One click away from skilled volunteering #ORblog

Skilled volunteering is a fantastic way to use the skills you already have to make a real difference to third sector organisations.

Whether its a few hours or a few days, both the organisation and the volunteers benefit from volunteering.

To see what some of our volunteers have to say please read these two articles written by volunteers who worked with RSPCA and HARCVS:

Volunteer experience article RSPCA
Volunteer experience article HARCVS

To see the who we've worked with and the types of projects we've completed please visit: case studies

Signing up to become a #ProBonoOR volunteer only takes a couple of minutes but could have a long term impact on both yourself and the organisation(s) you work with http://ow.ly/Or0Mq 

Please share and get in touch for further information felicity.mcleister@theorsociety.com 

Please follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn for further information and updates.

Pro Bono O.R. is skilled volunteering for individuals with operational research/analytical experience.  Please note projects can be carried out individually, in teams and with a mentor if required.

For information on other skilled volunteering organisations please visit:
Career Volunteer or Reach Skills

Using Pro Bono O.R. to address a wide range of operational improvements

Pro Bono O.R. (Operational Research) – free consultancy for third sector organisations

UK based organisations in the third sector can benefit from O.R. consultancy at no cost. The Operational Research society is offering third sector organisations the opportunity for free consultancy to address a wide range of operational improvements – for example greater efficiency, better customer service, higher quality or lower cost.  Whatever the aim, O.R. can offer the flexibility and adaptability to provide objective help.

O.R. is about finding ways to apply analytical methods to make better decisions. Third Sector organisations face extremely complex decisions about the direction they should take and how to allocate scarce resources.  These are some of the issues the organisations we’ve worked with have faced:

• ‘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?’

 Here are some of the issues the projects we've already completed have addressed:

• Strategic planning/review
• Impact measurement
• Process improvement
• Data analysis
• Business planning
• Efficiency improvement
• Options appraisal
• Decision making

O.R. consistently delivers significant value – strategic to tactical, top-line to bottom-line – to the organisations and executives who use it.   

 Since launching in September 2013, Pro Bono O.R. has completed twelve projects and is currently working with a further fifteen organisations.  In addition to that there are several organisations that have expressed an interest in receiving support.  We have over 250 volunteers across the UK and these range from retired professionals to analysts in their early career, consultants and others in the O.R./analytics profession who either volunteer in their own time, are given company time or a mixture of both.  Forty four of those volunteers have already worked/are working on projects and many more are eager to get involved with helping support third sector organisations.

Hear what the organisation have to say:

"We are enormously grateful for being able to benefit from the advice and support of such a knowledgeable and experienced professional, who was able to raise challenging issues in a sensitive and helpful way"

"We've benefited hugely from your work and support in all areas of the project, and from an organisational perspective you've enabled us to take a highly professional approach to increasing the efficiency of our charity"

Hear what the volunteers have to say:

"I've really enjoyed working with third sector organisations and found the staff extremely positive about the contribution we make"

"Working as a pro bono volunteer is a great way to contribute some professional expertise to some truly worthwhile causes.  The Third Sector is full of people who feel passionately about their Mission, so working with them is invariably a positive learning experience"

For further information about the scheme please visit: http://www.theorsociety.com/Pages/Probono/Probono.aspx

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Free event: Using Knowledge Management To Increase Third Sector Resilience

Venue: RNLI Boardroom, 124-126 Webber St, London SE1 0QL 
Speaker: Gillian Ragsdell & Moya Hoult
Date: Monday, 10 November 2014 at 12:30 - 15:00

How can sharing information help build resilience in the voluntary sector? Gillian Ragsdell and Moya Hoult will be discussing their experience of a Big Lottery funded project entitled ‘Charnwood Connect’ to show how knowledge management practices can help to build and sustain meaningful partnerships, and, in turn, lead to increased resilience. Charnwood Connect, launched on 1st October 2013, aimed to encourage voluntary and public sector organisations to work together to achieve more for service users and service providers, building on the success of the well-established advice providers in the Borough. With collaborative working becoming an increasingly important cornerstone of the voluntary sector, it is timely to reflect on the benefits and challenges of Charnwood Connect and to share lessons from the early stages of the project.

Gillian Ragsdell is a Knowledge Management expert from Loughborough University, whilst Moya Hoult brings hands-on expertise as Chief Executive of Charnwood Citizens Advice Bureau.

