ORGANISATION REFERENCE: E

THE ORGANISATION
ORGANISATION DESCRIPTION:
The organisation predominantly works with at risk young people in north east London. It
aims to help the young people reach their potential through drama. The organisation
engages over 5000 young people from areas in London which are measured as amongst the
most deprived estates in the UK. Every year it undertakes over 600 hours of activity, 18
performances and 150 workshops. Although historically it worked with other client groups
across London, in recent years it has tended to focus on younger people in its own London
borough. Its annual income was just under 372,000 a year in 2015/15 but has fallen
further since. It has twelve members of staff (only five do three days a week or more, no
one is paid for more than four days a week) and there are a further three
freelancers/sessional workers. Due to capacity issues, three members of staff in effect work
full time although this is not reflected in their pay. It was founded in 1996 and the founder
remains Artistic Director and retains a hands on role in running the organisation and is
also leading on the LSF process.

WHY THE ORGANISATION APPLIED TO THE LSF

The financial situation of the organisation had dramatically changed. There had been a
decline in funding over the previous decade, with a sharp fall in 2014/15 from the local
authority (50%). They wanted to diversify their funding streams, to become less dependent
on one funder and to work outside the borough. It is important to note the organisations
trajectory. Historically they did work in different boroughs and had different funding
sources but they had started to focus on their own borough because of the amount of work
there. They were seeking to expand their reach again in order to access new funding
opportunities.

There was a recognition that there would be a fundamental change in the organisation in
terms of what they deliver and the size of the organisation. They felt that they were
unlikely to recover to a similar size to what they had been before the 2008 economic
downtown. Other funding in this time, such as the Transition Fund in 2011, had not
prevented the downward trend:

We did some great stuff with our Transition Funding. But if I look back at what our
aims were, we havent achieved them, or not achieved the majority in the way we
thought we were going to. Because when we got the Transition funding, it looked
like we were going to recover. But actually its just been a downward slide.

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THE LSF PROJECT
WHO WAS INVOLVED AND WHAT WERE THEIR DIFFERENT ROLES?
In terms of how the organisation managed the LSF process, they originally planned a formal
meeting structure for the LSF grant, which was to consist of their senior staff and staff from
the advisors. This was not established and the Artistic Director tended to meet the advisor
on a one to one basis, partly due to the Associate Director being on long term sick leave.
Several members of the Board were interested in being part of the process, following the
initial presentation to them by the advisor. They therefore looked at forming a working
party rather than only having a single representative, which was discussed with the Board
in early December.

The organisation liaised regularly with their LSF advisor. They actively worked together on
the organisations strategy and business model. The advisors role was to identify markets
and make contacts. Having involved the advisor at the bidding stage for LSF, the
organisation felt that they already had a successful relationship.

The relationship with the business partner, a financial services group, was slower to
develop. Prior to the LSF application, they took advice from a local infrastructure
organisation who recommended they work with a regional business alliance which fosters
relationships with the charity sector. This had led to them having a closer working
relationship with the alliance and led to contact with their business partner. It also led to
other opportunities, including developing a way of getting business volunteers engaged in
their work (although this has not come to fruition yet). In addition, one of the
organisations Board members had previously worked for the business partner.

The business partner acted as a mentor to the Artistic Director, in order to help her deal
with some of the areas that the organisation found difficult. For example, the Artistic
Director needed to take a more ruthless approach, which they felt was not one of their
strengths. They began by focusing on how the organisation could ensure that it got the best
out of its relationship with the advisor, which was helpful as the business partner had
extensive experience of working with consultants.

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WHAT WAS THE LSF FUNDED PROJECT AIMING TO DO?
In their LSF application, the organisation identified three key changes it needed to make:

Find reliable new sources of income in a wider geographical area;

Develop an outcomes-based model focussed around education and employment;
Develop new services including more mental health, domestic abuse and gangs/ex-
offenders provision.

The activities chosen to achieve these aims were:

Market research about available bidding opportunities and to build relationships

with potential partners;
A new business plan setting realistic targets for planned growth (the aim is 750k by
2020);
A marketing plan to develop strategies for engaging Prime Contractors and schools
across London;
Financial modelling to ensure each product is correctly priced and help with
cashflow projections;
A case loading system to allocate service users to staff more efficiently and cost
effectively;
Product development to ensure that products are transferable to other locations;
Staff/board development: a staffing review to identify any skills gaps and develop
an organisational Training Needs Analysis;
Website development: a professional website developer to review and adapt their
website to target potential funders;
Social impact measurement: Economic Change CIC to complete work on impact
evaluation and review existing evidence to ensure appropriate evidence of
outcomes is available.

