Valuable insights from a finance and business strategy workshop

By Stella Howe – Trust and Foundation Funding Manager, St. Hilda’s East Community Centre

This experience reflects a finance and business strategy workshop, that ran as part of the Evolve programme, which is a collaboration between UBS, Linklaters, Societe Generale and the Societe Generale UK Foundation.

Prior to attending the workshop, my role at St. Hilda’s East was focused entirely on securing trust and foundation funding. I also found myself needing to navigate corporate partnerships, understand the best ways to work with businesses, and build a structured plan on how to approach them effectively.

Historically, our approach to corporations felt scattered, relying on many different methods without a clear strategy. We were putting in a massive amount of work for very little financial return, yielding only small results. It felt like there was a lot of corporate money out there but an overwhelming number of strategies to take on board.

Workshop impact

Hearing from the enthusiastic and brilliant corporate volunteer –  Yuanbo from UBS – who led the workshop was incredibly valuable. It is always refreshing to see things from a different point of view. They helped us realise that a corporate’s first move will always be to check our social media, making the relevance and frequency of our posts our absolute first priority.

The workshop structure was excellent. It was short, punchy and felt like the exact right length. It didn’t impinge too much on my working day, yet I walked away feeling like I had learned an immense amount in the time available. It was fantastic to have continuity with the volunteer – seeing the same familiar face from UBS meant we didn’t have to waste time re-explaining our organisation’s background.

Key actions I took away:

• Prospect spreadsheet overhaul: We are consolidating our prospect lists into a much cleaner spreadsheet format using different, clearer headings to make it easily scannable and manageable.
• Implementing social media advice: Revamping our digital platforms to ensure they meet corporate expectations.
• Ruthless list cleaning!: Being entirely thorough with our data and immediately removing “no hope” contacts so we can focus our energy where it matters.

The biggest lesson was realising that reputation is everything: we should not approach a corporate prospect until our social media presence is where it needs to be. It is better to wait until we are better placed than to risk our reputation with a weak online footprint. We need to show a vibrant, active presence first.

If you are a Hackney, Tower Hamlets or Haringey community partner and would like to get involved with the Evolve programme, please contact Courtney Thorne: [email protected].

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