Welcome To The Thinking Space

How can charities move past the AI hype and start delivering real impact? It's the biggest question in our sector, and it requires a thoughtful, human-centered approach. Get your practical guide here.

Want to track impact without the admin overload? This practical guide to impact measurement tools for charities shows how to pick one tool per bucket, keep data light, and turn stories and stats into decisions. Human-first, trustee-ready, and designed to make change visible, trusted and weekly.

Struggling with a service closure decision? Get a step-by-step guide for charity leaders on how to prepare, facilitate the conversation, and manage the transition safely.

Charity leaders: Master the 'Retire & Renew' strategic service portfolio review. Learn to optimise impact, responsibly close services, and make courageous decisions for your non-profit's future.

Ensure your charity's new service pilots truly deliver. Discover our 4 essential stage-gate decisions (Go, Grow, Pause, Stop) for evidence-backed, impactful, and sustainable programs. Get practical guidance!

Run a 60-minute service lifecycle check-in to steady one live charity service, support service owners and prioritise practical next steps.

Avoid vague ownership and six-page job descriptions. Use this one-page service owner profile template to clarify who owns each service and how it improves.

Charities are under pressure to do more with less. This piece introduces a simple four-stage service lifecycle to help you design, improve and retire services in a way that’s kinder to staff, volunteers and the people you support.

Make co-production work in real charity settings. This guide shows how governance, safeguarding and simple stage gates keep projects moving and decision-ready. Learn to set 3–5 criteria, book decision dates, name owners, and design dual outputs; a board brief for leaders and a community-chosen product.

Practical ways charities can use ethical AI for co-production: widen access, cut admin, protect consent and keep lived experience at the centre.

A clear, field-tested guide to co-produced research: why averages hide sub-group nuance, how to keep work safe and governable, and what good looks like. With public case studies and low-risk AI supports so you can spend less time on admin and more time listening.

What does 2025 trust data reveal about nonprofit governance? UK and US findings highlight rising expectations, hidden risks, and practical steps boards can take now. Learn how to strengthen board decision-making, improve transparency, and prepare for AI-driven change without overloading trustees.

Not all data is created equal. This quick guide helps you choose the right method, surveys, interviews, focus groups, observations, or document review, to match your question and context. Clear, ethical choices lead to better insights, stronger trust, and smarter decisions

Charities do not need more data, they need the right data. This guide walks through common data collection methods, how to choose between them, and how to keep ethics and quality at the heart of your work.

Use token voting to turn many ideas into a ranked, defensible shortlist. Inclusive, low-tech, and easy to explain to boards and funders.

How a short, planned “data-diet” weeks can help charities close the loop, reduce overload, and turn existing feedback into action, without silencing anyone.

Map who speaks, who decides, and who is heard. Relational feedback mapping is a simple way for charities to spot missing voices and avoid building strategy around the loudest group.

Charities are listening more than ever, but without a filter everything feels urgent. Use feedback fasts, token voting and relational mapping to act faster and protect capacity.

When volunteer recruitment goes well it feels like a relief: a good campaign, a partner promotion, or a moment in the media and suddenly people are offering their time. Too often, though, the welcome wave is followed by a different problem: local teams are not ready, role descriptions are vague, training is patchy, and volunteers stall or drift away. Staff step in to cover the gaps and the goodwill that carried recruitment frays into frustration. Next time you ask, it becomes

Learn how to spot frontline workarounds, capture them and turn them into repeatable wins. A simple, low-admin way to break the crisis innovation loop in charities.