One year in - progress report

Appalling - I have not written on this for ages. After resolving to blog once a week, I am getting around to it maybe twice a month. tut. Could do better.

However, what I lack in frequency hopefully is made up for in energy and fervour.

I have recently chalked up my first year at ACEVO - last Tuesday 23rd was the date. It has been a very informative and indeed, formative 12 months.

I came to the job knowing little about the third sector, and less about how difficult the role of a charity CEO could be. I am lucky enough to have been surrounded by and introduced to some of the most engaged and brightest thinkers in the sector, and have learned a great deal from them all. Internally, the directors at ACEVO have a ferocious combined knowledge: whether it's running a charity, engaging with the government or large, cumbersome entities like the UN and EU, we have some of the best people around. So first thought is a sense of pride to be involved in this work.

The next is a sense of what more there is to do. It's a question I'm often asking myself and others: "What more can we do?" We have a cohort of members with significant needs and concerns, and there is always a push for better performance.
On my side of the business, looking after our corporate partners, I am always striving to increase the return on their investment. This has come from implementing strategic changes and changing how we communicate what we offer, from adding the resource we put into the department, and from increasing the communications that are specifically for our corporates.

Another point comes from this - one around change. ACEVO loves change. Really can't get enough. Whether it's changing the architecture of the sector, or in much smaller ways - changing internal operations to increase efficiency and drive up performance.

Looking ahead, there is much to be done. The SB forum is in its infancy, and this is going to be a hugely exciting piece of work.
The corporate partnerships side of the job is going from strength to strength - more are joining and we are delivering in a much more coherent way.
We are coming into a very busy time for renewals - a third of our full members and almost half our corporates renew in April. This is a real test for us - the % of renewals is a great indicator - a report card - of how well we are listening and responding to our members.

More to come on the Sustainable Business Forum this week - I am writing the paper for it tomorrow morning. Watch this space.

First Steering Group Meeting

So after all the planning, today it finally came together.
The ACEVO sustainable business forum had its first steering group meeting.

We met at 10am, and I have to say the whole meeting surpassed all expectation.
The line-up, once again is:

Oliver Rothschild, Chairman, Rothschild Corporate Advisors

Ben Brabyn, CEO and Founder, Bmycharity

John Stokoe, Vice President National Government, BT

Mike Barry, Head of Sustainable Business, Marks and Spencer

Allison Ogden-Newton, CEO, Social Enterprise London

Joyce Moseley, CEO, Catch-22

Charlotte Goodman, Director of Business Mobilisation, Virgin Unite

Clare Tickell, CEO, Action for Children

We began by outlining what each of us wanted to get out of the group, what we had to bring to the group, and what we saw as the most important outcome. This was a really interesting exercise, mostly due to how aligned we all are in our thinking. You can see from the list above how diverse the backgrounds are, so would expect a certain degree of diversity in the opinions and objectives around sustainable business. But no! We all agreed that (amongst others): relationships are key for sustainable growth; private organisations rely on the third sector and should therefore support it; there is often a disconnect between the understanding of 3rd and private sectors entering into a partnership.
One that I really liked was "We are here to create a new model of working"

Oliver, our chair, put it very well:
"It is a simple problem with a complex solution: we need to talk the same language by breaking down barriers"
We agreed that as well as sending the right messages, we also need to focus on how we communicate.
I could go on listing these little snippets that came up every so often, but will end with one of the most interesting and truly inspiring:
"Marks and Spencer would not be able to carry out our corporate objectives without our partnerships with third sector organisations" (I paraphrase, but I'm sure Mike will confirm!)

So, what next? I am writing a paper, based on today's discussion. This will outline the handful of 'building blocks' that we believe create the ideal partnership. From this, we will be able to reach out into our networks and create a movement.

This movement will be 50 - 100 people strong, split evenly between third and private sector. From this, we will create an influential lobbying group.

There is a definite call to action here. If you have any interest in this agenda, you can't afford not to be in this forum.

This time it's personal; and a good thing too...

It has been a rather manic start to the year. In the first weeks we have had the ACEVO AGM, and I have been visiting a great deal of new corporate partners both in London and across the UK.

Two weeks ago I was in Manchester visiting Mazars, a great partner of ours, to discuss how we can put them in touch with our members in the North West. Last week it was Newcastle, to meet with two potential firms and attend our North East CEO forum.
This was a great discussion around the CEO's relationship with their Chair- one of ACEVO's strongest suits.

I am working on a proposal for a large UK corporation, where ACEVO will set up and co-ordinate a mentor matching service for those identified as the future leaders of this company.
Mentoring is an excellent way for the private and third sectors to engage with each other, primarily it is because it is at a very personal level. What better way to change the minds or educate or demonstrate success to a group of people than one at a time? Of course, time and inclination are necessary, but when present I am sure great steps can be taken.