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ASPIRATIONS FOR THE LSF PROJECT WHAT SUCCESS WILL LOOK
LIKE IN 6 MONTHS, 12 MONTHS AND 5 YEARS
At the start of the project, the organisation considered what things would be like if their
LSF project was successful. Success and milestones were envisaged as:

Partway through the At the end of the After 5 years Who for?
project funded project
Developing the A new business plan The
relationship containing a new organisation.
between the business model. New
organisation and products
advisor.
Use of the right
language/terminology
in funding
applications.

Getting the business The

partner actively organisation.
involved.

A change in the The

organisations organisation.
mindset about what
it is they can
realistically do.

Actively putting in More funding, A move away The

new bids including for core from reliance on organisation.
activities. short term
funding, with
stable funding
of its core
activities. A new
delivery model
with a wider set
of services,
working in a
wider
geographical

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 area, with
diverse funding
streams, with
appropriate
systems and
processes.

Learning to be Have a growth A core staff The

lighter on their feet strategy which is team, which is organisation.
doing more with sustainable. Turnover as committed as
less. of 300,000. it currently is, The clients will
looking to the not just be
future. young people,
but all age
groups.

The organisation noted a number of background points relating to the aims summarised
above.

Bringing in new funding. They felt that this was very important, and needed to be
from different sources, beyond their own borough and through relationships with a
variety of funders. The organisation felt strongly that the Artistic Director needed to
be released from firefighting so that she had space to expand her business
development role. The organisation has an estate based model and they saw no
reason why this could not be rolled out to other boroughs.
They actually created these invisible walls and now they have to break them down.

Be more streamlined and efficient in identifying, evaluating and bidding for more
funding. The work needed to be spread out across the organisation more.
Need to adapt the delivery model to align it with current and emerging funding
sources. They believed that what they deliver has been really valuable to those who
have engaged, yet it did not fit exactly with what some of the current funding
opportunities out there require, e.g. in relation to what comes out from the Skills
Agency, Department of Health, and the Department for Work and Pensions around
employability. The organisation engaged with these organisations to some extent,
but needed to extend the journey of the beneficiaries in order to access new
funding. It was about finding a way to take the organisation to the next level,
whether as arts based funding or linking to welfare to work programmes. The

5
 advisor noted that the organisation had dipped their toes into these types of
funding before.

So I think they can find solutions in different ways. Its [LSF] taken them out of their
comfort zone.

PARTWAY THROUGH THE PROJECT

Six months into the delivery of the project, the organisation felt that they had achieved the
following successes:
* They had fully adopted the use of CRM for client management and had produced reports
from it, which had really helped the organisation. By April, they expected that it would be
saving them a lot of time I can see really clearly how thats a benefit to the organisation.
*They had been successful in a number of bids. One of these provided core funding, initially
for a year, but with the possibility of extending.
We are much more stable now, [this new funding] is pivotal to our existence.
There had been other, smaller new bits of funding too.
*They had diversified their types of income. One of the new projects was a Payment by
Results contract as a subcontractor. The advisor felt this would lead to ongoing contracts.
*The Artistic Director had been able to network more, which was important in developing
new sources of income.
*A fruitful relationship had developed with the business partner (a voluntary role), who
acted as a mentor to the Artistic Director. The partner had become very engaged with the
organisation, for example their wife has also attended performances.
*There had been less progress with the growth strategy at this stage.
They were particularly proud of achieving standard 2 for Project Oracle. This is because it
evidences that what we do works which will help us to promote the work. They were also
pleased about getting the subcontractor work (even though it is payment by results) for
opening up [a] new market of 25+ employment support and may put us in a good place to
gain further contracts.
They were then intending to focus on developing the new programme to deliver
employment outcomes through their creative approach, which they piloted in March. They
also focused on completing the three-year Business Plan we have not had a 3-year plan
in place since April 2015 and it is important.
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AT THE END OF THE LSF PROJECT

