Matt Stevenson-Dodd is the Chief Executive of Street League, UK’s leading sport for employment charity, and has been recently selected by The Guardian as one of the top charity CEO’s on social media. Matt is a guest speaker on the Clore6: Youth Sector Emerging Leaders Programme on 8 March.

The problem for charities with transparency is simple. Driven by a scarcity of funding, we feel compelled to tell ever more hard-hitting stories about the beneficiaries we serve rather than balancing this storytelling with hard facts about the actual impact we achieve (or don’t).

I believe we have reached the pinnacle of this story telling culture, epitomized by the collapse of Kids Company, who were seemingly built only on good stories with very few ‘facts’ to back them up.

This needs to change.

We need to balance good storytelling with hard facts, even if these hard facts don’t always tell a good story. If charities are truly focused on those in most need, then we have to accept that sometimes our work is really difficult and it doesn’t always get the results we want. We have a duty to tell this story, talking about what we do, as well as what we DON’T DO accurately and transparently.

Many charities think they are measuring their impact by reporting huge numbers of people they have ‘helped’. But what does ‘helped’ actually mean? Is it just saying hello to someone or does it mean truly making a change in that person’s life? This is where the culture of telling a good story has unfortunately taken over from transparent accurate impact reporting.

Let’s take a very measurable outcome, like getting someone a job. In many ways it is a binary ‘on or off’ outcome because that person will either get a job or they won’t, right? Well, yes to an extent, but unfortunately that is where many charities stop – they just tick the box and report that they have helped someone get outcome.

We don’t actually know anything about that person and whether they truly needed the help of the charity. What if the person who got the job was actually a university graduate with no socio-economic barriers the day before? Let’s say the charity helps them get a job, which is all good, but then they walk out of it the next day. In the current culture the box is still ticked, one job outcome recorded, regardless of whether they genuinely needed help and the longer-term impact.

Not good enough.

Outcomes are sometimes hard to measure, but not impossible. The softer the outcome (like improving someone’s self-esteem for example), the harder it is to measure. Even the easier to measure outcomes, like whether someone got a job, can also prove tricky – hence the need for more transparency and openness.

Let’s go back to our job outcome. To fully understand what is going on we need much more information to determine whether the charity is genuinely making a difference. We need to know whether the person we have helped needed it and what long-term change we actually made in their lives.

I am CEO of a charity called Street League – we are the UK’s leading Sport for Employment Charity. We have been fortunate enough to work with Impetus-PEF and Inspiring Scotland (the UK’s top Venture Philanthropy organisations) over the past seven years, who have pushed us hard to develop transparent impact measurement. We have been on a three-stage journey.

Pre-2010 we used to just measure ‘participation’ – the number of people who took part in our sessions. We stopped that and moved to an outcomes based model, very much like the one I outline above – ticking the box when we achieved a job or training outcome. That was better, but still a long way from the transparency we wanted.

Four years ago we introduced a new system which tracked the whole journey of the young person; from the moment we met them, right through to helping them stay in a job for six months or more. We examined where the young people were coming from, including the barriers they faced, and introduced a rigorous internal audit that required every outcome we achieved to be validated. Now, a job outcome is only valid once we have a photocopy of a first month’s pay slip or a job offer letter.

Last November we presented all of this information in our most transparent Annual Report to date which is available here. We have devoted the first section to talking about everything we didn’t get right, before we go on to talk about what we did get right. It has not been easy and we still have a way to go, but full data clarity has enabled us to throw a spotlight on our model, learn from our mistakes and change things so we can better serve our beneficiaries.

There have been many attempts to produce a unified measurement system for the charity sector. These virtuous attempts have usually ended in too higher a degree of complexity to make them workable. I believe there is a more straightforward and simple alternative.

All charities should agree to three high-level rules for reporting, which would kick start a revolution in transparency. At Street League we call these our ‘Three Golden Rules’:

• Never over-claim what you do
• All percentages must include absolute numbers
• All outcomes must be backed by auditable evidence
• If we all started with this, transparency will follow.

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Matt Stevenson-Dodd is a guest speaker on Clore6: Youth Sector Emerging Leaders Programme, where he will share his lessons on impact and the importance of transparency for good leadership.

If you are interested in hearing from inspiring speakers and experts in social sector leadership, check out our upcoming open Clore6 programme. The applications are open until 17 March 2017.

David Green is director at Green Pepper Consulting and associate consultant at Action Planning.

Many people don’t trust banks or estate agents but they still use them; most don’t trust politicians, yet they still vote for them. But what about a charity? It needs to be more than good at what it does. It needs to convince funders, partners and the public that it is fundamentally trustworthy. So while good leadership is visionary and inspiring, a social leader also requires an understanding of their organisation’s unique nature and status in civil society.

According to a survey published in March this year, the public believes charities spend around 57% of their income on running costs, when in reality, typical running costs are just 14%. This image problem is of such concern that the National Council for Voluntary Organisations have even set up  to explain how charities work.

But earning trust requires more than just a website. Financial integrity and an absence of conflicting interests should come first, but as I’ve argued before, investments should also be ethical. And social leaders need to ensure a level of genuine openness and transparency in dealing with the public which just hasn’t been the case in the sector thus far. Publishing the percentage of income spent on running costs will help. Perhaps too, we should heed the advice of those  to also be made more readily available.

Of course, to function, an organisation needs people. So trust in the leadership from staff and volunteers is arguably just as vital as that of donors. As such, leaders should listen to and, above all, value and respect the contributions made by staff and volunteers. This may sound obvious, but to disregard this  rather than inspire.

