Real talk for people making change happen – from bid writing to burnout, consultancy to community chaos. If you work in the social sector and ever feel like you’re winging it with purpose, this is for you.
Twenty-five years of getting people funded. Bid writing, governance, formation, and the stuff nobody tells you until it’s too late. The kind of advice that comes from doing this work in communities that can’t afford to get it wrong.
Finance
-
The Double Ask
Two trustees, one donor, two different asks within three days. It cost the charity five years of a…
-
That grant money isn’t yours to move. (Or is it?)
You can pay a connected company for services delivered to your CIC using grant money. That’s true. What’s…
-
Eight Weeks. Forty Percent. And If It Doesn’t Work, That’s On You.
A client forwarded me a sales pitch last week. Eight weeks to funding, forty percent success rate, templates…
-
Grant Funding in 2026. Let’s Not Sugarcoat It.
There used to be a book. An enormous green bible, published by the Directory of Social Change, called…
-
Your mate was wrong. And now you’ve got a problem.
Someone sets up a CIC on a mate’s advice, or after buying a course that promises funding in…
-
Why Smart Charities Say No to Money (And Why You Should Too)
Emma was halfway through her third coffee of the morning when the email pinged through. A major foundation.…
Governance
-
The Ancient Rulebook
Your constitution might be older than email, and it might name people who are no longer alive. It’s…
-
The Funders’ Red Flag
The report can be perfect and the project sound, and the money can still vanish, because a funder…
-
The CEO Black Hole
If your founder is still running the show and there’s no plan for the day they’re not there,…
-
The Single-Source Squeeze
Sheffield Rebuild trained homeless, unemployed and NEET young people in a proper trade for years, on the back…
-
Boardroom Story Time
Doris needs twenty minutes to correct a phone number in the minutes. Peter’s shower saga eats a full…
-
The Cousin Contract
I’ve had two CIC directors sit in front of me after funders clawed back grant money because of…
Marketing
-
The Dead End
Click “Contact Us” and watch it die. If you think that’s just a website problem, count how many…
-
The Panic Press Release
Twenty minutes, a ringing phone, and no idea who’s allowed to answer it. The same plan that stops…
-
The What vs The Why
“We delivered 400 hours of counselling” tells a funder nothing about what actually changed for anyone. The So…
-
What Exactly Do You Do?
Ronseal built a brand on four words: does exactly what it says on the tin. If a stranger…
-
The Charity That Couldn’t Prove It Worked
Most grassroots charities believe they’re making a difference. Believing it and proving it are two different things, and…
-
The Donation Dead-End
Your donation link might be broken right now. You probably don’t know. Most organisations don’t. This week’s stupidity…
Operations
-
Why I use Google Workspace
A plain-English look at why I use Google Workspace, and how a proper email address and shared folders…
-
A Tenner and Three Bits of ID
Since 1 September, being supervised no longer gets your weekly helpers out of a barred list check. The…
-
The ‘My Head Only’ Manual
I’ve been a trustee of the same charity for twenty-two years. I’m still the only one who knows…
-
The 9-Month Trap
A company secretary quietly redirected every director’s post to his own front door, then stopped opening it. The…
-
The Insurance Gamble
Insurance is the budget line everyone cuts first when money’s tight. Here’s why that’s the one gamble that…
-
The Laptop That Killed the Charity
Most grassroots organisations have that one ancient laptop everyone’s terrified to replace, because everything’s on there. This happened…