Services

• Grant writing: Write strong proposals and applications to secure funding from government agencies, and private/family/corporate foundations
• Program/Service Review: Conduct a review of a program or service, incuding true-costing analysis and risk analysis, assessment of market position and where programs or services may be duplicated or filling gaps, and future budget planning
• Need Assessments & Environmental Scanning: Collect data that demonstrates the need for a program or service, and what changes are happening in the outside environment that are influencing and/or changing needs. This is the key piece of evidence that is used to support decision making about the future of a program or service, and is relied on by governments and funders to make decisions about funding and partnerships.
• New project design: Outlline clear goals, identify resourcing needs, and map out an implementation plan.
• Report Writing: Turn existing data (i.e. long policy documents, existing focus group reports, needs assessments, etc.) into clear and well written briefs, memos, and reports for leaders to make decisions.
• Research Design and Data Analysis: Design projects, develop tools and lead activities (focus groups, needs assessments, satisfaction surveys, etc.) to collect data and support decision making.
• Strategic planning: Map out a clear course of action to keep a program or organization sustainable, meeting its goals, and staying true to its vision and mission.
• Stakeholder engagement and collaboration: Making programs successful by engaging partners, clients, board members, staff, volunteers, funders, etc. in the different stages of program planning and implementation.

Services to support new Executive Directors & small charities

Executive Directors and leaders of small charities face the impossible task of having to be everything to everyone, and an expert at many different fields of expertise. Ainsley works with leaders and boards of smal charities to:

• Create an organizational staffing structure that matches the budget;
• Understand when and how to use consultants, and referrals to consultants that can provide specialised supports (e.g. HR legal advice, fundraising, accounting and bookkeeping, etc.);
• How to secure funding to pay for consultants to take on specialised projects;
• How to navigate competing priorities and map out where EDs of small charities should be spending their time;
• Create a professional development plan for EDs to quickly skill up in areas where they may not feel confident;
• Review programs and services to understand their true-cost, their risks, their value, and how to make tough decisions;
• How to set up a healthy ED-Board relationship when a board has operational responsibiliities, or when a board is transitioning from an operational to a policy board; and
• How to think though a major change such as merging/amalgamating with another agency.