Parent Charity and Commercial Subsidiary Business Strategies

sleicest 17th October 2025 No comments

I regularly come across Charity Annual Reports for UK-registered charities, where one or more commercial trading subsidiaries have been set up in the past. But their financial performance has been poor over time. Eventually, the charity trustees decide to discontinue the commercial subsidiary or subsidiaries altogether. The reasons for poor commercial performance many be variedContinue Reading Parent Charity and Commercial Subsidiary Business Strategies

Linking the Value Chain to Portfolio Management

sleicest 16th October 2025 No comments

The Value Chain was outlined by Professor Michael Porter back in the 1980s, including in his ground-breaking book ‘Competitive Advantage’. Meanwhile, charities have long been conducting portfolio management of beneficiary groups, funder groups and portfolio management of their surplus funds via professional investment firms managing diversified asset classes of investments on their behalf. Options theoryContinue Reading Linking the Value Chain to Portfolio Management

Strategy, charities and the ‘markets’ they operate in

sleicest 16th October 2025 No comments

There are many noble causes in the charity sector. However, like it or not, fundraising charities operate (with scarce resources) in competitive markets for; funder grants and donations, the war for (staff) talent and even who human beneficiaries approach to help themselves. Often there are low barriers to imitation for new charity competitors. Some competitionContinue Reading Strategy, charities and the ‘markets’ they operate in

Charity Strategic Plans and Reserves Policies

sleicest 14th October 2025 No comments

A sophisticated Charity Reserves Policy is linked directly to the Charity Strategic Plan. To elaborate, if funders understand your strategic plan well, they shouldn’t have a problem with your Reserves policy having no upper financial limit. Astute funders also expect to partner for a considerable period of time, with a charity that will be resilientContinue Reading Charity Strategic Plans and Reserves Policies

Innovative new sources of net income for charities

sleicest 10th October 2025 No comments

Permanent Endowments One exciting area to boost charity income on a sustainable annual basis is to set up one or more permanent endowments. For charities who are more interested in helping relatively few beneficiaries, but intensively over a long period of time, then being able to draw on investment income and permanent endowment income eachContinue Reading Innovative new sources of net income for charities

Political Parties and Charities

sleicest 28th September 2025 No comments

What do political parties have in common with charities? Both are voted out by their initial supporters when they fail in their impact. Impact can be diluted when they become less relevant to their supporter’s needs. But also, when it’s clear they are helping progressively fewer supporters over time, even if many needs per supporterContinue Reading Political Parties and Charities

Business Flexibility in the AI age

sleicest 22nd September 2025 No comments

Let’s start with a forecasting assumption – that for a variety of reasons, the AI age will increase the level of business uncertainty for private sector, public sector and charity sector organisations alike. Two big drivers of this uncertainty are likely to be: Wait. What is an interference pattern? Imagine filling a plastic bucket ofContinue Reading Business Flexibility in the AI age

Business Facilities and Flexibility

sleicest 5th June 2022 No comments

Post Covid, demand for office usage continues to be uncertain. Some ways that businesses, government organisations, education institutions and charities can use flexibility to hedge uncertainty are as follows: Install flexible wall partitions, so meetings rooms become variable in their capacity. Exploit demand for shorter term tenancy leases, including one year leases and one dayContinue Reading Business Facilities and Flexibility

Business and Charity Success