Ten top tips for small charities working with a consultant
Julian Lomas
Many of our small charity clients have never worked with consultants before, particularly those we support through The Resilience Programme. We aim to make it as easy as possible for them to do business with us and ensure they get the very best they can out of our support.
In collaboration with our associate Ruth Dwight, we have put together the following 10 top tips for getting the most out of a small consultancy support package:
Give your consultant all the key documents that will help them to understand your organisation and the background to the work you will do together. Any strategy documents, business plan, budgets, management accounts, funding applications, publicity materials and grant reports could be useful for this.
Spend some time before/at the start of the support thinking about what you want from the process – both in terms of personal development and for your organisation. You may need to prioritise what you want to fit within the amount of consultancy time available.
Your consultant will be honest with you if they think, based on their experience and the budget available, that what you are asking for from them might not be the most useful thing for you. Try to be open to their suggestions but of course this is support for you, so do be honest back with them if it’s just not what you want.
Set aside time – the consultancy will require your time perhaps in blocks, or shorter periods over a few months. Make sure you have the time available to commit to this.
Do your homework – you will get much more value from your consultant (and get quicker results) if you do the work you agree on between your meetings.
Be honest – this is not an audit, or a test – we are here to help you. So, tell your consultant as it is, not what you think they might want to hear. They can help you better if they know the truth and will always be sensitive to your circumstances and unforeseen events. They will always respect confidentiality in your relationship with them.
Speak up if there is anything your consultant says that you don’t understand, or don’t know how to do. They are there to help and you don’t need to impress them.
Be punctual and commit to turning up to meetings.
Explain any ‘jargon’ or specialist sector terminology so that your consultant can understand – and ask for clarity on any jargon that you don’t understand.
Agree with your consultant the best way to communicate with each other between meetings (e.g. email, SMS, WhatsApp,etc). The faster you can respond to them the sooner you will see results from your work together.
We hope you find these helpful in getting the best out of the support we can offer.
To find out more about the services we offer, please contact us at julian@almondtreeconsulting.co.uk to arrange free initial telephone discussion.