Our process

In Autumn 2023 our group of 10 charity transformation consultants got together around a shared frustration at the speed of transformation within the sector. Since then we have been conducting research, convening key players and sharing our learnings. We're working out in the open so that you can follow our journey as we test and learn our way forwards.

Principles

Inspired by agile

We wanted to be transparent about what we’re doing and learning along the way. We wanted to communicate from the start, adjust and tweak as we go, not wait for months before we publish something. We started publishing on LinkedIn back in December 2023 and will keep adding there and to this website.

Transform beyond technology

When we talk about digital change or (digital) transformation, we talk about it as something that happens on the intersection of People (Culture, Skills and Training), Process (Ways of Working & Planning) and Technology (Systems & Data).

Venn diagrams consisting of three bubbles - People (Cultures, Skills and Training), Process (Ways of Working and Planning) and Technology (Systems and Data) . Digital transformations is what happens on the intersection of the three bubbles.

Design approach

We’ve been inspired by the human centred systems thinking design process - we go wide in our exploration and thinking, then focus in and prioritise.

We’ve done this many times.

In July we identified how we as Charity Change Collective can uniquely support the charities in (digital) transformation.

We’re now working on the roadmap for 2024/25.

Three diamond shapes representing design process with going wide (first half of the diamond) and focusing in (second half of the diamond). Diamond one is 'problem definition', diamond two is 'problem analysis', diamond three is 'solutions'.

This image shows the summary of what we’re trying to do. We use at the beginning of every meeting. It reminds us of our mission as Charity Change Collective and sets us up for the discussion ahead.

The image is directly lifted from our Miro board which holds all our notes and discussions from the very beginning of the process. The board is MASSIVE but we like it because we have a record of each stage of our design process.

How we got here and what’s next

Problem

Over the years of working as consultants in the nonprofit sector we feel that the sector is stuck on digital transformation. At best, charities are transforming the technology (and data up to a point), but majority are not tackling people, culture and process parts of transformation.

Vision

We see that this is holding charities back. They are losing relevance in the 21st century world, struggling to survive and attract new supporters. That is why we want the sector to modernise so it can continue to serve the modern societies we live in.

Who do we need to influence?

Based on our problem analysis early on in the process we knew that the lack of confidence of changemakers in leading change (wherever they are in the hierarchy) is holding organisations back on digital transformation.

We identified three main groups of changemakers:

  • those who know digital transformation and think it’s important for their organisation

  • those who don’t know digital transformation but think it’s important for their organisation

  • those who don’t know digital transformation and think it’s NOT important for their organisation (or want someone else to deal with it)

We didn’t want to divide groups by hierarchy as this produces superficial insights - what people feel, think and do on digital transformation is not always due to their role in the hierarchy.

However, we are aware that when bringing people together into a discussion, we need to bear hierarchy in mind in order to enable psychological safety and trust amongst participants.

Assumption

If we support the first two groups of changemakers we believe it will create a momentum and others will follow.

What are we changing?

We want to change attitudes towards digital transformation:

FROM changemakers who lack confidence

TO changemakers who have confidence to lead transformation.

We identified some metrics for this. But we will only really know if we’re doing it from qualitative feedback from clients, colleagues and agencies in the sector. So feel free to reach out to any one of us or contact us.

Testing solutions

Out of many solutions we came up with in the design process, we focussed on the three interventions which we tested at the Charity Change Summit in June 2024:

  • Action learning sets - where people can share their experience and advice on digital transformation

  • Sabotage your charity workshop - as a way of understanding how culture can undermine efforts to modernise an organisation

  • Digital transformation tips - content and tips to build confidence on digital transformation

(Write up of what we found based on these tests is coming up soon!)

Roadmap for 2024/25

Using all we learnt from the Charity Change Summit and our discussions and interactions with participants and peers in the sector we created a list of all thing we could do. Then we applied prioritisation criteria to that big list - what we as members of the Charity Change Collective can uniquely contribute to the sector in the next year?

We voted and these are the top four activities we agreed on:

  1. A Charity Change Summit twice a year, like the one in June but lasting a whole day.

  2. A practical guide on transformation - based on the insights gained at the beginning of this process (the iceberg problem analysis)

  3. Transformation leadership L&D - some sort of CCC co-created course or product that supports leaders to learn key concepts and skills with examples from other orgs to bring it to life

  4. Action Learning Sets - bringing changemakers together so they can share problems in the quest to find (and try out) solutions.

After the summer break we’re busy working on putting these plans into action. So more is to come!

The quickest way to hear about further updates or events, follow the Charity Change Collective LinkedIn page or sign up to our emails.