What you can expect
Throughout the lifetime of your partnership with us, we’ll work with you to learn what your most pressing organisational challenges are and how we can help you to overcome them through our range of free development support.
We’ll ask you what challenges you’re facing and what areas you want to develop around, be it improving your governance, developing a fundraising strategy, or introducing a new database. Our Regional Manager will meet with your Chief Executive or a senior member of staff to talk through this in more detail so they can understand more about you and your charity and the areas you’re looking to develop in.
If you’re new to working with us, we’ll explain all aspects of our relationship with us.
Throughout the duration of your partnership with us, we will meet regularly with you to discuss your organisation development needs, and plan support for you, so you get the support you need, when you need it most.
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Our guiding principles for providing development support
Do I need to prepare in advance?
What is available to my charity?
Whilst the funding gave us the breathing space to plan, it was the fantastic non-financial support that gave us the skills to understand what we needed to consider and how to evaluate it – and it has completely transformed where we are as an organisation.
Our guiding principles for providing development support
- There is no single model of good practice to which we want those we partner with to conform.
- Leadership commitment and engagement are requirements for charities to access development support
- Our charity partners have full ownership of their development agenda and journey. Our role is to listen to what they are already good at and what's going well and build on that.
- All organisations we partner with can receive ongoing development support throughout the life of our relationship.
- We support charities we partner with to identify and prioritise their development needs, at their own pace, to tackle the things that matter most to them.
- We understand that organisational development is not a linear process; that needs change over time, as those we support, and the context in which they work, also change.
- Our approach is grounded in continuous conversations throughout the relationship, building trust and working through challenges together along the way.
- Development support is at the heart of our offer, but the support charities take up doesn’t need to be limited to our offerings. Charities will likely access support from a range of other sources throughout and beyond our engagement.
- Support is provided free of charge to charity partners. While we hold a nominal budget internally for each partner, our support is led by the needs of the charity and not by the budget available.
- Those we fund are the clients when third-party support is commissioned, not the Foundation.
- We primarily focus on investing in capabilities, not offering quick fixes or doing things for charities. We facilitate skills and knowledge development within organisations so charities can continue to improve their effectiveness beyond our relationship.
Do I need to prepare in advance?
- There is no single model of good practice to which we want those we partner with to conform.
- Leadership commitment and engagement are requirements for charities to access development support
- Our charity partners have full ownership of their development agenda and journey. Our role is to listen to what they are already good at and what's going well and build on that.
- All organisations we partner with can receive ongoing development support throughout the life of our relationship.
- We support charities we partner with to identify and prioritise their development needs, at their own pace, to tackle the things that matter most to them.
- We understand that organisational development is not a linear process; that needs change over time, as those we support, and the context in which they work, also change.
- Our approach is grounded in continuous conversations throughout the relationship, building trust and working through challenges together along the way.
- Development support is at the heart of our offer, but the support charities take up doesn’t need to be limited to our offerings. Charities will likely access support from a range of other sources throughout and beyond our engagement.
- Support is provided free of charge to charity partners. While we hold a nominal budget internally for each partner, our support is led by the needs of the charity and not by the budget available.
- Those we fund are the clients when third-party support is commissioned, not the Foundation.
- We primarily focus on investing in capabilities, not offering quick fixes or doing things for charities. We facilitate skills and knowledge development within organisations so charities can continue to improve their effectiveness beyond our relationship.
You may want to discuss your priorities with your trustees and staff team before we meet. You might find it useful to read about the type of support we offer in the links below and share these with your team as well:
Support from Lloyds Banking Group
We expect your Chief Executive or senior member of staff to be present. You may want a Trustee to join you, but it is not essential.
What is available to my charity?
We know that one size does not fit all when it comes to learning and development. That’s why we use all of our resources and connections including our connection with Lloyds Banking Group to develop a range of offers that will best meet your needs. This can include training, coaching or mentoring, facilitated discussions, bringing in a skilled expert, workshops, webinars or events, or bespoke support.
These may take place virtually over Zoom or Microsoft Teams or in person at your offices or a specified venue. The support may be one-to-one or in group settings.
We’ve been developing our capacity building support programme since 2014, and our Regional Managers are experienced in working with small charities like yours and bringing in the right support at the right time. If you’re not sure what you need or even where to start, your Regional Manager will be there to help with that, from identifying areas to focus on, or even where to start.
