The Challenge
The Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) employs 400 people who distribute c£300m to charities across six continents. CAF manages £2.2bn of funds and provides financial services to 20,000 charities and 80,000 individuals.

Donors’ attitudes and behaviours are evolving rapidly as is the structure of the charitable sector and an increasing divide has developed between mega charities and smaller organisations. New technology now enables other providers to develop and offer new services to charities and donors. CAF was keen to examine and re-establish its direction and focus.

Background
The newly formed Executive Management Group (EMG) saw the need, and an opportunity, for CAF to carry out a strategy review that would create a new purpose and position for the organisation.

The EMG wanted to address some of the challenges caused by the traditional tendency in the sector to measure success based on growth in receipts rather than the impact of contributions. CAF also recognised the need to move away from delivering bespoke offers, something that has created a large, complex and costly infrastructure.

What we did
For any strategic plan to succeed Norton strongly believes in engaging the whole organisation with the purpose and direction of that plan. One key challenge was to achieve this level of engagement at trustee, EMG and staff level. The initial phase therefore involved interviews with each of the Board of Trustees and a variety of managers and staff.

We investigated three potential visions for CAF’s future and tested these with stakeholders, staff and trustees. In January this year, CAF defined its unique position in the market. The organisation also set out its key working principles to:

• use its knowledge of donors and the 3rd sector to maximise impact
• focus on value add activity
• deliver maximum benefit whilst limiting the operational and financial burden where possible
• reduce operational complexity

Having gained support from trustees and the EMG, and tested the proposal, an agreed target operating model and customer offer was created. This future strategy for CAF has received overwhelming support from donors and charities.

The Outcome
CAF now has a three year strategic change plan. Over that period it will become a single customer-centric organisation offering donors and charities products and services that create the greatest impact.

Over the next 12 months CAF will move away from its product-focused approach to one where service offers are segmented by customer need and behaviour. Its offer will be informed by sector research and its services delivered by integrated teams for sales and service.

One of the research pieces identified that successful implementation could result in an additional £1bn being available to charities.

The Client
“As an organisation that was fragmented, in its strategy, business delivery and organisational thinking Norton’s blend of active engagement, pragmatism and broad experience enabled CAF to focus its thinking and, for the first time in its history, challenge its strategic direction and achieve real clarity of purpose.

Norton’s style and approach is refreshing and engaging; they were able to quickly cut through the complexities of the organisation, ensuring at all stages through effective facilitation that Trustees, the senior team and staff owned the strategy. CAF has a significant opportunity to add real value in its target market, working with the Norton Group has provided a strong foundation from which we are now able to seize this opportunity!”.   
Tracey L Reddings, Executive Director, Charities Aid Foundation