But two things remain the same for Pilotlight
When I first met Pilotlight a vertiginous 22 years ago, I had left a job in an advertising agency and was looking to volunteer a few days a week with a view to moving into the charity sector. I met the CEO Fiona Halton who, together with the fledgling Pilotlight board, had an idea about matching charity and business leaders to help small charities be more effective and grow. Within a matter of weeks I was full time as the first Pilotlight Project Manager.
Now Pilotlight works with hundreds of charities each year across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
I left Pilotlight to become CEO of a small youth charity myself, before returning to the fold as an Associate eight years ago. The very clever and inventive Pilotlight team have continuously refined and improved the original concept as they learned — from charities, from Pilotlighters and from one another — and responded to a funding and social environment which seems to have been progressively more challenging every year since we began.
But I believe that two key principles of Pilotlight’s work have remained true.
Trust relationships can give people the tools and confidence to make change happen.
The original idea, to bring together teams of business leaders to coach a charity leader is still at the heart of Pilotlight’s programmes. Let’s be clear, business leaders don’t know better than charity leaders how to run a charity. What they do have, are the skills and tools and experience of their own career, and a fresh perspective on the challenges charity leaders face.
Pilotlight creates space for charity leaders to step back from the day to day and think about their ambitions for their charity and how to make them a reality in the company of critical friends. It can be magical to see the rapport build between a Pilotlighter team and a charity CEO, and how having the time to think things through with people you trust, who understand and support your vision and tell you ‘you are doing a great job, keep going’, can unlock new possibilities.
Project Management is essential to success.
In the very early days, I thought my job was to make meeting arrangements, introduce everyone and take notes, so that time-poor professionals could donate their time and skills effectively. That is still part of the role, but it’s so much more than that.
Pilotlight’s Project Managers are skilled facilitators, cultural translators and experts in charity governance and strategic planning. They create the space in which trust relationships can grow and set the tone for open, honest and respectful communication. I loved being able to do this again as an Associate, and work with some really inspirational charity leaders and Pilotlighters who so quickly grasp the challenges and deftly reframe them so that they become surmountable.
If you’re a charity, professional or business thinking of engaging with Pilotlight, I encourage you to do so and be confident that you will be in very safe hands.
Now I am going to exercise one of the skills I developed and honed at Pilotlight, fundraising for SWEDA (Somerset & Wessex Eating Disorders Association), an amazing charity working with people affected by eating disorders and their families. I have learned so much from Pilotlight but the things I am most grateful to take with me are — several friends for life, Pilotlight attracts amazing people; an insider perspective on the third sector not many people get to see; and optimism, we have a lot of big problems to solve but some of the smartest, most committed people I have met are working on it.
I am hanging up my hat for this iteration of my Pilotlight career, but who knows if they’ll have me back — I might return in some form or another. I can’t seem to be able to keep away.
