Welcome To The Thinking Space

Learn how charity service owners can lead low-risk AI innovation. Use the Map, Measure, Magnify framework to automate admin without losing the human core.

AI adoption in charities often fails because it ignores human relationships. Learn how to map your "Relational Core" to build an AI strategy that protects trust and improves governance.

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.

Feeling overwhelmed by AI? Learn how to strategically implement AI for charities using your existing service lifecycle framework. A practical guide for non-profit leaders on using AI to enhance services, from discovery to delivery.

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.

Charity services often wobble because no one really owns them. This guide explains what a service owner is, how the role works, and simple steps to choose one.

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.

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.

Volunteer numbers are falling, but the problem is deeper than recruitment. See how shadow systems, crisis fixes and volunteer pipeline friction are reshaping charity operations, and what to do now.

A quick, charity-first health check for your impact data. Answer 10 yes/no questions to see what’s working, where “expensive noise” has crept in, and what to tidy first.

Impact measurement for charities should guide decisions, not create expensive noise. This post shows five simple steps to tidy your metrics, co-create them with your team, and only add tools when the system is ready.