Helping charities to tap into Olympic talent

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/may/08/fiona-halton-chief-executive-pilotlight

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Much has changed since Fiona Halton began working with small charities 26 years ago. First, grants increasingly gave way to contracts and, now, as local authorities grapple with swingeing cuts, these are harder to come by, requiring expert bidding and a new understanding of competition and pricing.

"The landscape has changed immensely, even more in the last few years," says Halton, chief executive of Pilotlight, which aims to arm small, grassroots community groups and social enterprises with business skills by teaming them with corporate figures.

"The sector became more reliant on public sector funding, and now there's a change again, and charities are having to find ways of diversifying. There isn't going to be a return to what it was. We're seeing organisations come to us who just have the wish to be sustainable, let alone grow."

Halton helped to launch the first Comic Relief, working alongside founders Jane Tewson and Four Weddings and a Funeral writer Richard Curtis. "One of our mantras was always to go for the best talent, never to settle for second best," Halton says. "Great causes deserve great talent."

She has applied the philosophy to Pilotlight, she says. Three years ago, she began tapping a new potential source of talent, signing up five Olympic Games sponsors – BP (which already worked with Pilotlight), Adidas, BT, Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance and Deloitte – to mentor nine charities in Pilotlight's Legacy for London project. The charities were chosen because they were based in host Olympic boroughs, or because they had a link with children or sport.

"The Olympic motto – 'faster, higher, stronger' – played in my head, because I thought Pilotlight can help charities grow faster, higher, stronger. Look at all those Olympics partners, look at the skills," says Halton.

Shortfall

Aanchal Women's Aid, in Newham, was one of the first charities involved. It has supported more than 15,000 South Asian women affected by domestic abuse, dealing with an average of two cases every day. But in 2009 it lost all of its local authority funding, and by the end of the 2009-10 financial year it had a £160,000 shortfall. Just over a year later, after working with executives from Deloitte, BP, BT and Lloyds TSB, the charity's income was higher than it had been before the cut, and it is now helping 60% more people.

New Choices for Youth, in Newham, which has a 10-bed residential unit for children leaving care and runs late-night youth clubs, training for teenage parents and volunteering opportunities for young people not in education, employment or training, is another of Pilotlight's Olympics projects. It lost its local government contracts in 2010 and turnover fell from £1.2m to £500,000 overnight. Thanks to the support of the Pilotlight team, the chief executive says she now knows how much each of its services costs, has a cost-recovery model in place and a business plan in the pipeline.

Since 2003, Pilotlight has encouraged senior business people to give their time - which the charity values at more than £7.2m - to 300 small charities. On average, charities have doubled their reach 12 months after the end of the year-long process and increased turnover by 50%.

It works because the corporate partners gain as much as the charities, Halton says. "Corporates have an awful lot to learn from charities at a time of recession. Charities and social enterprises are the survivors," she says.

But not everyone is going to be able to access a Pilotlight team. What is Halton's advice for small charities weathering the storm on their own?

Number one is to take time out to plan, with the help of a "critical friend" from in or outside of the charity sector, she replies. "Even though one feels dazzled in the headlights, trying to firefight, to take a pit stop is very important," says Halton. "Be clear about what you're trying to achieve in the next three years, even if it looks as if there's a cliff in front of you. Then you are likely to be able to get there," she adds.

Diversifying your income is also key. She recommends revisiting grant funding streams, noting that funders got fewer applications for a while because charities assumed they would be deluged. Social enterprise is another way to generate funding, but it has got to be related to your core offering: "Don't just add on a cafe if you're not used to running cafes," Halton warns.

Finally, she says, focus. "Get your team together and look at why you were set up and agree on what you shine at. Think about paring down the rest. These things … take time and guts to do."

In a world where councils are often faced with dozens of competing bids to run services, all differently priced and claiming to be unique, says Halton, both councils and charities stand to benefit from increased interaction.

Her latest idea is Pilotlight Local, which aims to build Pilotlight teams containing senior representatives not only from big businesses based in the same geographic area as the charity but also the local authority.

Not, she stresses, so they can award contracts to those they have met, but to mentor them on public sector bidding, and simultaneously gain a better understanding of the way charities operate. There will also be workshops bringing the charities together to share experience and resources.

Connections

The process is already under way in Hillingdon, west London, where three charities helping vulnerable people will work with airport operator BAA. Lewisham, in south London, is also signed up and Pilotlight hopes to work with nearby Southwark and Lambeth too. It will evaluate the Hillingdon scheme, looking not just for growth in charities' turnover and reach but also increased connections between charities, business and the local authority.

Businesses pay £3,600 to Pilotlight for each employee who signs up to become a mentor. They have corporate social responsibility programmes to consider. But councils don't. Have they got the time and will to get involved? "I think they should have if they are commissioning," Halton responds.

Despite her optimism about the better chances that a business-based understanding of competition and costing can give charities, she knows that many specialists will still struggle. "It gets very difficult [particularly] with services for hard-to-reach communities, where in fact the pricing just may never be what the [local] authority would desire, because of the [cost of dealing with] complex needs."

Would she advise someone seeking to set up a small charity today to do it? After a considerable pause, she says: "Yes. I would tell them to see if they're offering something they felt very seriously was different. Could it be offered through a charity that's already up and running? If you really feel you have something that's ahead of the curve, if you burn and feel it's important, then go ahead. But realise it will be very hard."

Just how hard is illustrated by a meeting with small refugee organisations that Halton had a year ago in west London. "There were 30, 40, a lot," she remembers. "And now there's one left. [That's] in an area where there's a big refugee population and they're much needed."

Curriculum vitae

Age 54.

Family Married, with three children.

Lives London.

Education North London Collegiate school for girls; English degree, University of Oxford.

Career 2000-present: chief executive, Pilotlight; 1998-2000: set up Timebank; 1990s: voluntary sector consultant; 1986-88: co-director, Charity Projects (whose operating name was Comic Relief), when she set up the Holborn Great Investment Race and other fundraising events; 1983-86: founder and executive director, British Film Year.

Public life Runner-up, Veuve Clicquot businesswoman of the year 1986.

Interests Family, cinema, reading, exercise, walking.