A REVIEW OF THE PEER-TO-PEER

LEARNING VISITS
August 2017

At the end of 2016 all LSF grant holders were invited to apply to take part in peer
visits with other grant holders, to exchange their experiences of LSF and the wider
challenges they may be facing. Each visit lasted one day and participating
organisations were given 200 towards travel and subsistence costs. Matches were
made by the evaluation team at NCVO to ensure that paired organisations would
gain as much as possible from the experience; organisations of a similar size,
mission, and location were matched as much as possible. Thirty organisations took
part in 15 visits between February and June 2017.

This bulletin outlines the learning that participating organisations gained from their
peer visits, which is based on feedback forms from the 15 paired visits.

The focus of the visits was deliberately driven by the organisations involved. This
flexibility and ability to steer their own agenda was positively received, but was also
responsible for a considerable breadth of experience which will be represented in
this bulletin.

Learning and impact

Organisations participating in the visits described a wide variety of learning they had
gained, reporting positively on the experience and the benefits:

'The visit was a great opportunity for us to share learning and discuss some of
the issues faced. We have started to find some solutions to support the
development of both our organisations.'

The learning ranged from practical understanding of processes and ideas for new
work, to wider ways of understanding and pursuing their work. The majority of
learning concerned the functioning of their organisations and how it could be made
more sustainable and impactful, although some was specific to the organisation's
experience with LSF and how they could make the most of the funding in the
remaining time.
LSF EVALUATION BULLETIN: A REVIEW OF THE PEER-TO-PEER VISITS

Putting this learning in to practice, participating organisations similarly described a

wide variety of changes they had already started to make or were planning to make.
In some cases these were practical, material changes, whilst in others it appeared to
have given organisations energy to develop new ideas and approaches.

The following areas of learning and impact were observed.

Understanding mission, values, and activities

In some cases, organisations appeared to have gained learning about some of the
wider strategic challenges they were experiencing. This could include, for example,
gaining new insight into how to balance commercial income generation against
charitable values, gaining a clearer vision of what their charity was seeking to do, or
developing a changed perception of how to involve volunteers after seeing another
organisation's volunteer activities. In other cases, the chance to discuss challenges
and share experiences simply reaffirmed to the participating charities that a
particular approach they had adopted was the right one, for example, in one case
being convinced of the value of being user-led as an organisation.

While participants often noted that the organisation they visited was very different to
theirs, they also frequently described similar challenges, issues, and experiences, for
example around funding, the wider environment, or working with advisors and
business partners in their LSF project. Discovering such a connection could often be
a positive thing for the organisations involved and an impact in its own right:

'It was reassuring for us to hear of how her organisation faces some similar
issues with funding and with reporting/monitoring in fact that was a boost to
the confidence of team members, who realised that what we have devised
does have value.'

Volunteer and trustee engagement

Participating organisations reported learning about new ways in which to recruit,
manage and reward volunteers, gaining tips, ideas and practical guidance. In some
cases this could be highly practical, such as how to set up a 'Friends of' group from
an organisation which had done so effectively:

'[The organisation] have much greater success with recruitment of volunteers

than we do and I was interested to learn how that was managed.'

Subsequently it was common for organisations to discuss how they were planning to
explore new ways of engaging volunteers and the communities within which they
worked. In other cases this was about engaging existing volunteers in different ways,
through, for example, a programme of events. It could also involve practical changes
such as re-writing volunteer handbooks. Other organisations reported a wider
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LSF EVALUATION BULLETIN: A REVIEW OF THE PEER-TO-PEER VISITS

approach, including having developed a new-found energy and interest in looking at

volunteer recruitment or how they had been encouraged to think more strategically
about how to involve volunteers:

I will manage our Volunteer Co-ordinator to design a programme of events to

develop and motivate our volunteers a sort of thank you from us which will
include social, cultural, team-building and fun activities.

Several organisations also discussed how they were planning to engage their board
of trustees in new ways, including finding different ways to communicate with them
and involve them, such as enhancing financial reporting to the board:

'[Contact] gave me insight into new ways of working with our Trustees
including improving engagement and relationships as well as ideas around
recruitment.'

Staff and contractor engagement

Organisations talked about how they had had the chance to exchange ideas on how
best to work with advisors, business partners or consultants and gain practical tips
as well as discuss challenges; this was especially relevant to LSF, with organisations
reporting the usefulness of being able to think through what they could do differently
in relation to their projects.

Organisations went on to report wanting to look at how to change and develop the
way in which they worked with their staff, ranging from simple and practical changes
such as holding staff meetings at different times to more strategic approaches
including reviewing how they worked with consultants.

Fundraising practice and income generation

Many organisations highlighted learning around income, this appearing to be an
important element of their work with LSF and their quest to improve their
organisational sustainability. Learning was often practical in terms of identifying new
sources of funding, getting new contacts and introductions, or developing new ideas
for fundable projects. However, it was also common for it to involve more strategic
learning around how to better generate unrestricted income, how to work more
effectively with fundraising consultants, and which income streams would be most
effective.

