LinkAble (formerly Link Leisure) provides sports, social and recreational activities for children and adults with learning disabilities ranging from mild developmental delay to profound or more complex needs such as cerebral palsy and severe autism.
One mother whose two daughters spend time at LinkAble says: “My daughters can meet long-time friends in a safe, relaxing environment. They feel that everyone understands their needs and they always leave activities laughing. The staff and volunteers are friendly and professional and I feel the girls are in very safe hands. Thank you for providing such a safe haven for my daughters to enjoy time with their friends.”
Managing director Bob Stevens says he approached Pilotlight after Woking Borough Council financed a refurbishment of the charity’s centre to ensure the building met the needs of its service users. “This provided the catalyst to look at the organisation in a different light.
“We were concerned about funding and securing the long-term future of the charity. And we needed advice – we had lots of ideas but we didn’t really know, or weren’t sure, how to implement them.”
A key change to come out of the process was the decision to rename the organisation LinkAble. The consensus was that the old name, Link Leisure, lacked identity and failed to describe what the charity did. “The Pilotlighters gave us the confidence to change our name,” says Bob.
As well as developing a new business plan with the Pilotlighters’ help, they revamped the website, increased staff numbers and looked at funding.
“The Pilotlighters explained what grant funders look for in an application which really helped. Coupled with the new business plan we are now able to put together a cohesive, targeted application that is attractive to funders.”
The charity also received over £130,000 from a range of funders to equip its building with a sensory room, hygiene suite, revamped soft play area and drop-in café.
“I do not believe we would be in this position without our Pilotlighters. They not only opened the door for us, they held our hand and enabled us to walk through. If a charity gets the chance to work with Pilotlight I would say it’s not just desirable, it’s essential.
“We have increased donations, funding, and staff, as well as refitted the building and built in extra capacity so that we can offer more services to more people with learning disabilities in our community.
“The Pilotlight process can mean the difference between not only survival but building on your charity business in the most challenging economic conditions we have ever seen. It has secured our future.”
The team of Pilotlighters who helped secure LinkAble’s future consisted of two corporate members from First Data and Apax Foundation and two individual members including Geeta Gopalan, a non-executive board director.
“LinkAble had received a big chunk of funding but they weren’t sure how to make the best use of it. They needed an individual view and assessment of the best strategic options,” says Geeta.
To help work out which services they should be focusing on, the Pilotlighters suggested looking at the service user journey “so that through that they could build a narrative around what to provide and how to do it”, says Geeta.
“I think we have made them think about the work they do very differently and made them more ambitious, for example, they felt bold enough to apply for a large grant to The National Lottery. They said they wouldn’t have dreamt of going for such a big thing before. We also made them think about their work strategically and not just on a yearly basis.”