Helping Third Sector Organisations realise their full potential
Over the last 10 years, central government and local authorities have given more credence and recognition to the role of the Third sector in shaping and implementing key policy agendas.
Together with a change in attitude towards the Third sector has come a change in the way organisations are funded. Whilst in the past organisations were awarded grants to deliver a particular service, public bodies now identify the service they want to fund through their commissioning process and ask organisations to bid to deliver it.
The implication for Third sector providers is that many will have to adapt their current ways of working to meet new requirements of public service delivery. This presents enormous challenges as well as exciting possibilities.
Wessex Partnerships has joined forces with J&AB to bring together a wealth of skills and know-how based on 25 years of delivering successful outcomes for the Third Sector.
We can offer your organisation support from the following value added services, each of which has been specifically tailored for community, voluntary, charitable and other not-for-profit organisations:
Our focus is to assist you in three areas:
- Support to tender successfully for contracts and win bids for grant funding, helping you to meet the growing demand for services
- Develop your in-house professional skills, such as strategic planning and forecasting
- Implementation of efficient systems such as finance, marketing and HR
Both companies have built an outstanding track record in identifying funding opportunities and preparing successful funding applications, together with raising the professional capacity of Third sector organisations.
Tendering and Funding Support
Tendering for service delivery contracts
Like many charitable, not-for-profit and other Third sector organisations we work with, you may increasingly be looking for fresh ways of maintaining or developing added value services for individuals and communities.
We can help you to meet the challenge of improving service quality and delivery within ever-tighter budgetary constraints through successfully tendering for external funds and public service contracts.
Securing sufficient on-going revenue to cover project activity and core costs will continue to be one of your major concerns. You may be seeking to achieve a more co-ordinated approach to funding to enable you to move away from ad hoc applications to a more joined-up and strategic approach. We can help you meet new challenges by gaining additional funding and public service contracts from a range of UK and European sources. We have a 75% success rate for writing winning tenders on behalf of our clients.
Identification of funding sources
Our weekly funding alert service helps organisations to remain abreast of potential funding opportunities, including a risk and success probability rating.
Using our wide-ranging expertise we will identify and qualify tender and grant opportunities for you, advising on the appropriate service areas on which to concentrate resources as part of an overall funding strategy. This will include the preparation of a convincing case for support, which will highlight the importance of your work, your past achievements, your present activities and your future aspirations.
Preparation of grant applications
We can assist at every stage of the application process from help with completion of pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) to help you pass the first hurdle through to preparing high quality grant applications and tenders. This will include all aspects of project or service development, drafting and submitting the application. We have a formidable reputation for writing successful applications, with a 75% success rate.
Together, Wessex Partnerships and J&AB have supported over 100 Third sector organisations and secured over £50m worth of funding.
Develop your in-house professional skills
The alliance of Wessex Partnerships and J&AB brings together a wealth of skills and know-how based on 25 years of delivering successful outcomes for the Third Sector. Our collective experience has furnished us with unrivalled expertise in the following areas:
- Ability to accurately identify the strengths and weaknesses of an organisation
- Strategy development and business planning, backed by our own personal experience of setting up, advising and developing not-for-profit organisations
- Smooth transition to our clients of vital skills, helping them to develop in-house resources that will allow clients to translate strategy into delivery
- Access to a wide network of contacts to broker new introductions and opportunities.
Business Strategy Development
Together, we can help your organisation reach its full potential. We will work with you to help identify appropriate short, medium and long term revenue opportunities based on a candid assessment of your potential. This will include the following:
- Undertaking an internal audit/gap analysis to provide an objective analysis of your external readiness for growth
- Preparation of a structured business growth strategy to include an internal market analysis and an eventual exit strategy
- Development of Risk Management and Business Continuity Plans, particularly relevant for when tendering for public sector work
- Developing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for your organisation.
Leadership and management
We provide tailored skills development and support for senior management that offers relevant, effective and challenging learning opportunities to:
- Make the right strategic decisions, establish direction especially during a period of change
- Develop a communication style that will motivate a team of people with diverse characteristics and personal drivers
- Ensure effective communication.
Implementation of efficient systems
Budget holders must feel confident in your organisation when next choosing where and who they buy from. We can provide support in the development of business processes and the implementation of more efficient in-house financial and quality systems so that your services can be delivered more effectively to end users.
Marketing
This is an area in which the Third sector has invested very little because it has not previously had to sell its services. We can help you to develop an effective marketing strategy for a range of markets such as individual budget holders, self-funders, other third sector organisations and public and private sector purchasers. This will include an analysis of the potential of these target audiences and areas of operation, best prospect identification and profiling.
Contract Management
We can support you in negotiating and agreeing contract outputs and outcomes, developing full cost recovery budgets and evaluation methodologies. This will help provide you with an objective analysis of what has happened and why and in understanding contract compliance issues.
Governance
A major challenge for Third sector organisations that are starting up or going through a period of change is defining your organisation’s overarching structures and strategic development. We can help you in areas such as charity or CIC registration, demonstrating financial stability, establishing minimum levels of performance management for staff and its implications.
Partnership working
When tenders for a public sector contract are too large for one organisation to deliver alone, you may consider working in partnership with others. Partnerships require time and tact to become established and you my need a lead organisation to facilitate the process.
Effective partnership working has always been a core part of our ethos. We can help facilitate the process of joint working with other organisations and discuss with you the advantages and potential pitfalls. We run partnership workshops to scope out each organisation’s particular role in the proposed or existing partnership and to arrive at agreed quality standards for delivering public services.
Pricing
Our services are tailored to suit your specific needs and fees will vary according to the scope of the project. Our flexible approach means that we can develop cost-effective solutions to suit all needs and all budgets. Our fees are always pre-arranged.
To find out how we can help your organisation, give us a call today.
