NCVO promotes Operational Research and Pro Bono O.R.

Pro Bono O.R. has forged good relationship with NCVO and as a result were invited to write a blog post and write a case study for their website.

The blog post gives an introduction to Operational Research and can be read here

The case study focus' on a project which two volunteer undertook with Crimestoppers Trust looking at ways to increase capacity in their call centre whilst minimising staff costs. Read the case study here

For more information about the scheme, to see who we've worked with, read example case studies and to request support please visit:

www.theorsociety.com/Pages/Probono/Probono.aspx

You can connect with me via twitter (@FMcLeister) or LinkedIn

Pro Bono O.R.:Reaching new heights

Well what an exciting month November has turned out to be for Pro Bono O.R. I have made some great connections and the scheme has generated the most number of monthly project leads to date.  Really looking forward to seeing the impact O.R. will make to these organisations and hearing the feedback from both the organisations and volunteers.

Pro Bono O.R. is all about helping third sector organisations, whether that is by increasing efficiency, helping to reduce costs, plan strategy or demonstrate impact, there is usually a way O.R. can help.  

This month Pro Bono O.R. has also gone global with the American OR Society (INFORMS) set to launch their own Pro Bono O.R. scheme in 2015.  One of our own members of the Pro Bono O.R. steering group went over to San Francisco to present a talk about Pro Bono O.R. at the INFORMS conference.

This month we have 10 new projects leads from third sector organisations across the country.  Many of these are as a result of cross working with other schemes.  A few months ago I heard that the Government Statistical Service (GSS) had teamed up with NCVO to launch the 'Voluntary Sector Placement Scheme for Government Statisticians'.  This scheme seeks to match up voluntary sector organisations with government statisticians for short placements.  As this scheme was similar to our own I got in touch to find out more.  As a result they had several project requests that best suited Pro Bono O.R. and that they were able to pass on.

I've had some really beneficial meetings, one of which was with the Head of Charities and Social Enterprise at Baker Tilly.  We are working together to hold a breakfast event in 2015 to promote Pro Bono O.R to charity leaders.  Additionally we are planning to hold a workshop in Cambridge similar to the one we held at GMCVO which will explain what Pro Bono O.R. is and look at how it can help improve efficiency and effectiveness.

Could you organisation benefit from Pro Bono O.R. or are you an O.R. professional who would like to volunteer some time to work on Pro Bono O.R. projects?  I'd love to hear from you felicity.mcleister@theorsociety.com

How much is volunteering really worth?

Pro Bono O.R. is dependant on its volunteers in order to operate.  Without our volunteers, the third sector would not be benefiting from all the free consultancy hours.  These hours of face to face support and remote support that have so far been given to over 12 charities and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

We are currently trying to measure the 'economic value' that Pro Bono O.R. is worth by measuring the number of hours/days a volunteer works on a projects multiplied by the hourly/daily rate of an O.R. consultant/analyst.  We know that our volunteers are providing significant value but how much?  Read the interesting blog below from NCVO on how much volunteering is worth to the UK

“It’s the economic value, stupid”…but is volunteering really worth £100bn to the UK?

Read about the workshop at Evolve (one of the highest attended workshops of the day!)

How Operational Research can improve your organisation’s decision making

#Evolve 2014(Greater Manchester)

Pro Bono O.R. was invited to run a workshop at Evolve (Greater Manchester) 2014 which was hosted by GMCVO in partnership with NVCO.

The workshop was one of the highest attended workshops of the day and had extremely positive feedback.

Here’s a brief summary of what was covered:

The purpose of OR is to enable managers to make more effective decisions.  Those decisions could be strategic, tactical or extremely detailed issues. It may be appropriate to help in providing information through, for example, forecasting.  O.R can help through problem structuring, data gathering, modelling etc.  O.R. can be qualitative or quantitative or in many cases a combination of the two.

Some examples of Pro Bono projects were given before encouraging participants to consider the problems that their organisations faced that might be helped by O.R.

Third Sector organisations face extremely complex decisions about the direction they should take and how to allocate scarce resources. The OR Society wants more organisations to benefit from Operational Research and recognises that 3^rd sector organisations have an even greater need to be more efficient. 

 These are some of the problems third sector organisations are faced with:

•‘We have lots of different options for the future but it’s impossible to decide which to choose in such uncertain times.’

• ‘We’re under huge pressure to do more with less, and we don’t know how we’re going to do it.’

• ‘It’s hard to stay objective when we’re faced with such emotionally charged decisions.’

• ‘We know we’re doing a good job – but how can we prove it?’

The OR Society felt that O.R. could help and set up Pro Bono O.R.

After the workshop this is what some of the attendees said:

‘I came to this workshop as I didn’t know what O.R. was, I can say it’s the best workshop I’ve been to in a long time and I really bought into it’

‘We didn't know O.R. could help until we spoke to you’

‘What you said made a huge impression’

To find out more about Pro Bono O.R. visit http://www.theorsociety.com/Pages/Probono/Probono.aspx or email felicity.mcleister@theorsociety.com

Evolve (GM) 2014: What people had to say

Pro Bono O.R. was invited to deliver a workshop on 'How to improve your organisations decision making'

The workshop was one of the highest attended workshops of the day and had really positive feedback.

Here is what some of those who attended had to say:

‘I came to this workshop as I didn't know what O.R. was, I can say it’s the best workshop I've been to in a long time and I really bought into it’

‘We didn't know O.R. could help until we spoke to you’

‘What you said made a huge impression’

Alex Whinnom (CEO, GMCVO) who hosted the event said 'It was great to see how many people were interested in your session on Operational Research and we would love to have you back in the future for another session'

Please see my blog post from Monday 16th June for the workshop handouts.

Evolve (Greater Manchester) GMCVO/NCVO: Evolve workshop handout: How to increase your efficiency and effectiveness

On Friday 13th June GMCVO hosted Evolve Greater Manchester in partnership with NCVO.

This one day conference focused on how the northern voluntary sector is responding and reacting to current massive political, economical and social changes through practical action, mobilisation and completely new ideas.

Pro Bono O.R. was invited to run a workshop which looked at 'How O.R. can help third sector organisations increase there efficiency and effectiveness'.  With the launch of Pro Bono O.R. in September 2013 third sector organisation in the UK can now benefit from free consultancy.

The workshop was run by Graham Rand, Jane Parkin and myself.  It was very well attended, we had very positive feedback and several organisations who wanted to take up the offer of Pro Bono O.R.

To see the workshop handouts please click here