That's why the fence painting and well digging is so popular for groups of executives: it connects directly to the cause and creates a rather more grounded emotional response. Having closed a big deal or out performed budget forecasts is great and nice and good and bosses like it, but sometimes we want to feel the same thing we feel when we hold open a door, give up our seat on a train or help someone across the road. So when the whole team goes back to the office, inspired en masse to 'be better people' or having been 'profoundly touched' by whetever they have just encountered, bosses like it. We would argue they could do better.

So, can we create a blend of these two things, executive and personal joy, happiness, well-being, whatever you call it?

I believe we can and I look forward to this project and introducing new ideas to new people at a truly personal level.

Getting to know our members, networking and great introductions

Something that I quite frequently find frustrating is that my job at ACEVO allows me limited time with our Full members in the third sector. Nearly all of my time is spent recruiting new corporate partners or making sure we are doing a good job for those already in membership. Of course this is what I enjoy doing most, but it's great to get a bit of time off and speak to our full members and last night was a great opportunity to do just that. It makes me feel much more attached to the central mission and values of ACEVO, and not stuck out on a branch.

A couple of other very interesting things happened last night, all due to the great power of networking. I look on in awe and slight jealousy when I see some colleagues work through a room like they did last night. Stephen must be a grand master at it by now.

Firstly, I spoke to the CEO of a large, national charity who expressed considerable interest in the forum. It would be a great coup for us to get her along - she is very pro-ACEVO, and has a lot to say on the subject of 'The perfect partnership'

Second, I had a call from Ben Brabyn, a steering group member and CEO of Bmycharity. He had some very exciting news about their development of the commission free fundraising concept. the great step forward will become public next week. He also mentioned that he had been speaking with a very interesting figure in the Cabinet Office, who would be keen to discuss how to get involved with ACEVO's work on sustainable business, in particular the idea of creating partnerships.

Thirdly, I had a really good chat with Allison, CEO of Social Enterprise London and ACEVO deputy-chair. She is another steering group member, and I am really glad of this. As she said last night, a large part of her job is to make introductions, put people together and suggest partnership ideas. It is very clear that she gets what we want to achieve, and will be a great asset in ensuring the success of the forum.

As well as all this, we had some great remarks from Stephen, from our Chair, Lesley-Anne Alexander and from Liam Byrne, whose praise of ACEVO was very high.

I also had a great conversation with Ian Bird, Partner at Foster Denovo (Employee Benefits Advisory business), our sponsor and long-term ACEVO Strategic Partner. They launched their Employee Benefits Survey at the AGM. I introduced him to Mark Ellis, CEO of Ellis Whittam (HR and Employment Law firm) some months ago, as they have very aligned businesses and could offer some much needed services to our members.

Today I wrote the invitation to the Forum - it will go out tomorrow to a couple of hundred business professionals. I'm hoping it will generate the interest that I know exists in the third sector for this kind of work. I'm feeling like the momentum is building now. Once we get going in February, it will be very hard for anyone to put the brakes on.

Ho ho ho, happy new year and all that...

I'm sure most bloggers might be forgiven for not posting avidly over the holidays. It is with gloom and dismay, however, that I must report to have been beaten to the new year's entry by each of my blogging colleagues. Stephen Bubb has rattled off 8 this year, and ACEVO's strategy Director, Seb, has notched one up as well. Our CEO has something to live up though - 212 posts last year. Will he beat this record in 2010 I wonder...?

So back to the world of work. On the bells of New Year, I resolved to ensure the success of our Sustainable Business Forum - sad. But I have been very excited about it since we met for drinks and further conversations have only fanned the flames.

One question has been bugging me though - one of the steering group wonders if we should have a really big name, high street charity on board. A niggling itch this one. We have a corporate foundation, Virgin Unite; a membership body and representative of social enterprise, Social Enterprise London; and a large charity that operates regionally, Catch-22. The boxes are well and truly ticked, I thought. I will let the steering group decide - it will be a triumph for democracy.

Other than the steering group and forum, Corporate Partnerships are changing at ACEVO from April. No longer will we use income as a segmenter of the market. We have developed a much more sophisticated way of separating the corporate world: by identifying how our current corporate partners generate business, we can offer them different ways of accessing our members and thus group them appropriately with their peers. It also means that we won't have two similar companies, getting similar amounts of access, paying very different membership fees. To get ready for this change, I have poached a member of the membership team! In actual fact, it;s a part-time arrangement, but its great to be able to work with another person in the team. I'm confident that the changes we make will be clearly visible by the end user - our corporate partners.

The year is only two weeks old, and we have had three new members join. I hope this trend continues - the services offered by our corporate partners are really invaluable to our full members and its great to see them have so many highly professional contacts at their disposal.

I mentioned resolutions briefly, and my only other one is to update this more - once the steering group gets underway and we begin to develop ideas on how to create the perfect partnership, I'm sure the frequency will increase. Perhaps a quick reaction to our AGM - my first, and what looks like a very interesting experience on Wednesday, will be be 2nd of 2010...

First steps...

On Tuesday, we had a quick pre-Christmas drink.

Oliver, Mike, Ben and I met in a great bar near Marble Arch to discuss our respective Christmas plans, and the goals for the steering group in 2010.