You can use a plan to map this out and keep track of the support you’re using. You’ll find a template here and of course, you can work with your Regional manager if you’d like help completing it.
We want to make sure that this works best for you so all of this support will be planned around your capacity and move at your pace. Where possible, we’ll give you a choice of different providers and offers so you can pick what best meets your needs.
All of this is completely free. We have a ringfenced budget for this for each charity to use which is renewed each year you have a grant with us. So, we recommend that you take advantage of these offers every year for the duration of your grant.
Other offers
We regularly develop resources, toolkits and guides that are available to all charities at any time for free on our website.
While some of our support is available throughout the year, we also arrange events, webinars and networking opportunities throughout the year, and work with Lloyds Banking Group on specific yearly support offers. Your Regional Manager will let you know when these are available and how you can get involved.
Throughout our relationship with you, we’ll meet regularly and signpost you other resources and support offers we hear about that others are delivering which might be of interest to you. You can also sign up for our monthly newsletter here to get news from us, find out when we have new resources and events and hear about funding and support from across the sector that might be of interest to you.
We know that one size does not fit all when it comes to learning and development. That’s why we use all of our resources and connections including our connection with Lloyds Banking Group to develop a range of offers that will best meet your needs. This can include training, coaching or mentoring, facilitated discussions, bringing in a skilled expert, workshops, webinars or events, or bespoke support.
These may take place virtually over Zoom or Microsoft Teams or in person at your offices or a specified venue. The support may be one-to-one or in group settings.
We’ve been developing our capacity building support programme since 2014, and our Regional Managers are experienced in working with small charities like yours and bringing in the right support at the right time. If you’re not sure what you need or even where to start, your Regional Manager will be there to help with that, from identifying areas to focus on, or even where to start.
You can use a plan to map this out and keep track of the support you’re using. You’ll find a template here and of course, you can work with your Regional manager if you’d like help completing it.
We want to make sure that this works best for you so all of this support will be planned around your capacity and move at your pace. Where possible, we’ll give you a choice of different providers and offers so you can pick what best meets your needs.
All of this is completely free. We have a ringfenced budget for this for each charity to use which is renewed each year you have a grant with us. So, we recommend that you take advantage of these offers every year for the duration of your grant.
Other offers
We regularly develop resources, toolkits and guides that are available to all charities at any time for free on our website.
While some of our support is available throughout the year, we also arrange events, webinars and networking opportunities throughout the year, and work with Lloyds Banking Group on specific yearly support offers. Your Regional Manager will let you know when these are available and how you can get involved.
Throughout our relationship with you, we’ll meet regularly and signpost you other resources and support offers we hear about that others are delivering which might be of interest to you. You can also sign up for our monthly newsletter here to get news from us, find out when we have new resources and events and hear about funding and support from across the sector that might be of interest to you.
How can I access this support?
You’ll meet with your regional manager for a 60 - 90 minute conversation either virtually or face to face. This will take place at least twice a year, the first time will be shortly after your grant has been approved.
During these conversations, we’ll work together to identify your organisation’s development needs, prioritise them, understand your capacity and staff team, and offer the support that could meet all those needs.
Following this meeting, your Regional Manager will share more information on what’s available, this could include profiles of local consultants or packages of support from national providers we partner with, support from Lloyds Banking Group, IT equipment. If we can’t help, then what’s available outside the Foundation.
If this support is best provided by a consultant, you and your Regional Manager will draft a brief to commission that support. Once our team has approved this, we’ll send you an e-mail to confirm and the consultant / provider will then contact you.
Within four working weeks, your consultant will have an initial meeting with you to discuss what you would like help with in more detail and draw up a plan. These projects can take between 3 to 12 months to complete.
If a consultant cannot take on your project for any reason, we expect them to tell us quickly, so we can arrange alternative support for your charity.
We were connected to a regional manager who introduced us to the Foundation for Social Improvement (FSI). The FSI helped us modify our fundraising strategy and delivered fundraising workshops for our team. With the help of our regional manager and the Foundation, we were able to design a business plan, communications strategy, and fundraising strategy. We considered alternative revenue streams, examining potential "products" we can offer and how we might profit from them to promote sustainability.
Hayley Brown, CEO, Link to Change / trafficking charity in Bedfordshire
What’s expected from my charity?
