Our development partners

We want to help charities become more resilient so they can thrive beyond the lifetime of our relationship. We do this by helping charities identify their development goals, sharing our tools and resources, and drawing on our connections with Lloyds Banking Group and sector partners. We provide a wide range of development support to charities we partner with, these offers include:

• In-depth one-to-one support tailored to the needs of charities delivered by over 100 experienced and vetted consultants
• Peer networking, learning and training
• Support from Lloyds Banking Group, drawing on colleagues’ broad range of skills and expertise
• A range of bespoke programmes and support from organisations with specialist knowledge of the sector
• Leadership development programmes
• Resources, templates and toolkits
• Membership to specialist sector wide networks including ACEVO and Association of Chairs

Development outcome areas

Our development support offer is aimed at addressing a range of development outcomes:

• Excellent leadership
• Stronger governance
• Skilled staff and volunteers
• Clear strategy and planning

• Effective services
• Robust Systems and processes
• Systematic monitoring and evaluation
• Sustainable finance and fundraising
• Effective communications, marketing and influencing

How we select development partners  

The needs of the charities we partner with drive our approach to identifying and working with development partners. Through regular conversations, structured feedback and annual monitoring reports we learn about the ambitions, strengths,  challenges and emerging needs of the charities we partner with. From this, we assess how well our existing organisational development support meets charities’ needs. When we identify gaps in our existing provision, whether that is type of support offer, outcome area, or location, we seek to fill this with focused recruitment campaigns, strategic partnerships, or developing bespoke offers.

To balance the needs of charities, the makeup of our existing portfolio, and maintain transparency and equity in our processes, we onboard new development partners in three ways:

1. Open recruitment process for individuals. We carry out an open recruitment process for individuals to apply for. We outline the key skills and experience we are looking for, deadlines for receiving applications which we assess through an internal panel before then interviewing all shortlisted applicants. We do not onboard individual consultants outside of this process. We are not currently open to any new individual applicants.
   
   
2. Expressions of interest from organisations. We accept expressions of interest from organisations that provide specialist support rather than general consultancy advice and support. We give preference to charitable organisations located in England and/or Wales. 
   
   If you provide specialist support and wish to apply to become a development partner,  you can learn more about our eligibility and process and find the Expression of Interest below.
   
   Please note that we are not accepting expressions of interest for the delivery of Leadership Programmes
   
   

            3. Targeted tendering process. When a specific and bespoke need emerges we will seek to fill this through a one off tendering processes. This will include for example bespoke leadership programmes. We are not currently seeking any new specialist providers.

Outside of these three approaches we do not accept speculative applications from individuals or organisations. Our aim is to make sure we have the right balance and distribution of support offers for the charities we work with. While we cannot guarantee onboarded development partners will be commissioned by a charity, we try to manage our portfolio so that everyone gets the chance to work with our charity partners while also giving charities choice.