Charity and social enterprise consultancy

We specialise in working with ethical organisations which means we work with charities and social enterprises as well as companies that want to change the world and the public sector. Over the years we've worked with 100s of charities in all sorts of ways.

We believe we are a more effective charity and social enterprise consultancy because we also works with central government departments like the DWP, local government, the NHS and businesses. Whoever we are working with, the aims of the activity always include social impact as well as money. Consequently inspire2aspire brings a unique mix of experience from all the sectors and can understand issues from all points of view.

As charity and social enterprise consultants we offer:

• Senior people, not untried graduates, who have specialist skills and experience
• Tested tools and processes that have been developed over many years and provide practical successful results
• Innovative ideas, inspiration and independent thinking
• The credibility and ethical standards to validate decisions and push through unpopular changes

As a charity and social enterprise consultant we advise you on how to be more successful and other organisations on how to work more successfully with the charity and social enterprise sector. Our aim is to find mutual benefit. Our work with charities and social enterprises also involves considering your relationships with government departments, councils, CCGs, other third sector organisations and companies. It may only be to learn how they fit with your strategies, it might be to learn from their experience or it might be develop joint ventures. Sarah Brown MD of inspire2aspire has advised on multi million pound partnerships between central government and the third sector.

Companies come to inspire2aspire because they can see that there are market opportunities with the third sector either directly or as a way to get to the people they work with. inspire2aspire can help companies navigate the complexities of the third sector, the different structures of charities and issues facing the sector and how to build effective partnerships as well as developing creative and innovative ways for joint and collaborative working with charities and the wider community.

Encouraging innovation and helping growth

We can help you test your ideas with feasibility studies and have a particular expertise in building developments having worked on several multi-milion pound community buildings. We have developed a set of tools designed to ensure you maximise the viability of your building so that it is an asset not a drain on your organisation.

The skill we use to help businesses identify new products and market them successfully we feel is as relevant to charities looking for new projects.

Charity turnarounds from risky situations and crisis management

At a local council level inspire2aspire has worked to help turn round charities and social enterprises that are critical to the borough strategy and have management issues. It has helped address organisational issues which have arisen at the time of compulsory purchase orders – being able to understand both sides has been invaluable in finding a successful way forward.

As charity and social enterprise consultants we work with charities that need help because they have a crisis or have gradually declined to a state which now puts them at risk – sometimes funded by councils, sometimes funded by the charity itself or another funder.

We are sympathetic to the values of the third sector but can bring the commercial discipline that many consultants lack if their experience is solely within the voluntary sector. Senior management experience in large companies, including experience of mergers and acquisitions and the issues that arise, means that we are ideally suited to support at times of crisis or turnaround.

Sarah Brown has experience of advising large companies on crisis management including major redundancy programmes, product recalls and other issues.

As charity consultants Inspire2Aspire can work within your organisation or on a project basis consulting to the organisation to address the problems.

Often the output is a robust business plan which will have on-going value for the organisation.

As an outsider we can bring an objective perspective and help in a sensitive way if hard decisions have to be made particularly in a turnaround situation. For example inspire2aspire has recently advised a charity on when or if it will need to make staff redundant linked to developing a financial strategy which considers opportunities and risks for the future.