Having now come to the end of the LSF funded project, the organisation feels that they
have achieved the following successes:
Development strategy: What was formerly known as the growth strategy is now
termed a development strategy. It is a live document that is constantly updated. It
is very useful for the organisation internally. Furthermore, they can share parts of it
with funders when bidding for projects.
Cashflow has improved and staff capacity increased: They have won a number of
projects over the year. They are waiting to hear on a particular bid, and if they win
that they will feel like they have really done it, e.g. really achieved
sustainability/stability. One of the results of the new funding was that staff who
had had to go down to part-time were now full-time again, including the Artistic
Director.
Targets table: Their business partner helped them develop a targets table, an
Excel spreadsheet which stores the organisations information in a different way.
The information is less segmented, for example it is now possible to see activities
across projects.
Reserves: They have considerable increased their reserves (from 5,582 to
17,481), which was important because they were running low prior to the LSF
project.
Training offer: A key part of LSF was to move into training more, for example
around employability, for which they had won a payment by results contract. This
training had gone well and received good feedback.
New branding and website: This was now more corporate and dynamic. The
branding was done relatively cheaply through a special scheme where creative
people starting out are mentored by someone who is more experienced.

The project lead considered what these successes have meant for different stakeholders
at different stages of the project.

For me For the organisation For clients For the sector

A SHORT TIME INTO THE PROJECT

Implementing
Salesforce
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 (software). This
brought staff
together and
engaged them.

It was expected that An increase in

eventually it would funding
free up staff time applications,
during the course of although the
the project. organisation was
still spending a lot of
time on this.

Meetings with New

potential new partnerships
funders, including were being
some outside the formed.
borough.

PARTWAY THROUGH THE PROJECT

The conversations Thinking about their Clearer For the arts

the Artistic Director offer they were products: the sector, gaining
was able to have beginning to see process of the Project
with staff and with themselves as a honing what Oracle
other organisations. training organisation they do, the accreditation
work on LSF has helped and they
really impacted would never
on that. been able to do
this without
LSF.

The advisor felt it

was important that
initial new funding
has allowed the
organisation to
retain staff and buy
8
 the organisation
more time.

AT THE END OF THE PROJECT

Part funding the Staff capacity: New

Artistic Directors funding allows staff
post freed up her who had to drop to
time. Due to new part-time to be full-
funding she is now time again.
full-time again
beyond LSF.

Now able to
work with older
clients (25+)
through new
projects, these
are age groups
they previously
had to turn
away.
Participation in
LSF, including
networking
events, have
improved
broader
knowledge of
the sector: I
think LSF
funding made
me quite
articulate about
a number of
areas I do
think it gave me
knowledge and
information and
enabled me to
talk about a

9
 wider range of
things going on
across the
region and the
country because
of coming to
those sharing
meetings [LSF
Learning
Events].

Reflecting on their achievements, they think that there were some things that really
helped them:
They had a problematic relationship with their advisor, although in some respects they got
a great deal out of working with them, for example access to a funding pot they would
otherwise not have gone for.

We had significant issues with the consultants [advisors]. But we are not saying
they didnt achieve anything, they did. And if theyd got [a bid they lost] wed be
happy and would forgive other issues.

The organisation had a very productive relationship with their business partner who was
very hands on.

Was there anything that hindered what they could achieve?

They found the relationship with the advisor very challenging. This was exacerbated by the
fact that it was not easy to get out of the contract. Days that had been allotted to the
advisor during the application stage were later felt could be better used by other
specialised consultants, but this was not an option. For example, there was a challenge
around the Salesforce software, a vital part of the LSF work, which meant it was not able to
function without additional days from a specialist. But they were unable to reallocate funds
originally set aside for the advisor for this. The company are now looking to get this work
done on a pro bono basis.

In the end, the company agreed with the advisor not to pay the last instalment of the
contract and redeployed this money. They are now using a small amount to enrol as an
Accreditation Centre with AQA. In addition, the advisor used their final hours to get the
company set up to be on the Register of Training Organisations (RoTO).
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THEIR ASPIRATIONS FOR LONG-TERM SUSTAINABILITY
The LSF programme is fundamentally about helping organisations to improve their long-
term sustainability. Having now completed their LSF project, the organisation is now feeling
sustainable, with a clearer idea of what they are aiming for. This was because of getting
vital new funding but also a consideration of the organisations long-term future. It really
helped them to look at the bigger picture.

In future, the organisation will not necessarily aim to get bigger and bigger. The Artistic
Director reassessed what they were ultimately aiming for, with a limit to the ultimate size
of the organisation:

We dont want to become a largescale delivery organisation. I just think there needs
to be a reality check, the acceptance that small to middle scale organisations just
need to be small and middle scale organisations.

The pace of change they were aiming for also altered. They are based within another
theatre and feel that this relationship has really strong future potential. Because this
relationship is valuable, options about them leaving the building they share at this time are
less appealing:

For long term sustainability we are much better off here It is about biding your
time, waiting for the right moment

The organisation attributes some of their success to LSF, in particular because of the
funding, and time it freed up for staff and the contemplation it provided. Getting other
perspectives were useful, for example through the peer-to-peer visits.

