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Lasting Leadership programme opens for applications
We're offering 10 subsidised places on a transformational Lasting Leadership programme focused on our soon-to-be published sustainable leadership guide. It will help participants to: Plan succession and capacity building in their organisations Develop their own and...
Our latest Lasting Difference Symbol holder announced!
Congratulations to Stop It Now! Scotland for becoming the latest organisation to receive the Lasting Difference Symbol in recognition of their commitment to organisational sustainability. Stop It Now! Scotland were part of a programme in 2017 which developed the...
Congratulations to the first five Lasting Difference Symbol holders!
The first five charities have been awarded The Lasting Difference® symbol in recognition of their commitment to organisational sustainability. This new symbol, launched in June 2019, allows organisations to demonstrate they are committed to taking action on...
New workshops announced for England
We're taking our special charity sustainability workshop on the road this autumn. We're visiting London, York, Manchester and Birmingham to share our popular training and free resources. Early bird rates are available for the first 10 bookings made before 23rd...
Workshop news!
We're please to announce a special set of our popular one-day Lasting Difference workshops throughout England in November this year: York: Monday 11th November at York CVS Manchester: Wednesday 13th November at the stunning GMCVO St Thomas Centre Birmingham: Wednesday...
What the third sector is searching for
This year is the 30th anniversary of when I began working in the voluntary sector (if you count volunteering in a Barnardo’s charity shop instead of going to a year’s worth of art history lectures!). So by now I thought I would know what the third sector needs. It...
The Octopus and the Shipwreck
Over the last five weeks I’ve explored the four paradoxes of sustainability: The Change paradox: Only by changing can organisations be sustainable.The Yes/No paradox: The things that an organisation needs to survive can also kill it. The Efficiency paradox: Efficiency...
Sustain your organisation – say ‘no’ more
In this, the fourth free excerpt from Graeme's new book on nonprofit sustainability, he explains that the things that an organisation needs to survive can also kill it. Saying ‘yes’ to everything is fatal. This paradox manifests in organisations when they can’t say no...
Wrestling the octopus
Our organisations need to reach out in new directions to grow. But growing in too many directions pulls us out of shape. When organisations need to change to survive (which they do), they reach out in new directions, growing new projects like tentacles, in search of...
Forget stability, choose sustainability
In this second of 10 weekly blogs celebrating the launch of his new book, Graeme reflects on the paradox of change: Only by changing can organisations be sustainable. When discussing sustainability, it’s important to be clear that we are not arguing for maintaining...
Making the case for inefficiency
The first in a special series of posts to by Graeme Reekie to mark the release of 'Making a Lasting DIfference - sustaining nonprofit organisations and their impact'. Without efficiency, organisations would quickly exhaust all their energy and resources - but too much...
Writing the book on non-profit sustainability
Making a Lasting Difference, Graeme's newly-released book, is an urgent exploration of organisational sustainability. Based on the Lasting Difference toolkit, it's a long-form exploration of sustainability. It explains the main challenges to survival and growth in...
The State of the Sector
At the 2019 Gathering this February the SCVO presented results from their recent poll about the state of the Scottish third sector SCVO Third Sector Forecast 2019 . It has revealed few surprises for those who have worked within the sector in recent years. There are...
Sustainable Leadership ‘Crisis? What Crisis?’
A recent longitudinal (2018) report ‘Path to Impact’ assessed the capacity and capabilities of non-profit organisations in Northern Ireland and Scotland using the Core Capacity Assessment Tool (CCAT). Across both regions ‘sustainable leadership’ was identified as the...
Join our special workshop at the Gathering
Since it launched at The Gathering in 2016, the Lasting Difference toolkit and website have been used by many thousands of organisations to transform the way they work - thank you! But many others are still struggling to find their way towards sustainability. What's...
That’s a Good Idea!
In our last blog I explored the importance of innovation and its role in developing a sustainable culture. Once innovative ideas have been generated the next stage is to narrow them down and select the best option. Moving from the phase of divergent thinking to...
Innovation Matters
It has been said that people are innovative, while organisations are less so. The notion of innovation inevitably raises questions for anyone operating in the non-profit world, from ‘is this idea really innovative?’ to ‘how can we find time to innovate?’ We would...
Ready to Collaborate?
Here at the Lasting Difference we recognise the importance of collaboration as an activity which supports organisational sustainability. One of the indicators in our Lasting Difference toolkit focuses on this very point ‘Collaboration helps us harness resources and...
Top Priority
Recently published The Local Charity and Community Group Sustainability Report 2017/18 makes for sobering reading. Support organisation Localgiving have undertaken a survey on sustainability over the past three years, so it is possible to start to see trends emerging...
Starting Out
There's a lot to think about when you are starting out in any new venture. Often the big (and exciting!) vision can become overwhelmed by more practical and mundane tasks, however necessary these are. As someone who is fairly new in post I recognise how this feels all...
Sustaining Self-Directed Support
Sometimes you just know you are in the right place with the right people at the right time. Our recent workshop series on sustaining self-directed support was a great example, so we've written a special report to share the learning. From the very start, we knew we...
Our Lasting Difference Maker
We're delighted to announce that Laura Lebec has joined us to lead our work and learning on all things sustainability. Newly appointed as our Lasting Difference Development Manager, she has lots of fresh ideas for improving the toolkit, website and user experience of...
Implementation Guide goes live
The new Implementation Guide launched at the SCVO Gathering today, to a very engaged audience . Like the Lasting Difference itself, feedback from participants shows that the Guide will help people to think in new ways about sustainability. You can download the...
Gathering momentum
This year's Gathering marks our fifth birthday as a full time enterprise and the second anniversary the Lasting Difference's launch. We've made lots of progress, not least with 3500+ copies of the toolkit being used and supported by charities, membership organisations...
A new approach to fundraising?
If you've spent any time with us over the last year or two, you'll know how much we encourage involvement and innovation as part of sustainable income generation strategies. So it was great to recently come across a new approach to fundraising. SIVA brings together...
Introducing the Sported ‘Frisbee’
Sported have developed a comprehensive model of capacity and sustainability. ‘The Frisbee’ helps the organisation and its members to plan - and evidence the impact of – capacity building support. It’s very cool, and here’s why. First of all, it looks good! The layout...
The principles and paradoxes of sustainability
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The principles and paradoxes of sustainability One of the core principles of sustainability is that it is about more than just money. Finance is only one of the sustainability challenges faced by not-for-profit organisations – and...
The meaning behind the myths
Sustainability is a growing concern for third sector organisations. Demand on services continues to increase, resources continue to dwindle. How can we talk about third sector sustainability in this context? It’s time to be clear what sustainability means and to...
The four capabilities
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]When we began researching sustainability in non-profit organisations, it seemed like a potentially limitless subject. It could potentially involve anything to do with running any organisation! We didn’t want to rewrite the rulebook...