Progress 81 is a charity consultancy focusing on the link between organisational development and capacity for fundraising. We focus on demonstrating the impact voluntary sector youth organisations make through robust measurement and evaluation systems and by improving operational processes and wider business strategy.
Sustainable fundraising, trust and reputation of charities is increasingly under the spotlight, with those funding, commissioning or investing in voluntary organisations increasingly asking about the difference organisations have made rather than just what they’ve delivered. A survey with 35 high net worth individuals showed 75% think the impact they have is the most important element when choosing a charity to support, this was higher than good governance, reputation and effective spending.
However, there's a gap in the market meaning small and medium youth charities cannot access the level of strategic support they need to demonstrate the social impact they're having in a robust way. Large charities can engage with big business consultancies for strategic support, however, smaller ones are priced out of this and many of the pots of money they can apply to have restrictions that the funds cannot be used for core costs or consultancy. They are therefore missing out on opportunities to engage and inspire funders to secure the income needed to sustain their services.
10 For 10 brings together 10 small youth focused charities in need of transformational support with 10 individuals contributing £10,000 each. These funds pay for 300 days of expert consultancy across the portfolio with all charities benefiting from full impact reviews, support to design and develop monitoring and evaluation strategies and the creation and implementation of the necessary systems processes and tools to do this. Each charity is part of a three-month intensive project followed by nine months of support to implement systems, manage change internally and start to analyse and present their data and impact.
The 10 funders not only receive a full project plan for the work being carried out with their paired charity, regular updates and an end of year report on the charity’s progress but also access to see the work of their charity in action. The survey of funders carried out showed 78% felt seeing the charity in action was the most important benefit of donating. Funders will also be able to get involved in the project work itself through strategy sessions or being a visiting board member or advisor.
Through our work with the charities, funded by passionate philanthropists, we expect to see an increase in income generation of 25% and therefore an increase in their reach and numbers of beneficiaries of 35% over the following two years. More importantly increasing the number of young people who receive vital support to help them have positive and successful lives.
