Clearer Thinking July 2023
Despite preparing to take some time off with my family, we’ve not taken our foot off the gas yet! I wanted to share some examples of how our clients have achieved clearer thinking with us this month….
Clearer Thinking of My Own Time
You know what it’s like when you’re planning to go on holiday, the looming deadlines, the last minute meetings, the numerous urgent emails and playing Tetris with the diary.
It’s hard planning to take time off. So in order to get clearer with my own time, diary and task management I have… ASKED FOR HELP!!!
Not my default by nature, but I’m definitely getting better at it. My wonderful Business Manager, Linda, has been condensing my meetings into set times across the week to free up time to get my head into some rich thinking and writing time. I’ve shared my deadlines so there is more accountability and responsibility for us meeting them. I have turned off my notifications, given more people the heads up on my availability to manage expectations better…
I’ve even got better at saying “no” and not putting myself under unnecessary pressure – much easier to do when you’re sharing your to-do with someone else… in order to get it done.
I’d love to know what you’re doing to help your workload.
Clearer Thinking On The Roll Out Of Our AMPACC Support Programme
Our team has delivered over 30 individual AMPACC sessions in July.
These sessions have been funded by John Lyon’s Charity and Young Brent Foundation via the local council’s NCIL fund and will support these organisations across four north and west London boroughs to become more financially sustainable in the future.
Attaining financial wellness for your organisations gives you and others a sense of financial security and freedom. Financial wellness is a state of financial well-being in which you can manage your overheads and other expenses. You can weather unexpected financial emergencies and plan for long-term financial goals.
AMPACC helps you to understand your voluntary organisation’s financial position. It enables the you to produce accurate project budgets that cover your overheads and achieve healthy reserves without the need for a specialist finance manager.
It takes the fear out of finance so you can focus on your social purpose.
The take up and feedback so far has been amazing, and we’re excited with all the light bulb moments and the future planning that it has already supported. We were so thrilled to receive this wonderful testimonial:
”The impact that AMPACC will have on our charity is monumental. For a small, under-resourced team like ours… truly understanding our figures and our financial model as well as getting into funders’ minds is truly life changing. The way the courses have been organised and spaced out really helped me not feel overwhelmed with everything else I have going on. And allowed me to dive into every single aspect discussed in each session and make sure I really understand our numbers. I am truly excited to apply to our next grant and hoping this is the start of a new chapter for Fair Shot..!”
Bianca Tavella. Founder & CEO. Fair Shot Cafe CIO
John Lyon’s Charity gives grants to benefit children and young people up to the age of 25 who live in nine boroughs in North and West London: Barnet, Brent, Camden, Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, Harrow, Kensington & Chelsea and the Cities of London and Westminster.
Clearer Thinking On Leadership
Did you know that I coach leaders and CEOs?
I have developed a programme just for CEOs called The Leadership Catalyst. Where I lead a fortnightly Coaching Circle where we explore these and other issues in more depth and with more ease, without the pressure to sugar coat the reality of now.
Deep, insightful leadership coaching tailored for charity CEOs that really delivers on so many levels.
We are taking a pause for the summer and will be launching and accepting new applications in the autumn.
Here’s just some of the recent feedback and kind words
“It has exceeded my expectations. I knew it would be a space for discussions that affected us as under-represented leaders, I didn’t really envisage the conversations being as deep or as thoughtful as they are. I didn’t really think I’d come away from it thinking so differently about certain aspects of my role, how I deliver it, where I see it going, and how I see change. I’m questioning a lot of things personally.”
D.J. CEO, charity, NW London
If this sounds like something you need, and if you would like to find out more about how we are creating real change and legacy, do get in touch and book a call with me by clicking this LINK
Clearer Thinking On Sharing the Benefits of How To Understand and Ask for Your Full Service Costs
I was delighted to be asked to present my thoughts on Full Cost Recovery at the Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s Cross-Departmental VCS Working Group attended by council departments and grant funders of the local voluntary sector.
It’s so important to me that, as well as upskilling voluntary groups to understand and ask for their full service costs. I can also share my insights on the impact of a sector that is not well resourced on its workforce, its services and on its service users.
I was pleased to engage in a rich, solution-focused conversation. And to hear how committed colleagues are in finding a way to ensure that voluntary groups are not deliberately under costing their services to secure funding. I hope that my contributions will have informed their approach to this. The feedback so far was that it had a big impact and provided clearer thinking and lots of food for thought and ideas to take forward with their colleagues.
Do YOU Need Clearer Thinking?
If you and your teams need to get clearer on how your organisation’s vision, strategy, impact and / or funding please get in touch and let’s get our heads together and see how we can support you to realise your goals.
You can schedule a call by clicking this LINK