How does a small charity like Waltham Forest Community Hub make IMPACT?

It is remarkable how smaller charities operating on shoestrings manage to make the greatest difference when it comes to reaching and engaging people at a grassroots level…

Long before the pandemic threw the spotlight on civil society, as charities everywhere scrambled to help the most vulnerable within our communities, the voluntary sector was always focusing on where it mattered the most. It is therefore, nothing new for the sector, which gets it\’s resilience from always having to make do with very little. However, over the last two years I have learnt to stand my ground by advocating – small charity leaders know best, but don\’t just expect to pick our brains for FREE. On many occasions our charity has been paid a consultancy fee to gain valuable insight from senior leadership.

After conducting surveys with organisations over the last two years, Funders have been able to understand the imminent need to get funding to smaller charities. But how practical that is and how best to approach engagement has no doubt proven much more challenging than initially anticipated. Smaller charities often have limited fundraising capacity in their staff and sometimes are run by trustee boards with a fundraising skills gap too.

Even with the best of intentions Trusts and Foundations might find it really hard to engage small charities to access funding to get it where it is needed the most, especially in a borough that has no CVS (Council of Voluntary Services). London Borough of Waltham Forest currently has no CVS and as a result the voluntary sector has no independent voice or representation. In boroughs where the voluntary sector is weak, it is common practice for Local Authorities to engage the sector to hear ideas and suggestions without giving them the autonomy to fix the problems. However, that kind of practice will never strengthen it. Our Local Authority does the best they can to support and champion the voluntary sector through their Connecting Communities initiative. I would argue having an independent voice and the resources to make things happen to sustain the economy, is far more important than only being recognised as a sector that is working incredibly hard. Autonomy and trust, which reflect and determine great leadership, are both vital for transforming a community from being disjointed to becoming empowered.

3 Important Characteristics of Resilient Small Charities

1) Flexible capacity: every charity experiences varying levels of need throughout the year.  Some of this variance is predictable – for example an annual fundraising event.  Some of it is less so, for example if a key member of staff is suddenly unavailable, or if a particular tranche of funding falls through or if there is a sudden spike in demand for services.   Waltham Forest Community Hub gained capacity building support as an additional benefit to the funding received from the London Violent Reduction Unit. The arrangement came about following a collaborative partnership between them, Rocket Science and Action for Race Equality. We along with 16 other organisations were provided with training workshops, as well as one to one mentoring by a consultant and benefited from networking too.

2) Space to think and plan: there is a need to maintain a balance between being nimble enough to react and deal with crisis, as well as being proactive by planning and staying ahead of the curve.  Resilient charities will have a good mix because they have the time to breathe and think strategically about what they should do next.  Less resilient charities will feel as if they are always fighting fires reactively and are unable to plan effectively. Waltham Forest Community Hub managed to remain ahead of the curve by gaining greater insight of the gaps in our community through collaborative working and strengthening of relationships with stakeholders. Senior leadership prioritised \’thinking\’ – the focus was on reviewing the existing business plan and strategising a forward plan.

3) Good systems: An obvious and immediate way to build resilience is to have appropriate systems in place which suit your charity\’s size and activities.  Good systems save time, avoid mistakes and enable you to make better decisions.  Waltham Forest Community Hub was already using Quick Books online, an effective financial system, but it wasn\’t until after the pandemic hit in 2020 that we started to take everything online, including stopping the use of cheques and relying on a paper filing system. The best investment we made last year was to introduce a CRM System to improve monitoring of all our services. It cost us just over £6,000 with additional costs for training and implementation and it has taken staff over 6 months to get to grips with the system, but it has all been worth it. The introduction of better systems not only allows us to demonstrate impact better, but also enables us to be more efficient with our time.

You can learn more about Waltham Forest Community Hub at www.wfchub.org

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