An open letter from our CEO about the future direction of Voluntary Norfolk
Dear friends,
It has been about 20 months since I walked through the door as the new CEO at Voluntary Norfolk. That time has been quite a whirlwind. There has been a need to focus internally on the organisation, to make some changes to stabilise the charity and to enable a change in direction and potential.
A lot has gone on, but I wanted to update you on where we are at after the completion of a large research and consultation project you may have come across and may have fed into. The research project was carried out by two independent agencies, who completed a mixture of survey and interview-based research.
These targeted all the main critical groups the organisation currently interacts with, including charities, social enterprise, service users, statutory service leaders and commissioners, staff, volunteers, supporters, funders and donors. The board and executive team at Voluntary Norfolk decided to commission the work so that the organisation could position itself correctly for the future.
Taken as a whole, the work that Voluntary Norfolk does is well received by its commissioners and service users. We offer friendly, reliable services that those that interact with us trust. The organisation is seen as a trusted partner by statutory funders, who know that we will do what we say we will do. Our volunteers and service users speak very highly of the service and support they receive from our staff.
The organisation polls amongst the public as the most recognised infrastructure organisation in Norfolk by some margin, when people are asked to recall organisations, they recognise. Charities tell us that they think our Empowering Communities partnership does good work, particularly in enabling them to build contacts with colleagues from other organisations through networking opportunities.
On the flip to this, charities and social enterprises tell us they would like us to offer more practical support with running their organisations, more “single issue” based advocacy, and to concern ourselves less with “systems design” type advocacy.
Charities have also said that we should be there to enable them, not to compete with them. This is a common theme with many partner organisations. They would like more support with building coalitions and collaboration across the sector when it comes to contracting and commissioning. The consensus is our work is good for smaller and medium sized organisations, but those that are larger need something more bespoke for the challenges they face.
Our staff are deeply engaged in their work and strongly motivated to support people across our communities. However, through this process we have recognised that, as an organisation, we have not always been clear enough about our overall purpose. Many colleagues feel that our current name and brand do not fully reflect who we are today, nor the organisation we aspire to become.
The findings from this research are informing ongoing work to refresh our brand, mission and strategy. Over the summer we will share more about what the future organisation will look like, including a clearer articulation of our goals, ambitions, and the communities and partners we exist to support. My intention is that we become an organisation that is better positioned to enable others to thrive: stepping aside when it is right for others to lead, while also providing the strong and reliable foundation the sector needs to move from crisis towards greater stability and growth.
Please do of course feel free to contact me about this – my personal email address is Michael.kitching@voluntarynorfolk.org.uk
Yours faithfully,
Michael Kitching, CEO Voluntary Norfolk