THEIR EXPERIENCE OF THE LSF PROGRAMME

GETTING STARTED WITH LSF

They found the LSF application process straightforward and the Online Diagnostic Tool
(ODT) useful.

I thought the online diagnostic tool was very good.

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The Artistic Director felt that the ODT demonstrated that the organisation had a lot of
strengths. When an organisation is struggling for survival, it cannot always see that it has
good processes and the ODT enabled important reflection on this. But in terms of the
bigger picture, such as focusing on sustainability, looking at new markets and developing
branding, it became clear they needed assistance. As the Artistic Director noted in relation
to this:

I cant do it on my own.

The Artistic Director found the advisor on the application site. They made enquires with
three or four consultants, but their eventual advisors were the only ones that understood
her questions. In addition, it turned out that the Artistic Director knew people they had
worked with previously.

Scrutinising the organisation and the lift from winning the LSF award helped to define the
early stages.

So far its been really interesting. Weve been put in a position where we are really
scrutinising what we do, which is a really good thing, really important. Also the fact
we worked really hard to get this grant and did get it, gives the organisation a lift. It
has made us look at all the different policies and procedures we have in our
organisation.

PARTWAY THROUGH THE LSF PROJECT

At this stage, they felt that there had already been tangible success during the LSF period,
although they felt some of these would have happened anyway without LSF or help from
the advisor. This included:

*Stability in terms of funding, for at least the next year.

*New funding and new types of funding.

*Successful implementation of CRM.

*Product development they had thought about how drama engages people and applied
that to other contexts, such a training. We have had some really useful product
development

The advisor attended an event marking the organisations twentieth anniversary, which he
felt was important for him: We saw some of the kids do performances so it put it all in

12
context, it all puts it into reality. And it makes you remember the impact and all good work
they do.

There had also been challenges, including a seriously ill member of staff. They also felt that
they had misplaced some energy in the LSF work into obtaining small grants.

Despite the slow development of the growth strategy, they had a lot of ideas, but felt that
they would shortly be at the point of needing to decide what they will do.

Overall at this stage, they felt that they had made a great deal of progress during LSF. the
organisation is in a lot stronger position, I would say.

NOW AT THE END OF THE PROJECT

Looking back over the whole period of the LSF funding, the Artistic Director reflected that
delivery had had its ups and downs, especially in terms of the relationship with the advisor.
With the benefit of hindsight, they think that it would have helped to be able to
renegotiate their contract with their advisor earlier into the delivery of LSF. This is because
the nature of such work requires a dynamic approach. The initial market research
demonstrated there were not the opportunities they hoped there would be, so they had
had to change their approach. It would have been helpful at this stage to be able to use the
funding set aside for the advisors on other specialists instead. But, in effect, they were
locked in to a contract with people who did not necessarily have the right skills. I have
made good use of their time but also feel that some money was wasted.

IN TERMS OF HOW LSF WORKS, THEY REALLY LIKED

The application was seen as relatively easy to apply for and the ODT was found to
be a useful process.
The perspective of the advisor was seen as important. The Artistic Director
expressed some initial concerns about LSF, not least whether it was just a way of
funding consultants to do work that could be undertaken by the organisation itself,
such as bid writing. So an alternative model might be to fund an organisation
directly to do its core work. On the other hand, the organisation did recognise that
the advisors brought a valuable outside perspective.

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 We need to be having conversations with people at a high level, people with their
heads above the parapet. That is why it has to be consultants. We cant help each
other because we need people who are not part of the scrum.

The organisation needed time for reflection and LSF provided that:
Just the structure of doing it, let alone the money, helps you say, I am going to do
this, I am going to look ahead, and I think the voluntary sector, certainly our
organisation, had been in a situation where we really struggled to do that.

Participating in the evaluation and attending LSF events also helped in terms of
reflection and broader learning.

BUT THEY THINK IT WOULD BE BETTER IF

There was consideration as to whether the money would be better spent on paying
existing staff to write applications (see section above on roles). There was also
concern that LSF funding may be addressing the wrong issues.

There is a frustration with the fact you can get funding for this kind of change but
there is actually an assumption you can create work. When actually the nature of my
business is that we provide a service that has to be given free at the point of
contact.

However, the advisor believed it was possible to address these issues:

At the end of the day we are not market makers, so we have to adapt to where the
market is going to go.

