Wednesday, 16 March 2016

#ProBonoOR helps Age UK Dacorum secure £66.5k Big Lottery Bid

Back in September 2015 Pro Bono O.R. was contacted by Dave Pearce (CEO of Age UK Dacorum) to enquire if we could find a volunteer to act as an advisor for an application they were submitting to the Local Sustainability Fund. Age UK Dacorum required support to develop and implement (if the bid was successful) a business change plan aimed at improving its long term financial sustainability.

Dave initially registered with Pro Bono O.R. and was then put in touch with one of the Pro Bono O.R. scoping committee.  They discussed the requirements in more depth and outlined a scoping document that was then sent to the Pro Bono O.R. volunteers. There was a very tight deadline for the support Age UK Dacorum required and as such we knew it was going to be difficult to find a suitable volunteer. However to everyone's delight a suitable volunteer was found and Dave and Ken started work immediately.

Initially Ken worked with senior managers to:

(i) help [identify] select and firm up on one or two key organisational or business developments expected to improve sustainability, by:
  • working with them to identify barriers to sustainability and options for change
  • reviewing the logic, rationale and evidence for change proposals; identifying gaps, risks and issues; and concluding which is/are the most feasible, and fit in best with LSF objectives and likely funding level
(ii) helping to plan the change(s) identifying the main actions, timings, resources required, estimated budget, risks and rationale, in a way that assisted them to complete the LSF application form effectively.

After months of waiting Age UK Dacorum were informed this week that their application was successful and they will be awarded £65,000.  We are all delighted with this news as this grant will have an enormous impact.

Now Ken plans to work with Age UK Dacorum as an external advisor to provide support and challenge through the implementation stages of the plan. 

For more information about Pro Bono O.R. please visit our website.


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