AAW HOW TO: Recognise the Benefits of Strategic Consultancy for Philanthropic Organisations
As we continue to explore the top trends in charity recruitment, we hope you enjoy these pieces of wisdom from our search team! Do get in touch if you’d like to find out more.
Every year around 5,000 new philanthropic organisations are created in the UK, unfortunately, around the same number close as well. This keeps the number of not-for-profit organisations static.
However, there are organisations that have seen impressive growth in recent years - what do these organisations generally have in common? It’s a successfully executed strategy. Creating and executing a strategy can be challenging without expert guidance, which is where strategic consultancy services come into play.
There are countless benefits of strategic consultancy for non-profits, including support as you navigate complex challenges, maximise your resources, and optimise your impact.
Keep reading and explore the key advantages of these services and how they can help your philanthropic organisation.
Unbiased Perspective
No matter how professional, knowledgeable, and qualified you are, it's very hard to be unbiased when you work within an organisation. It can be very challenging to approach an issue or create a strategic plan without a personal agenda in mind. You may not even realise that your judgement is clouded.
By consulting with experts outside of your organisation, you bring in unbiased opinions. External consultants will have different perspectives and points of view on your organisation.
They will not be affected by internal politics and will be able to give you completely unbiased and constructive advice. They will only be looking at the performance metrics and effectiveness of each department and the overall organisational strategy.
Expertise and Insight
Another great benefit of strategic consultancy services is the knowledge and expertise that they bring. A team of experts will have experience working with diverse organisations. The information that they share with you will allow you to improve your plans and business strategies by utilising their learnings from other organisations.
Consultants should also have insight about current and evolving trends and be able to suggest innovative approaches that will help increase your impact. You'll be able to broaden your perspective and be able to make informed decisions about your organisation moving forward.
Goal Alignment
Whilst you and the other leaders in the organisation may know what you want to accomplish, creating a plan that aligns with your goals can be very challenging.
Strategic consultants will help you make a plan that allows you to reach your objectives and brings your vision to life in the quickest and most effective way.
Through goal alignment, you'll be able to identify gaps in your plan and mitigate potential issues. You'll learn how to prioritise tasks and streamline your efforts, so that you can increase the effectiveness of your organisation.
Performance Measurement and Evaluation
Non-profit organisations must frequently review their effectiveness to ensure they're spending donors money in the most efficient way possible and making the most impact. The good news is consultancy services will help you with performance measurement too.
Consultants will generally work with key performance indicators (KPIs) that will track your organisation's progress and outcomes. They will also be able to identify relevant metrics that will also prove to be useful when it comes to gathering information.
Their objective analysis and data interpretation will help you identify areas that you and your team can improve on. This will also enable you to make data-driven decisions which will improve your efforts and methods.
Resource Optimisation
Is your organisation struggling with limited resources? Well, you aren't the only one. Many non-profit organisations have the same issue.
Knowing how to allocate the resources you have will increase the impact you can make. However, you may not know the best ways to optimise them.
This is where a team of consultants can be helpful. They will analyse your financials and operations. Doing this will show them potential inefficiencies without your organisation.
This information can then be used to streamline processes, enhance effectiveness, reduce costs, and increase scalability and sustainability.
Partnerships and Collaboration
The charity sector may not seem big, but it's a large and extensive network. There are many connections to be made, which you can't do alone.
Even your organisation as a whole may not have the partnerships and alliances that a team of consultants will have.
The partnerships and collaborations that come from working with strategic consultants could prove to be valuable in the future through shared expertise, connections or even new resources.
Time Saver
Whether you're the CEO, HR Director, or Fundraising Director, you have a lot on your plate. You have a lot of responsibility and you can't do everything alone.
A great benefit of investing in strategic consultancy is saving time. Strategic planning is a huge task that can detract from the day to day running that's required, so outsourcing it will save you a great deal of time.
The team will be able to take over tasks that you don't have the resources to complete yourself. They will know exactly what to look for and how to make an effective plan and get it implemented quickly.
AAW's Strategic Consultancy
So now you understand the benefits of working with strategic consultants, why not consider working with the AAW Group? Our consultancy services offer insight and strategic consulting support that will help you achieve a step change in performance.
Covering fundraising, communications and digital strategy, as well as philanthropy feasibility and new market entry studies, we have brought our strategic approach to consulting projects with non-profits of all sizes, across multiple sectors, in over 50 countries.
Learn more about our services here and get in touch with us to find out more.
