Since 2011 Pilotlight has run a programme with RBS, where teams of the bank’s graduates work with Pilotlight partner charities for six months on a defined project, delivering outputs as diverse as marketing materials and new funding streams. Mentors from Pilotlight and RBS guide and advise the graduates and the programme ends with a presentation evening where a winner selected.
This year’s winners worked with the charity CareTrade and built an online hub providing information connecting young people with Autism Spectrum Disorder to job opportunities. So far the programme has worked with 22 charities and just under 200 graduates.
The programme fits with Pilotlight’s vision of charities and business working together to achieve positive social change, but is different from our core work with charities and senior business professionals. There are clearly risks, including reputational, so, what have we learnt?
- Ensuring it’s a partnership where there are benefits for all sides is crucial - charities get resource and expertise (e.g. technological) they would not have otherwise, and graduates develop their skills and seethe difference they make to a great charity. Hopefully graduates will also stay engaged with the charity sector throughout their careers.
- Recognising the value of time is vital – charity chief execs are very busy and graduates are doing the project in addition to their day jobs. There was a clear focus on the deliverable - there is not an attitude of ‘something is better than nothing’; we are aware of the potential negative impact on a charity if they put in time and resources and then the final product isn’t something that can be used sustainably. RBS have to be fully committed in practice; for example line managers freeing up graduates’ time to attend meetings. Effective lines of communication and clear expectations helped the best projects stand out.
- Building in structure to the programme (e.g. a strict timeline) and expertise for the graduates to access, through their RBS and Pilotlight mentors, is critical – for example we helped the teams understand sector norms. This is critical to enable graduates who may have little or no experience of the charity sector to target their enthusiasm and skills effectively. The charity understanding what the graduates can and can’t do is important; we helped them develop realistic project briefs that would challenge the graduates.
- There’s no magic answer to why some cross sector partnerships work and some don’t, but taking time to develop personal relationships and understanding where people are coming from can make a massive difference, and mean that as well as delivering value people have fun!
