THE FIRST SIX MONTHS OF LSF FUNDING:

ENABLERS AND CHALLENGES BULLETIN1

7TH MARCH 2017
This bulletin explores the factors that have enabled projects to progress and the challenges
grant holders have faced during the first six months of their LSF funding. The findings in this
bulletin are based on analysis of mid-year reports, submitted by grant holders in December
2016. A sample of 80 projects were identified and their reports analysed, representing a
cross section of different sized organisations (based on turnover) across the regions. The
mid-year reports asked specifically about key successes and challenges with business
partners, local advisors and volunteers and as such this bulletin focuses particularly on these
areas, however grant holders also reported other challenges which are discussed here.

ENABLERS: factors that have enabled projects to progress

Effective Local Advisor
Overall, the local advisor relationship with grant holders has been positive and perceived by
grant holders to have made a difference to their projects and/or organisations. All but one
of the 80 grant holders had developed a relationship with their local advisor who has
supported them in often multiple and diverse ways with their projects. Some grant holders
were working with a different local advisor to the one they started with or were working
with multiple advisors (see challenges below). Analysis of the mid-year reports suggests
that for most projects (51 projects) the local advisor has provided targeted support with
specific activities/discrete projects as well as more general support as a critical friend. The
role of the local advisor has varied widely between projects from providing strategic support
at board level to advising on quality standards to support with developing financial
management systems. Most commonly, local advisors supported projects with the
following:

Strategic planning and thinking, often acting as a sounding board for trustees and
senior staff;
Generating income, including providing help to develop new products/services,
developing funding strategies and advice on preparing funding bids and proposals;
Making new connections, networks and partnerships;
Research and consultation, including with service users, customers and staff;
Monitoring and evaluation, including theory of change and developing frameworks
and tools for evaluating impact.

1
This bulletin was written by Joanna Stuart from NCVO. Analysis was undertaken by the author.
Many grant holders commented on the positive difference local advisors had made to their
projects, although these relationships have not been without their challenges (see section
on challenges). Some described their local advisors role as key or integral to achieving
strategic change within their organisation or enabling progress with their project.

Our LSF advisor has supported us in working as a whole company to address some of
the challenges in sustainability and governance. The quality of our advisor
has been key in understanding our complex organisation and helping us to see beyond
the day to day operation and to think more strategically as a whole organisation

The impact of the advisor on the organisation has been evident in the reporting
processes which have been developed to ensure that the Board of the Trust are fully
informed and engaged in the strategic development of the Trust

Grant holders identified particular attributes, competencies and attitudes that they
particularly valued in their advisor and which helped underpin a successful relationship.
These include:

The advisor having..

Experience, skills and knowledge of particular Our LSF advisers have provided a strong
sectors, services or areas of work sounding board and been critical friends
Sufficient time and capacity to engage and to the organisation in relation to the
changes and direction we need to take;
communicate with the grant holder
providing practical help, support, advice
An outsiders, objective perspective and capacity building within the wider
Ability to challenge thinking whilst being team
constructive, sensitive and measured
Overall, the experience of working with
And the advisor being.. the advisor has been extremely positive
and critical to the project. We felt
Reliable, Accessible, Focused, Motivating,
supported and at the same time
Empowering, Honest, Trustworthy, Patient
challenged by the engagement. The
advisor has been a balancing force within
Business Partnerships the relationships on the board and has
The experiences grant holders have had with business offered very valuable external
partners and the perceived difference these perspective
partnerships have made varied widely between
projects. Many business partnerships appeared strong but a number of the grant holders
have found this element of LSF challenging. Analysis of the mid-year reports revealed that
68 of the 80 projects had developed relationships with business partners beyond an initial
meeting/correspondence and businesses supported their project in some way during the
first six months of funding. The level and nature of this support varied substantially between
projects. Many grant holders indicated that the key role of the business advisor was
targeted support, providing help on discrete projects or activities (40 projects), however
others suggested that their business advisor also played a general advisory role alongside
providing more targeted support (29 projects). Business advisors provide a wide range of
support to projects, however most commonly they have helped with:

Generating new income supporting projects to develop new funding streams and
diversify their income, including help to develop new products and services
Practical support helping projects with a range of practical activities including
providing free rooms for meetings and events, providing training for staff and
trustees and running events
Partnerships helping grant holders to develop new contacts, networks and
relationships
Strategic planning/thinking support for trustees or senior staff with organisational
planning and strategic thinking
Marketing support to develop marketing approaches and tools including branding,
development of marketing materials and support with social media

Some of the grant holders already had existing relationships with businesses and built on
these as part of their LSF project. This helped some projects to make progress more quickly
and, in some circumstances, helped foster strong partnerships. The more positive and
effective relationships also tended to be those where the business partners were more
readily available and had time to commit to the project.

Volunteering
Volunteering featured strongly in some mid-year reports and not at all in others. Beyond the
core relationship with the business partner, 35 of the 80 projects reported having developed
volunteering opportunities with local businesses or built on an existing employer supported
volunteer programme during the first six months of funding. In some cases these
opportunities developed from the business partner relationships and involved other staff
from those businesses in different volunteer roles. Volunteering opportunities range from
one day challenge style events to discrete short term projects such as building databases
or marketing research to regular fundraising.