Indeed, leadership is people focused rather than purely organisational. In my experience staff and volunteers will respond when given a voice. So let them help shape how your organisation works and what it becomes. Ask, listen and respond, rather than simply tell. But don’t leave it to the annual away day. Make engaging with, and responding to staff and volunteers, part of your organisation’s culture.

Significantly, social leaders have a level of commitment and authenticity that often can’t be replicated in other sectors. This makes them well placed to promote trust. By being proactive, highlighting values, and demonstrating solidarity with those they are helping, social leaders add value to their message and to their organisation. A good leader will be a great advocate, demonstrating success, as well as being clear about where the money goes.

Trust is not an entitlement, nor should it be disposable. But to lead social change it is certainly a requirement. As the former chief executive of Centrepoint, Anthony Lawton, said to me recently: ‘What would happen if you took away trust? As a leader, you are the face of your organisation. But take away the trust of your team, your beneficiaries or the public, and you will soon be lost.’

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2017 Clore Social Fellows Stuart Dexter and Joanna McCreadie share their reflections about the commonalities and differences between their organisations, and their plans to collaborate.

 

Stuart Dexter, Chief Executive of Daisy Chain

And so it came to pass, four intrepid explorers finished their board meeting and set off to cross the border in search of a half decent curry and some ideas of how to integrate animals into their work. The coalescing of like-minds felt like the start of something bigger, inspiring all involved to dare to aim high. But we are getting ahead of ourselves, let’s go back to the beginning…

Stuart was telling Joanna about his new role at an autism charity, Daisy Chain. Joanna said that she’d be interested in learning more about Daisy Chain’s use of animals. Joanna is CEO of , a residential school in Scotland for children with multiple and complex needs. They have just started to keep some animals at the school, and thus plans were made for a team from Seamab to visit the Daisy Chain farm.

We got to know each other over a fiery jalfrezi and bountiful thalis and began to realise how well aligned our approach to working with children and young people who have faced significant challenges were. What become apparent was that a youth and community work approach was beneficial in engaging with children and young people for whom mainstream schooling just didn’t work. We learnt of a shared appetite to take risks but, most of all, we learnt of a shared value of being ‘human’ when working with people. We learned that we were not afraid to show that we care.

An early start followed and we talked in more detail about the two organisations and realised further the significant commonalities. Fortified, we had a look around the Daisy Chain centre and toured the grounds, ending at the Daisy Chain farm.

All was going well until our Scottish friends were introduced to Daisy Chain’s skinny pigs. For those of you unaware, skinny pigs are a mutant, hairless guinea pig. Usually, once the initial revulsion has passed people find them cute. Alas, for one of the Seamab team the revulsion intensified, eliciting a surprisingly strong reaction.

We split into two teams; Jody and Alistair stayed on the farm with Michelle, Daisy Chain’s Farm Manager and Stuart, Gary and Joanna retired once more to Stuart’s office to talk future plans and building developments.

So what did we learn and does this partnership have a future? To the latter question the answer is almost certainly yes. Daisy Chain has been invited to Seamab for a return visit, an invitation we intend to accept. We’re also considering opportunities for a formal partnership project.

And the learning? That there is an approach to the work, a set of values and a value in people that we have in common. That a desire to aim high and innovate, to have aspirations and not accept the orthodoxy as the only way things can be done goes a long way when working with some of the most vulnerable members of society.

And we had a nice curry.

 

Joanna McCreadie, Chief Executive of Seamab

It’s not that often that the Seamab team has had the chance to visit other charities, or have open and in depth discussions about the joy and challenges of working with children. Our focus is usually on what is happening now, and what we are planning to do next in Seamab.

One of the unanticipated strengths of the Clore Social Fellowship is the opportunity for teams from separate charities to engage with each other, learn from each other and potentially work together. Talking with Stuart after an action learning set, it became clear that while our two charities deliver different services, we share a commitment to finding, and implementing interesting ways of working, always with the aim of making a positive difference. As well, having recently rescued some chickens, at Seamab we were beginning to think that we were on to a new idea of having more animals around to support the children. Of course, Daisy Chain have already had this idea, and added pretty impressive bells and whistles, so we thought we could borrow some of their thinking and expertise….

Our first impressions on arrival at Daisy Chain were of an open, welcoming space and buildings. There was a mixture of new development and old farm buildings. We were all really impressed by the services Daisy Chain offers, and their approach to how they support children, young people, and families. It was obvious this is an organisation interested in how they can make a practical difference. There was an acceptance of the challenges of this and an interest in continuing to develop and improve.

While the farm is wonderful – it’s not an end in itself. Rather, caring for the animals and spending time with them, supported by skilled adults, is a positive experience that has multiple benefits for children and young people across all aspects of their lives.

And the skinny pigs…well, it’s the first time any of us has seen our colleague move that fast (away from the skinny pig) and maintain that kind of distance (clearly he thought it would be able to leap out the farm manager's arms) or deny so vociferously any fear. As supportive colleagues we respected his feelings and haven’t mentioned it since – those skinny pig photos that found their way into his office were, honestly, a surprise to all of us.

What next? Stuart and I think we (and our teams) share values and a philosophy about practice. We can feel that there will be opportunities to learn from each other, and potentially, work together. We’re already planning to purchase some pigs for the children at Seamab, and have the offer of expert advice from Daisy Chain’s farm manager. Our next step is a visit to Seamab by the Daisy Chain team. We think we can see that curry and raise it brilliant fish and chips in our local hostelry!

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