Designing a Charity Operating Model
Charity Operating Model
A Charity operating model is a comprehensive blueprint to describe how your organisation delivers value to its stakeholders and beneficiaries. For charitable organisations, an effective operating model can be a powerful tool to bridge the gap between strategy and results, ultimately enhancing your impact and efficiency.
The foundation to any successful operating model is a clear purpose. Charities must define their vision, mission, and goals before designing their operating structure. This clarity helps ensure that every aspect of your organisation’s operations contribute to your overall purpose and future ambition.
What to include in a Charity Operating Model?
Your Charity operating model could include details of your organisation’s:
- Strategic focus
- Service delivery
- Volunteer management
- Key partners
- Operational support functions
- Core technology systems
- Income streams
- Governance, decision making and approach to risk management
- Compliance
- Impact measurement and evaluation.
Here are our top tips to ensure your Charity operating model is on point to deliver against your purpose and ambition:
Stakeholder Engagement
Incorporate the voices of those most affected by your work into your operating model. This includes beneficiaries, staff, volunteers, and donors. By sharing power and decision-making, charities can advance equity and ensure their services remain relevant and impactful.
Explore your organisational design
The relationship between your organisation’s operating model and organisational structure is closely intertwined and mutually supportive. The Charity operating model defines the framework and components that your organisation uses to operate and deliver value, while the organisational structure determines how people, roles, and responsibilities are arranged to execute that model.
Our free guide on the Role of Design for Charities explains how to assess your organisation’s design.
Map Capabilities
Capabilities are the application of a skill, knowledge or experience to achieve an outcome. Identify and prioritise the capabilities most critical to achieving your strategic goals. Mapping capabilities means improved decision making, identifying any gaps, allocating resources effectively, and your organisation can excel in areas that matter most.
Consider a Flexible Structure
Overly complex organisational structures often hinder focus on core charitable objectives. We are seeing a trend in charities are moving away from rigid hierarchies towards more flexible, network-based structures. This approach allows for greater adaptability and responsiveness to changing needs.
If your operating model isn’t already flexible and agile, could you consider implementing:
- Skills-based approaches instead of rigid job roles
- Devolved decision-making to the front line
- Cross-functional collaboration
Collaborate with other organisations
The charity sector is surely one of the most purpose led in business, and with this comes access to partnerships and collaboration. You can harness the expertise and experiences of others to enhance your ways of working. A collaborative approach to defining operating models can help innovate and explore unexplored areas more deeply.
Leverage technology to enhance operations and service delivery
Your operating model should outline the systems which are essential for delivering your strategy. If your operating model has changed to embrace hybrid working, does your technology stack support this effectively? Are there any gaps in capability which can be efficiently supplemented through technology support? Do you need to invest in technology which brings you closer to your service users and allows for greater efficiency?
Technology can help your organisation to manage risks such as cyber threats. In a recent study by Charity Digital, 26% of charities said their attitude towards cyber security had changed due to suffering a cyber-attack themselves. The same report found that 78% of trustees said they were unaware of a cyber resilience strategy within their organisation.
Measure Success of your Charity Operating Model
To ensure your Charity operating model is delivering results, establish clear metrics for success. These might include:
- Impact on beneficiaries
- Financial sustainability
- Staff and volunteer engagement
- Donor satisfaction
Regularly assess these metrics and use the insights gained to refine your operating model further.
By designing and implementing a thorough and well considered operating model, charities will have a model to deliver against their ambitions. This approach allows organisations to be more agile, responsive, efficient, and impactful in pursuing their missions. As the sector continues to evolve, those charities that embrace innovative operating models will be best positioned to thrive and create lasting change in the communities they serve.
Remember, the journey to an optimal operating model is ongoing. Stay open to new ideas, be willing to adapt, and always keep your mission at the heart of your decisions. By doing so, your charity can maximise its impact and truly fulfil its potential in making a difference in the world.
If you need support to develop your operating model, get in touch with Nine Feet Tall today.