An example of this capitalising on the trend towards larger contracts by becoming

more attractive as a sub-contractor. This was about becoming seen as a valuable
supply chain member.

There had been a delay in receiving funding, which meant that the advisor could not
be fully and actively involved until this was resolved. This set the project back by a
few months.
The advisor changed the main contact person. This means that a relationship
needed to be built up again.
It would be useful if the advisor relationship could be reconfigured in light of
developments in the organisations situation and/or market conditions.
LSF is tight to do in a year. It would have been better over 18 months, with a
reflection point nine months in.

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IN ONE SHORT PHRASE, THEIR EXPERIENCE OF LSF WAS

Interesting.

Its been really positive. When we had to complete the ODT it just pointed out what
a great, resilient organisation [we are], we have a strong core and strong policies in
place It has given us this real positivity to go forward and build something more
sustainable.

The LSF process, out of all the contract readiness funds, has been the easiest.
Because you dont have to do much in terms of quarterly reporting. So it has been
conducive in supporting the organisation.

The point of this is to work out whats not working and we can change that. Its
difficult in that way to say we need to let go of this and go down this route. So it
takes a while to work that out.

AND NOW THAT THEY HAVE REACHED THE END, THEY DESCRIBED THEIR EXPERIENCE OF LSF AS

It has enabled us to put ourselves in a much more sustainable position.

IN ONE SHORT PHRASE, THE MOST SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE THAT THE LSF PROJECT HAS
MADE SO FAR IS

LSF has helped us focus on the future, rather than just focusing on the present In effect it
has given us hope. Although my hope is mixed with a fairly clear awareness of what is going
on in reality.

The way we fundraise.

Identifying future opportunities for sustainable growth. [interviewees emphasis]

LEARNING
LEARNING FROM THE EARLY DAYS

At this stage, the Artistic Director noted several different lessons:

15
 There was emerging learning about how to you express yourself in funding
applications. This includes using the appropriate jargon.
Whilst they have been good at developing partnerships in the past, the organisation
is learning that they have to go out and make partnerships beyond those they have
already.
Having a new monitoring system, with tangible outputs set for each quarter and
following these up if they are not achieved.

LEARNING FROM PARTWAY THROUGH THE PROJECT

The process can produce epiphanies:

Product development and writing applications sometimes clarifies what you do. For
example, I had a lightbulb moment in an interview as part of a bid where I was
asked What are you, going forward? and I replied We are a training provider. So
you never know when you are going to get those moments.
As a small local organisation, there is an opportunity to work in a larger pond, you
just need the right partners/networks.
They are uncertain about whether an external advisor is always the best person to
summarise their work and what they do in an application; they feel that they have a
better handle on this.
Managing the expectations of what the organisation wants to do takes time and
work, which they may not have factored in. They note that in many capacity-
building programmes, you build in time for the grant holder, for example through
back filling, which does not happen so much with LSF.
There needs to be some flexibility around milestones because these were devised at
the start. The pre-application and application process is five months or so ago, and
things can change in that time. So it is about ensuring there is a structure of course,
but that there is also flexibility in terms of milestones

Learning for the advisor:

There was a period of getting to know each other as individuals and organisations at
the start. He felt he could have been more regimented about what he needed and
by when.

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KEY LESSONS REFLECTING BACK NOW FROM THE END OF THE PROJECT

There are challenges bringing someone in from the outside to work with an
organisation, a risk identified by the board. In this case it was the unfamiliarity
with the organisations area of work often proved difficult. Perhaps mediation
would have helped.

It is about working with consultants. Although they are the experts they are not
the experts in you. Maybe you need a consultant to manage your consultants. To
set you up in the beginning.

They noted that rather than paying consultant fees, a better use of money would have
been to facilitate more peer-to-peer support between voluntary sector organisations, in
effect acting as consultants with each other. The peer-to-peer visits in LSF were a good
example of this.

THE MOST IMPORTANT LESSON THAT THEY WOULD LIKE OTHER ORGANISATIONS IN A
SIMILAR POSITION TO THINK ABOUT IS

We will have to let go of ways of working, but [also] try and make sure that you let go and
make things better. We will lose some things that we are very proud of, which is to do with
level of investment in relationships, but can you make things somehow lighter and easier to
deliver?

Broadening your mind when it comes to fundraising. Because I think people can get very
stuck in what they do. And its very hard to get out of that routine.

Ensure you leave a legacy of knowledge and practical tools with the organisation for when
the project finishes.

The importance of peer learning within the sector: we could be helping each other with
sharing skills. That keeps the money in the voluntary sector.

17