Advice and support
Sayer Vincent has over 25 years of experience of helping charities and voluntary organisations. Through this we have gained deep knowledge of many structures, governance models and areas of activity. We can work with your team to identify areas where they can improve, provide help and coaching with tasks such as business planning, or we can step in when you have few resources and need urgent help.
Reviewing support functions such as finance, IT, HR
Sayer Vincent has developed a methodology to help charities and voluntary organisation to change and improve their support functions. We have helped organisations of various sizes to transform support functions from a drain on resources to a positive contributor towards the achievement of the charity's mission. An experienced member of our team will meet with you to learn more about your organisation, the support team and how the team members interact with other departments and staff in your organisation. We would then discuss our initial findings with you and develop a step-by-step approach to change. We can then work with your team to coach them through the change process.
Recruitment of finance and IT people
We have helped many charities to recruit new staff to support functions. We can work with you to write the job description and person specification, then develop the selection process. Interviews are usually more effective if you include some form of case study or presentation - we can help to prepare a suitable exercise for this. One of our experienced staff will be on the interview panel and will ensure that the right questions are asked and that the answers received are up to standard.
Business planning
You may a carefully crafted business plan for a major new development or for a new funding bid. Either way, there is experienced and sympathetic help available from our staff. We can coach your staff so that they develop their own skills in the process, as well as asking some of the tricky questions - before the key funder asks them! You can be assured that your final plan will be robust and financially sound.
Investigations
Sometimes things do go wrong in charities and voluntary organisations - fraud, misappropriation or extreme incompetence can throw you into a crisis. You will need someone who can make a quick assessment of the situation and then help you through the appropriate steps to take correct action and deal with the situation with the least impact to your charitable services. We have experience of investigating crisis situations in the UK and abroad.