We began as a training consultancy in 2006, widening our focus in 2013 to provide a range of organisational development services. Since then we have worked with over 100 clients and many thousands of organisations including charities, funders, universities, and government departments.
Who we work with and what we do
Each year we work with around 40 clients and partners and run over 100 events, workshops and conferences, usually reaching over 1000 organisations annually. Over half of our clients since 2013 had a turnover of £1m+ and around 20% are UK-wide. Here’s a year in numbers as an example.
We produce 20-30 bespoke new resources, publications and reports every year, making them freely available wherever possible. Our Lasting Difference resources are especially popular.
The areas we work with most closely are health & social care, membership and intermediary organisations and funders, making up about a third of our annual work. We also support environmental, youth work, housing, justice, equalities, arts and many other organsiations. We select clients and contracts carefully, based on where we know we can have most impact (every year since 2013 we have turned down the same volume of work as we have accepted).
Who we are
Graeme Reekie and Jen Curran are our lead consultants and company directors.
Graeme has worked at all levels of the non-profit sectors since 1990, including 10 years as a charity trustee. He is known for making complex topics engaging and accessible, writing Making a Lasting Difference to demystify non-profit sustainability. He has various post-graduate qualifications in management, innovation, knowledge management and entrepreneurship. He’s into vegan cooking, graphic novels, record collecting and, usually less enthusiastically, doing the garden.
Jen has over 20 years sector experience, with more than 10 years in management positions and an MBA to match. With a background in community planning and user engagement, she has also worked on policy at UK and European levels alongside other roles in business development, communications and strategy. Known for her enthusiasm and unwavering commitment to clients, she is the creative brain behind Lasting Leadership, our guide to sustaining non-profit sector leadership.
We also draw on the skills of fellow Director Jenny Reekie, who you can find out more about here, freelance information manager Caspia Baird and a trusted pool of other designers, thinkers and collaborators.
In 2019 we made short films to introduce ourselves, using quirky questions inspired by interview formats in publications as varied as the Financial Times and The Big Issue – you can view them below.