expertise on a “pro bono” basis to enable charities to achieve their
objectives.
We provide both expert advice and small amounts of money to enable clients to do what might
otherwise be unachievable.
Our Aims & Philosophy
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Skylark aims to support growing charities , in particular those which are experiencing challenges in
doing so, maybe in terms of direction, size or internal management
We try to facilitate and empower the people we work with, trying to “make a difference” by enabling
them to achieve something that would not otherwise be possible.
Our philosophy can be summarised by the slogan “teach a man to fish and you feed him for a
lifetime” So you could say we’re aiming to be fishing coaches.
Our work is always project based. Typically our projects take from a few months to a year in
duration.
Skylark
Our Background
Charity Support Network
Skylark was born out of a wish to “put something back” by three people in 1997 – Fiona Cooper, Tim Ewbank
& Graham Whitney, who bring a diverse range of skills & experience accumulated through over fifty years of
corporate working life.
The common thread of our experience is management consulting.
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Fiona’s professional background is in business development in communications and
investment banking. Previously she was a Managing Director of Deutsche Bank.
Tim’s experience is in management of information technology and infrastructure. Previously Tim
was IT Director of Amgen
Graham’s principal expertise is strategic corporate development and business development. He
was a Partner with PriceWaterhouseCoopers now IBM.
Equally important, are the people we know, who help in specific projects. We draw on a wide network of
professionals able and willing to share their skills and time. They cover such areas as business planning,
organisational development, marketing, market research, change and project management and IT planning
Skylark
Characteristics of Young Charities
Charity Support Network
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Many charities start life through the enthusiasm, energy, dedication and entrepreneurial skills of a
single individual.
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The early part of this “First Stage “ is characterised by:
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High growth and rapid progress
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A simple , clear and well understood strategy of “establishing the charity”
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Decision making and organisational structures being essentially “hub and spoke” with the
founder at the centre of the hub
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A dedicated team driven by personal motivation to support the cause and the founder
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Finances, both fund raising and expenditure being tightly controlled by the founder
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The Challenges of moving from Stage 1 to Stage 2
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Stage 2
Clear Strategy & Structure
Effective management process
Sustainable Organisation
Controlled Growth
Transition
Stage 1
Driven by Founder
Loss of focus
High growth
Roles & Responsibilities unclear
Clear Strategy
Performance Issues
Morale issues
Skylark
We focus on helping charities move to the “Second Stage”
Charity Support Network
However, once established , which may take anything up to say 5 to 10 years issues start to develop
 A range of opportunities arise or the growth of the charity reduces and the choices as to which direction to
pursue become more difficult. The strategy becomes less clear in the eyes of the staff and donors and the
charities beneficiaries
 The “hub and spoke” model starts to become a constraint as the founder is unable to delegate effectively and
managers become frustrated as to what decision making power they have
 The roles of the Board of trustees, the CEO and the management Team become increasingly confused and
require clarification and re assertion
 Fund raising becomes more challenging
 The “cause” becomes insufficient to keep staff motivated as they seek the more traditional motivations of
work, recognition, reward, clarity, empowerment, development and training
 The founder wants to ensure he or she is able to leave a legacy of a thriving organisation when the time
comes to move on.
 There is an increasing need for efficiency and cost management in order to avoid bureaucracy and to
maximize the funds supporting beneficiaries directly.
 Information, both financial and operational, previously kept by the founder now needs to be collected,
analysed and acted upon in the right way by many different parties
 Reporting to the Board of trustees becomes increasingly important
Skylark
We help charities address issues such as these
Charity Support Network
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New opportunities have arisen and decisions about direction and focus become more
difficult
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Growth slows and fresh momentum is sought to re-vitalise the charity
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New skillsets are needed to take the charity to the next stage
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Growth has outstripped management processes, such as governance, financial
management, information systems and reporting
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Significant capital investment is required, which means turning to new sources of funding,
as well as sound business planning
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The management structure, perhaps centred on the founder, becomes inappropriate, and
a new structure is needed to take the organisation forward
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External factors have changed the charity's environment, offering new opportunities and
threats.
From our experience, many of these issues emerge as charities progress
from Stage1 to Stage 2 …..
