Strategy and impact

A clear strategy:

• aligns trustees, staff, and volunteers around shared goals
• guides decisions
• focuses efforts on where they can drive the greatest change.

Strategic planning also builds resilience and adaptability, helping charities and impact-focused organisations navigate challenges, embrace collaboration, and achieve long-term goals.

Without it, organisations risk losing focus, spreading themselves too thin, or falling short of their potential.

Demonstrating your impact can:

• help funders and supporters, who are increasingly expecting to see evidence of impact before committing resources
• offer insights to refine strategies and achieve sustainable change.

It is now vital to plan intentionally and demonstrate meaningful outcomes. Thankfully, advances in technology and data-driven approaches enable organisations to better measure and enhance their impact.

This integrated approach not only strengthens organisations’ ability to achieve their goals but also reinforces their legitimacy, enabling them to make a lasting difference in the communities they serve.

Charities and impact-focused organisations face distinct challenges in developing strategy and demonstrating impact. We understand these complexities and draw on real-world insights to help you navigate them.

Our flexible approach means we can tailor our support to your needs and budget, whether it’s creating a strategy, planning for impact, or monitoring progress.

We can help with:

• Adapting to Change
  External pressures, like funding cuts or shifting policy priorities, often require organisations to reassess their strategies. We work with you to understand your operating environment and align your activities with new opportunities and challenges.
• Building Consensus on Strategic Direction
  Engaging trustees, staff, and stakeholders to agree on priorities and long-term goals can be difficult. Our facilitated sessions, such as strategy awaydays, encourage productive collaboration, clear decision-making, and shared ownership of your vision.
• Demonstrating and Improving Impact
  Developing effective frameworks to measure and communicate your impact is essential. We support you in showing the difference you make, building confidence with funders, supporters, and beneficiaries alike.

Whether you’re refining your strategy or enhancing your impact, we’re here to support your journey.

Our comprehensive support empowers your organisation to achieve its mission through a range of tailored services:

Strategic planning:

We partner with you to create a strategic plan that aligns with your mission and vision. Using tools like SWOT analysis, stakeholder mapping, interviews and focus groups, and environmental scanning, we help define your objectives, set priorities, and co-create an actionable roadmap.

Facilitating strategy awaydays:

Engaging awaydays bring your team and stakeholders together to shape your strategic direction. Our facilitators design tailored sessions that build consensus, encourage innovation, and deliver actionable outcomes.

Theory of change development:

A clear theory of change links your resources and activities to the outcomes and impact you aim to achieve. We guide you through developing this essential framework, ensuring your work is measurable and aligned with your mission.

Monitoring and evaluation frameworks:

Measuring and communicating impact requires a robust framework. We help you design systems that include KPIs, data collection tools, and processes for ongoing evaluation, empowering you to assess programme effectiveness, learn, and make data-driven decisions.

Data Collection and Analysis:

We provide tools and systems for collecting and analysing data through surveys, interviews, focus groups, and observation. Our support enables you to evaluate programmes, understand impact, and use insights for strategic decision-making and reporting.

Capacity building workshops:

We deliver customised workshops to build your team’s skills in areas such as strategic planning, impact measurement, and data analysis, ensuring your organisation is ready to tackle challenges and seize new opportunities.

Ongoing mentoring and guidance:

Beyond initial planning, we act as a learning partner, providing expert mentorship to support the implementation of your strategy, evaluation, and data plans. Our team is on hand to help you navigate challenges, adapt to change, and embed continuous improvement practices.

Training:

We have a well-established programme of training topics on business planning and strategy and impact and evaluation. These are run as an open programme or for your charity.

If you have an issue that you think we may be able to help with, please get in touch.

Complete our enquiry form or email consultancy@ncvo.org.uk.