Nineteen projects had not developed volunteering links with local businesses at all whilst 27
were at various different stages of developing opportunities and making connections with
businesses around volunteering. Some of the projects were developing volunteer roles and
opening up new opportunities within their organisations but not linking this to business
volunteering whilst others had focused on developing new volunteer practices and
procedures over the last six months.
CHALLENGES: factors that have affected progress
Staff capacity
For many projects not having sufficient staff capacity to deliver their LSF project alongside
other work has been a key issue over the last six months. Thirty two projects cited this as a
key challenge whilst seven cited difficulties in recruiting staff to particular roles as a major
barrier to progress. Some felt that they had under-estimated how much staff time was
needed to deliver their project. With regards to staff capacity, the following issues were
particularly highlighted in the mid-year reports:

Conflicting priorities with others areas of work

Management time required has reduced management Increased managerial capacity
capacity in other areas has generated new opportunities
Organisational crises including loss of staff have but increased workload. This has
diverted staff time away from LSF created additional time pressures
Securing trustees time to work on the project has been on management. Focusing
challenging management resources on
More time intensive than expected recruiting business developing the organisation and
partners and working with them, particularly where working towards the quality
partnerships have failed and new ones had to be marks has necessitated less time
established than anticipated being available
More staff time focused on recruiting and supporting for development of social
volunteers than expected enterprises
Recruitment and co-ordination of business partners and
local advisors can be resource intensive

Business Partners
Grant holders were asked specifically about any challenges they have faced with their
business partners. The most common issue noted by projects was difficulties in securing
enough time with their business partner due to their other commitments. This was noted as
a challenge by 30 grant holders with a further nine saying they werent able to engage their
business partner or that their business partner had pulled out of the project. This was
typically due to their key contact leaving the business or not having enough time. Grant
holders also noted challenges in recruiting business partners (5) and issues around the
cultural or attitudinal differences between businesses and charities (7).

It has taken time for our corporate partners to understand the cultural
differences between running a charity and running a commercial business,
particularly the challenge of operating with a very small staffing team
Volunteers
Grant holders identified a number of challenges they have experienced with business
volunteering. Most commonly this centred on planning and co-ordinating volunteering, with
grant holders identifying the following specific issues:

Staff resources and associated costs of organising

challenge or team building days for businesses
Challenge of finding business volunteers to support
more complex ongoing projects rather than one off
challenge events
Lack of clear roles for business volunteers or
difficulties with involving business volunteers in
client or service user facing roles
Matching the expectations and interests of
business volunteers with the needs of the
organisation
The need to work around business volunteer
hours and their own commitments and deadlines
Our challenge is that whilst we
can find corporate support to do
a range of one off challenge
events (such as helping at a food
bank or building something on a
community allotment) it is harder
to find business support from
more complex projects where we
would benefit from input such as
legal advice or an architect

Some grant holders (9 projects) cited the support of volunteers as a particular challenge,
particularly in terms of having staff capacity to provide sufficient support. Issues with
recruitment including difficulties in finding business volunteers to fill more time intensive or
longer term volunteer roles and lack of capacity amongst businesses to release staff to
volunteer were also noted.

Organisational culture and attitudes

For some grant holders (16 projects) organisational culture or staff/trustee attitudes
towards the project or LSF process were a challenge to project progress. Specifically, issues
identified by grant holders included:

Lack of engagement with, or concerns from, trustees about advisors or the advisor
process, including the perceived value of a consultant, level of experience of
individuals and value for money
Time required by trustees to understand the role of the local advisor in relation to
their own roles
Resistance to change and getting buy-in amongst trustees or staff
Clash of cultures between different sectors business, public and charity
Lack of understanding of charity culture amongst businesses
 From the changes already taken forward there are some signs of
change resistance which was always to be expected. Moving the
organisation from an unstructured collegiate style to a more structured
style with clear accountabilities was always going to take time

Advisors
Overall, grant holders were positive about their local
Our advisor is generally
advisors. Challenges with these relationships were less
available for advice and
likely to be identified compared to business partnerships,
encouragement but given
however some issues were raised in the mid- year
his own substantial
reports. Finding suitable and sufficient time with local
professional commitments
advisors was highlighted as a challenge amongst some
this has to be fitted into his
grant holders (6 projects), primarily due to advisors
own busy timetable
existing work commitments. Six grant holders reported
that their advisors had left the project and that they had
found, or were in the process of, finding a new one.

Changing operating environment

For some grant holders changes to the environment in which they are operating posed
significant challenges to their project and wider organisation. Most commonly these were
funding related, including contracts being terminated or grant funding under threat.
However, other challenges were identified including the changing political climate, including
Brexit and the increasing demand on services.

The main challenge that has impacted our attempts at longer term planning is the level
of uncertainty in the wider context within which we work. The changes in public sector
staffing, policy and practice, cuts to front-line services, and the raising of intervention
thresholds have all hindered our efforts to make a proper assessment of our
'marketplace'.

Emerging learning
The analysis of the mid-year reports has provided useful insight into some of the factors that
have helped and hindered projects to progress. On the whole, grant holders were positive
about the relationships they have developed with local advisors and local business partners,
although challenges were particularly highlighted with the business relationships. These
partnerships are at various stages of development, particularly in terms of developing
business volunteering. Grant holders have faced particular challenges where the initial local
advisor or business partner are no longer part of the project and grant holders have had to
find and develop relationships with new partners.