Skylark
We assist in three main areas
Charity Support Network
Leadership & Governance
Individual Leadership Coaching
Leadership Styles Assessment
Governance between Trustees & Management
Organisational Development
Strategy & Vision Development
Organisational Structure design
Business Planning & Monitoring Outcomes
Marketing & Communications
Researching & Supporting new Projects, Services & Expansions
Information Technology Strategy & Planning, and Software Selection
Implementation
Project management support and training
Change Management
Our Experience
Skylark
Charity Support Network
Vital Regeneration
We assisted Vital Regen staff plan the organization’s separation from its parent
organization and establishment as an independent charity. Specifically, we are working
with the Trustees to crystallise their vision for the organization. We are helping establish
standard processes across their two main sites for the administration of training
courses. We are assisting them in selecting & implementing suitable application
software to support their training programs, marketing and grant bid process. In
addition, we provide ongoing mentoring to the newly created Director and have
facilitated a Visioning Workshop for the Trustees .
Changing Faces
We conducting a major organisational review and established a Programme of Work to
significantly improve the organisational effectiveness of Changing Faces. The work
covered changes in Strategy, Organisational Structure, Governance between the
trustees and the Charity, Values, Management Processes and Leadership Styles. The
team based approach allowed individual staff to improve their competencies and
confidence across a range of management areas in a protected environment and
significantly improved the morale and effectiveness of the overall organisation.
Skylark
Our Experience
The
Charles Hayward
Foundation
The Charles Hayward Foundation
Charity Support Network
The Foundation was seeking to measure the impact of their grant awards. Skylark
assisted them to identify criteria, and develop and pilot a process for the evaluation
which has been adopted by the Foundation as “best practice”
Robert Owen Communities
We assisted ROC to develop a process for strategic and operational planning, including
plan preparation, progress monitoring and performance measurement. The new
approach has been implemented, and we ran several workshops with ROC to help roll it
out across the organisation.
Youth at Risk
We assisted YaR redesign their management reporting process to better reflect the
organisation’s strategic aims and needs of the Trustees. We worked with YaR to review
the content and format of their present reports, and prototyped a completely different
style of reporting. This gained strong Management and Trustee support, and was
welcomed by operational teams. To assist implementation, the resulting reports were
created in software for the regional teams, with appropriate training.
Our Experience
Burned Childrens’ Club
Skylark
Charity Support Network
We compiled a handbook on the better running of burns camps. Also, we assisted the
administrator to computerise the club’s record keeping. We set up the first ever patient
focused conference, based on innovative market research, for burns survivors with
about 200 attendees & published the papers
Burns Survivors Association
We helped establish The Burn Survivors Association as a registered charity. We
commissioned research into burns care & assisted with the development of the BSA’s
infrastructure and public relations. In Oct 2003 we helped organise their first
conference.
Changing Faces
We helped Changing Faces develop its strategy for increasing its Public Giving,
undertook independent market research on a new investment idea and provided
coaching and consultancy on its organisational structure and planning of a major office
move.
Skylark
What our clients say about us
Charity Support Network
“Their volunteers are professionals with many different areas of expertise, including public relations, legal,
marketing, etc. They bring to any project the experience of not just knowing what needs to done, but also
how to get it done”
Terry Everitt, Founder & Chairman of BSA
"Graham and Fiona were a great help to us, clearly explaining new ideas and were patiently supporting while
we caught up. They were definitely prepared to go the extra mile and the project will have lasting value."
David Brown, Administrator, The Charles Hayward Foundation
“”The Skylark team has given a unique mix of skills and insights delivered with sensitivity, enthusiasm but
lots of reality too, helping us to evaluate big exciting ideas but also to deliver on the harder, less exciting
ones.”
James Partridge, Chief Executive, Changing Faces
“The flexibility, support & generosity of the Skylark team has made a real & significant difference to our
infrastructure, reporting & ability to provide quality information”
Neil Wragg, Chief Executive, Youth at Risk
“Many thanks for the extremely important and useful days spent with ROC. Your hard work was clearly
remembered and it is very clear that people enjoyed the whole learning experience..… believe that ROC
will be grateful to Skylark for years to come."
David Wilson, Chief Executive, Robert Owen Communities
Contacts
Skylark
Charity Support Network
Fiona Cooper
07801 940102
[email protected]
Tim Ewbank
07980 981360
[email protected]
Graham Whitney
07802 232960
[email protected]