The subsequent changes that organisations had started to or had planned were
often quite practical in nature, such as setting up an internal group to focus on
fundraising, looking at different income sources, and making more applications to
small trusts and foundations. They could also be more strategic, including revising
the organisations outcomes work to better communicate the difference they make
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when making funding applications, developing a new fundraising tool, or looking at

how to involve their fundraiser in new ways. Some changes also involved
investigating larger changes, such as looking at new models of fundraising or
outsourcing fundraising externally.

Systems and processes

Often, much of what was discussed in the visits was practical and as such
organisations gained learning around financial management, systems and processes
that they could go on to apply in their own organisation, as well as details about
project management tools, software and approaches that they could use.

Organisations frequently described how they therefore planned to look at their

internal processes and systems for financial management, including improving
financial reporting systems to funders:

I am considering taking our accounts function back in house so that we have

greater control and understanding of the flow of income, which will prepare us
for a greater income spectrum.

Sharing learning
The focus of the peer visits was on sharing learning and many organisations
reported wanting to continue this after LSF. This could often be about maintaining
the relationships establishing in the peer visits themselves as organisations
frequently saw value in discussing issues further, beyond the life of the project. In
other instances, the visits appeared to have helped create an understanding of the
wider value of sharing learning, with several organisations saying they wanted to
seek further opportunities to discuss and share throughout the sector or develop
more partnership working:

I will now, however, seek out more opportunities to share experiences with
other charity CEOs as I found the process very helpful.

We will stay in touch so as to have the opportunity to discuss any difficult

issues together and to continue the peer to peer support.

The visit has encouraged me to approach other third sector organisations to

share practice, problems and solutions.

Business relationships
Reflecting the centrality of the relationship to businesses within the LSF programme,
the peer visits had, in some instances, pushed participating organisations to think
about developing and enhancing relationships with businesses, with some
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organisations having considerably more experience in this area than others, and
therefore being able to share and discuss their experiences and tips. This could
include having a dedicated business development role or more generally prioritising
relationships with the private sector.

Service / business (re)design

Several organisations reported learning about different models that their organisation
could pursue, with learning including better understanding of when structures such
as Community Interest Companies were appropriate and effective, how to
consolidate smaller services in to a more effective delivery mechanism, or the
limitations of developing commercially-focused models. The chance to discuss
different approaches and hear from organisations with direct experience was
especially valued.

In terms of emerging changes, some organisations reported wanting to look at

developing new models of delivery and income generation, including examining the
feasibility of becoming a social enterprise, revising their commercial model,
examining social finance, or developing a trading arm to their organisation. In
another case, an organisation was planning to examine how they could use a
property in their organisational model.

Organisational change
Participating organisations reported planning to make a number of changes to how
their organisation functioned more generally as a result of the visits. This included
better demonstrating the difference they made (e.g. developing a strong impact
statement), revising projects and tools, improving project management practices and
other internal policies, obtaining the PQASSO quality standard, or undertaking an
organisation re-brand:

It was not previously planned but I now want to dedicate some time towards
showing our return on investment.

Areas for improvement

Participating organisations fed back ideas for what could have been improved
regarding the peer-to-peer visits, something that can provide practical learning for
the development of similar models in the future. As a result of high levels of
satisfaction with the visits (all organisations providing feedback said they were
satisfied or very satisfied with the overall experience), the most common response
was that nothing needed to be improved and that they had worked very well as they
were.

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The next most common comment was that more time would have been useful,
potentially reflecting both the relatively light-touch nature of the visits and the
usefulness of the process:

It was a whistle stop tour and in future if I was involved in a similar visit I
would consider working in the organisation for one week to give me a fuller
insight.

Some organisations noted that they were not able to undertake a reciprocal visit to
the organisation they visited which they felt would have been useful (due to budget
or time limitations), whilst others had responded by committing to continuing the
relationship beyond the life of LSF and staying in contact to exchange learning and
ideas in the future. Organisations also suggested other opportunities to build on this,
potentially establishing an online forum or network and suggesting the need for other
networking opportunities:

I would welcome some sort of webinar or forum (regional?) or online forum

where we would meet like-minded charities who are willing to share
experiences and support.

Closely related to time, some organisations suggested that having more space
available to understand the context and operating environment of the organisation
would have been useful, and one organisation reported that having the visit earlier in
the process would have been more helpful.

While the matching process received praise, several organisations noted that
improvements here, in the sense of a closer match between the characteristics and
field of operation of the organisations would have been more useful, although others
noted that differences didnt necessarily detract from the usefulness of the visits:

I would have got more from being matched to an organisation that had more
similarities in its application e.g. to increase fee earning work, staff training,
impact assessment etc.

It was also very interesting to gain insight from a charity that is working in a
very different way to us and that was able to exchange inside information
without any worries about competition.

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Next steps in the evaluation

Those organisations participating in the peer-to-peer visits appear to have gained in
numerous ways and had enjoyed the experience. The learning outlined in this
bulletin is nonetheless useful for any organisation looking to enhance its
sustainability, and will also hopefully provide useful indicators of what can make an
effective peer-to-peer mechanism as part of a grant programme and evaluation. The
insights in this bulletin will be fed in to the final evaluation outputs which will report
back in December 2017.