Advice Mid Wales is an independent registered charity providing general advice services to the public on matters such as: debt and money problems, income maximisation, housing, employment, energy, pensions and consumer complaints.
Why Brain Trust?
As a well-established, client-focussed charity experiencing a significant increase in demand, General Manager Michael Denton was aware that long-term strategic planning was sometimes being overlooked amongst the day-to-day running of operations. This was especially true with regards to succession planning and volunteer recruitment. He came to our 90-minute Brain Trust programme, run in partnership with Barclays, to unlock fresh thinking on these challenges.
"The Brain Trust session itself was fast-paced, creative, energising and highly enjoyable.” Michael reflected. “It was impressive how quickly the Pilotlighters were able to understand the brief and set about coming up with innovative and tangible suggestions to a range of different challenges facing the organisation. There was even some local knowledge amongst the Pilotlighters which proved invaluable in shaping the strongest idea that went forward.”
Results from the programme
Following on from Brain Trust, the charity has secured funding to develop one of the ideas suggested by the Pilotlighters into a twelve-month pilot project in collaboration with a local University, aimed at the diversifying volunteering roles and working towards a sustainable long-term succession plan.
In a very short space of time, the management team at the charity has felt much more empowered from a strategic perspective, beyond simply focussing on the day-to-day challenges they face as a busy, front-line service.
Advice Mid Wales has already started to welcome a new team of younger volunteers to participate in its pilot project that will also benefit from the knowledge and insight brought to the table by its existing team of highly experienced and skilful volunteers.