This talk will be combined with the General Meeting of the OR Society's Third Sector Special Interest Group, electing a committee, Chair and Secretary.

Entry is free, but advance registration is essential: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/using-knowledge-management-to-increase-third-sector-resilience-tickets-13330151843

Tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided; please feel free to bring lunch if you wish.

Registration starts:                                                                             12.30

O.R. and Third Sector: review and discussion                                   13.00

(Ruth Kaufman, Chair of Third Sector SIG)                

Election of Officers and Committee                                                   13.20

Knowledge Management and Third Sector Resilience                      13.30

Gillian Ragsdell, Loughborough University; Moya Hoult, Charnwood CAB

Further discussion, networking: details tbc                                        14.15

Meeting closes at 15.00

Helping AYME (Association of Young People with ME) focus on the future

After hearing about the project Pro Bono O.R. carried out for 'Work for Us' and the very positive feedback, Vanessa (Deputy Chair) at AYME got in touch.  AYME needed to revise its 3-5 year strategy in the light of changing circumstances and several new trustees.   Pro Bono O.R. provided an external facilitator who ran a half day strategic planning workshop. The slide below provides a summary of the project.  

In order to receive Pro Bono O.R. support please send an email to felicity.mcleister@theorsociety.com
For more information please visit the webpage which has details of how to get involved, all the case studies and latest news.

Pro Bono O.R. in the UK & Internationally (Conference talk by Graham Rand) at IFORS (Barcelona 2014)

A member of the Pro Bono steering group (Graham Rand) was invited to give a talk at the IFORS (International Federation of Operational Research Societies) conference in Barcelona (July 2014).  The talk looks at how Pro Bono O.R. is operated and looks at some case studies both in the UK and abroad.  Conference slides

On the back of this, Graham has been invited to the INFORMS (The Institute fr Operations Research and the Management Sciences) conference in San Francisco to deliver a similar talk.  INFORMS is the largest society in the world for professionals in the field of Operational Research, management science and analytics.

The value of LinkedIn for Third Sector organisations

Having recently read Alex Swallow's post on 'How LinkedIn changed my life' it really struck me how valuable LinkedIn has been for Pro Bono O.R. (Operational Research). It has helped me build up connections with people I would never have been able to otherwise and has enabled me to explain what O.R. is and how it is and can really benefit Third Sector organisations in the UK.

To then back this up I then received an email yesterday from Karen Weaver (CEO of HARCVS) who has written an article on how LinkedIn offers opportunities for charities:

Linking In offers opportunities for charities

'Volunteers find their way to charities via many routes and of course take on a wide
variety of roles. In recent years social media has become a valuable additional channel and HARCVS has just benefited from excellent support from a volunteer which commenced with LinkedIn.'

To find out how Karen discovered Pro Bono O.R. and how the project went please read the following article on pages 6-7: Care in Action Newsletter

How small charities can have a big impact

Just came across this article from The Guardian on the voluntary sector network blog. I have taken excerpts below...

'Small charities are increasingly having to innovate and do more with less to survive.

It is no secret that charities are facing tough times. Demand is up and funding is down meaning that charities – especially the smaller ones – are having to think outside of the box to survive.'

During a live debate hosted on 20th June the following questions were raised:

'• What innovative techniques small charities can use to maximise and measure their impact

• How small charities can cut costs while maximising social outcomes

• Where to begin and what to consider when approaching impact measurement'

If you missed it, don't worry.  These are exactly the type of questions that Operational Research can help you with.  

O.R. is about finding ways to apply analytical methods to make better decisions. Third Sector organisations face extremely complex decisions about the direction they should take and how to allocate scarce resources.  These are some of the issues the organisations we've worked with have faced:

 ‘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?’

UK based organisations in the third sector can now benefit from O.R. consultancy at no cost. The Operational Research Society is offering third sector organisations the opportunity for free consultancy to help reduce costs and improve utilisation of limited resources.

The society wants more organisations to benefit from operational research and recognises that third sector organisations have an even greater need to be more efficient.

For more information please contact me at felicity.mcleister@theorsociety.com

Cranfield Trusts joins the debate: 'Are there too many charities?'

Interesting article from Amanda Tincknell, CEO of Cranfield Trust http://cranfieldtrust.org/article/2014/jul/1/are-there-too-many-charities