Time commitment
We know that besides the cost of it, time can often be a barrier to accessing this support. While all our support is completely free, we can’t shy away from the fact that it will take time and commitment from your charity. We think that investing that time into building the skills, capabilities, and capacity of your charity now can make a lasting difference to your charity and benefit your staff, volunteers, board and people you support over the long term. We hear that from so many charities that have gone through this support.
If you’re working with a specialised consultant, the support they provide will help you to do things yourself, rather than doing them for you. For example, if developing a fundraising strategy, they’ll give you a framework and support you to develop a fundraising strategy yourself. They will act as a sounding board, challenge you and be a critical friend to your charity. This way you gain the skills and knowledge that will stay with you in the long term.
Open communication
When you decide what support will best meet your needs, we’ll give you an estimate of how much time you’ll need to commit as it differs per offer. If you can no longer meet with an external support provider whether it’s a consultant, organisation or Lloyds Banking Group staff, you will need to let them know, giving as much advance notice as possible. They will all give you notice as well if they can no longer meet.
We want conversations between you and the consultants or Lloyds Banking Group staff who are delivering the support, to be honest and open. Therefore, these will remain confidential between you and will not be shared with the Foundation. If they have serious concerns about your safeguarding policy and practices which are putting your charity at risk, they may also disclose that to us without your permission. Your Regional Manager will then get in touch to discuss any concerns in more detail.
Reporting
Each year you’ll complete a short monitoring report as part of your relationship with us. One of the questions on the monitoring report is to learn more about what support you received that year and what difference it made to your charity.
We will invite you to discuss the impact of the support 18 months after the start of your relationship with us in a conversation with your Regional Manager. You will also receive a link to complete an anonymous survey once you’ve completed each individual support offer.
We review all monitoring reports quarterly, as well as our own write-ups on the 18-month discussions and anonymous survey responses so that we can improve our existing service offers and develop new ones if needed.
Time commitment
We know that besides the cost of it, time can often be a barrier to accessing this support. While all our support is completely free, we can’t shy away from the fact that it will take time and commitment from your charity. We think that investing that time into building the skills, capabilities, and capacity of your charity now can make a lasting difference to your charity and benefit your staff, volunteers, board and people you support over the long term. We hear that from so many charities that have gone through this support.
If you’re working with a specialised consultant, the support they provide will help you to do things yourself, rather than doing them for you. For example, if developing a fundraising strategy, they’ll give you a framework and support you to develop a fundraising strategy yourself. They will act as a sounding board, challenge you and be a critical friend to your charity. This way you gain the skills and knowledge that will stay with you in the long term.
Open communication
When you decide what support will best meet your needs, we’ll give you an estimate of how much time you’ll need to commit as it differs per offer. If you can no longer meet with an external support provider whether it’s a consultant, organisation or Lloyds Banking Group staff, you will need to let them know, giving as much advance notice as possible. They will all give you notice as well if they can no longer meet.
We want conversations between you and the consultants or Lloyds Banking Group staff who are delivering the support, to be honest and open. Therefore, these will remain confidential between you and will not be shared with the Foundation. If they have serious concerns about your safeguarding policy and practices which are putting your charity at risk, they may also disclose that to us without your permission. Your Regional Manager will then get in touch to discuss any concerns in more detail.
Reporting
Each year you’ll complete a short monitoring report as part of your relationship with us. One of the questions on the monitoring report is to learn more about what support you received that year and what difference it made to your charity.
We will invite you to discuss the impact of the support 18 months after the start of your relationship with us in a conversation with your Regional Manager. You will also receive a link to complete an anonymous survey once you’ve completed each individual support offer.
We review all monitoring reports quarterly, as well as our own write-ups on the 18-month discussions and anonymous survey responses so that we can improve our existing service offers and develop new ones if needed.
The Lloyds Bank Foundation is more than just a funder; it's a fantastic network where you can meet and learn from other organisations. We have a good working relationship with Neil, our regional manager, who has visited us and learned about our work. They are on our side, and because of that, reporting back to them is not a difficult or time-consuming task. Our ongoing relationship with the foundation has also been crucial to shaping the organisation's future success. By helping us develop a strategic plan involving an external consultant and different stakeholders, we have clear objectives for what we do now and what we want to achieve in the future. We have been able to share it with potential partners and funders.
Emily Carter, Business Development Manager, Handcrafted Projects / homelessness charity in the North East
