Our theory of change

We have developed our theory of change alongside our strategy to explain the difference we want to make and how we believe our work will help achieve it. Ultimately, our aim is to help charities achieve greater impact for the people and communities they serve.

It looks beyond the support we deliver to the changes we want to see for charity leaders, organisations and the wider system around them. Together with our new approach to monitoring and evaluation, it reflects our commitment to understanding and demonstrating our impact.

We will use it to guide our decisions, measure what changes, learn what works, and adapt and develop our support. It is not a fixed model: we will review it as we learn and as the needs of small charities and the wider sector evolve.

The impact we seek

Our vision is of strong, effective charities transforming people’s lives and communities. Our mission is to bring together skilled volunteers and small charities to
strengthen organisations, develop leaders and deliver impact that lasts. Our impact statement connects these with the lasting difference we want our work to make:

We achieve this by connecting charities with practical expertise, trusted relationships and tailored support, and we help leaders build the confidence, capability and resilience needed to navigate complexity and change. 

In turn, this strengthens organisations, enabling them to become more sustainable, effective and better able to achieve their mission.

At the same time, we generate and share learning from our work to improve how support for small charities is understood, designed and delivered across the wider sector.

Underlying assumptions

We have based our Theory of Change on some key assumptions. These are:

• We believe that small charities are better able to achieve their mission when they can access the right support at the right time. 
• We believe that strengthening the confidence, capability, resilience and connections of charity leaders is one of the most effective ways to strengthen organisations and improve outcomes for the communities they serve.