I'm so glad we have such great minds working on this, and it was great to see how thinking from different businesses (retail, online and telecoms) is so well aligned. Our objectives are clearer as well: not only will we be able to identify the fundamental principles of a great third/private sector partnership, we are also going to provide a matching service, where we will be able to introduce businesses to like-minded, third sector leaders whose objectives are aligned.

These practical, genuinely useful outputs will ensure the group is an effective force for change and delivery, rather than the 'talking shops' that are all too common in the area of CSR and business engagement with third sector.

We will meet for the first time on 10th Feb, and I will be announcing the date for the forum meeting in the New Year. There are a few ground rules that we also discussed on what we want from these larger meetings.

1. The forum is to facilitate a meeting of equals. Third or private sector, there will be no favouritism at all.
2. As much as possible, representation should be even - we will make sure there are as many business leaders as third sector.
3. Pre-conceptions must be left at the door. If you are going to come, prepare for the fact that someone might change your mind.
4. Come armed. Everyone attending must have something to offer each other. Whether this is advice, a story of how partnerships have worked or not in the past or personal access/connections to people/organisations other members may be looking for, it will be valued by the individuals and whole group alike.

If we can keep to these rough guidelines, I am confident that this can be successful and generate new thinking on sustainable business.

I'm still trying to come up with a 'strap-line' - harder than it sounds. Not sure how to fit everything we want to accomplish into a pithy, funny, serious, new, ground-breaking and genuinely interesting sentence, but I will most certainly try!

On other areas of work - I am very interested in the debate on whether legislation should be created around sustainability. Some argue that it should be entirely voluntary, and that putting some laws around it may curtail or restrict the activity of the really progressive practitioners. This maybe so. I wonder, though, if something could be said to encourage diversity in terms of the range of charities supported by corporations. A quick survey around an office of 50 people will generate around 60 national, health focused charities that staff have a connection with. Some businesses have some real imagination and look very carefully at who they support, others go with perhaps the 'easy' route? This is a very difficult point to make, as all of them are fundamentally 'good' causes. So what can we do? I think there are a great many things businesses can do when deciding on a potentially large investment (time or money) to the third sector:

ACEVO currently leads the ImpACT coalition, a partnership between around 300 third sector orgs in the UK. The coaltion exists to improve accountability, clarity and transparency of third sector orgs. A very clever title, although one would receive no criticism from me if the words 'trite' or 'a little too on-the-nose' or 'too smart for its own good' were used to describe the name. Very clever marketing people with a considerable amount of time have clearly been at work here.

Anyway, they are doing some excellent work, and should be consulted by businesses who are struggling to ask the right questions during their due-diligence periods. Liam Cranley, ACEVO's Head of ImpACT, is best placed to advise on how to assess the effectiveness of charities. CEO pay, spend on overheads, and a range of subjects that can be rather incendiary are dealt with by Liam from an extremely informed position.

One day left before hols now, although I will return to work very briefly on Monday to be taken for Christmas drinks by one of the many contacts I have made this year. They are a company who specialise in communications, and have been working with a couple of ACEVO members. It's great to see the results of these relationships: tangible evidence of how corporate partnerships can really help the third sector.

New Year's resolution - to update this blog more often. I hope to fill it with all the great insight and fresh thinking generated in our steering group and forum, and track the progress from these initial thoughts to a really positive and significant set of results. We've got one year, and we're going to make the most of it!

Steering Group complete and Christmas drinks

So there we have it. It's done. Names to come, but we have heads of CSR and sustainable business, CEOs and a fantastic chairman in Oliver Rothschild.
This group is bringing together people who have really captured the narrative around sustainable business and can establish not only how this area might develop, but also how third and private sector partnerships might be set up in the future.

The steering group will meet for the first time in January, and we are inviting businesses and third sector organisations to join us for the forum on 23rd February.

We really want this to run as a forum, rather than a set of presentations and questions. Issues will be discussed and new directions highlighted. The other real goal is to change minds. We would like the forum members to leave their pre-conceptions at the door and at here all sides of all discussions. It will be a constantly challenging group, but this way we will see some results!

All this must be organised this year, which is fast disappearing. I have now 11 working days left before my holiday begins. I have a handful of meetings with our partners to go before I leave, and a host of other preparation to do before I can think of holidays. Friday has been written off for our ACEVO Christmas party. Ice skating at Somerset house and lunch. I'm sure the mulled wine on offer will provoke the desire but take away the performance and I will spend much of the morning on my arse, much to the amusement of colleagues and strangers alike. Although, I hear I'm in good company: our chief policy wonk could barely manage the skater shuffle last year, and spent a long time on the arm of a colleague.

On the subject of mulling, I mulled some cider last weekend. Much better than the wine equivalent in my view. Threw some dark rum in as well for good measure. I also indulged in a 1978 Rioja that my colleagues bought me for my birthday - the oldest wine I have had and I now have ambitions for more. Great stuff. A drop of vintage port was a splendid end to an evening with friends.

So, a full panel on our steering group and the McKelvey house well and truly in the Christmas mood, at least in the booze department.