Project
In March 2024, the YIF invited its grant recipients to a series of events around the country, where they could meet the organisations offering professional services and resources support. The Bronte’s team jumped at the chance. Andrea, Adrienne, Laura and Lesley all attended one of these events together, with what Andrea describes as a “show us what you’ve got” mentality.
The team recognised that to achieve their ambitions, they would need to take The Bronte through a significant organisational culture change, which would take some time to embed. Therefore, it made sense to take up the opportunity for additional support as soon as it became available. “We were at the front of the queue,” says Andrea.
The Bronte had used the YIF grant revenue funding to engage a firm of local accountants, who had set up the organisation’s management accounts and finance processes. Beyond that, the team was open to exploring all the support available.
“Those days were a really good opportunity to see who we could engage.”
Between the four of them, at the event, The Bronte’s team spoke to everyone offering support. Based on those conversations, they decided to request support in a variety of areas: from construction project management support, and specialist tax advice, to youth worker training, marketing, social media support and more.
Alongside this support, The Bronte was also looking to strengthen its fundraising capacity, as well as its governance structure and processes. At the YIF grantee event, Adrienne had attended a taster session delivered by Emma Hodges, a consultant at Eastside People, all about the cultural web, as a model to understand organisational culture.
“We recognised that this workshop would work as a kick-starter for strengthening our governance processes.”
When they spoke to their Relationship Manager at YIF to request Emma’s support, she recommended The Bronte receive a broader support package from Eastside People, so that the organisation could benefit from the breadth of knowledge and expertise among its consultants. So, Andrea and Adrienne spoke to a number of Eastside People consultants 1:1, to identify who they felt most compatible with, and Emma took them through an organisational MOT, to help them identify their biggest capacity building priorities.
Based on these conversations, in late 2024, The Bronte received income generation support from Eastside People consultant Gerald Carew, as the organisation prepared to launch a fundraising campaign in January 2025. Gerald delivered face to face workshops and then provided ongoing, remote support in advance of the launch.
At around the same time, the Bronte engaged Emma for a governance review project. Emma spoke to Andrea, Adrienne, Laura and Lesley, to get an understanding of the current situation. She then delivered organisational culture and risk management workshops with the trustees. As Andrea describes it, Emma just ‘gelled’ with the trustees.
“What we really like about Emma is, she’s been in the trenches. You can tell that she’s done it and knows what works and what doesn’t.”
Following these initial sessions, Emma created an organisational change proposal for The Bronte, focussing on its leadership structures, its income generation plan, its marketing programme and mobilisation plan.
While implementing organisational change has its challenges, Andrea says that the benefits are also clear. For example, as an organisation without a Chief Executive role, Emma has supported The Bronte to articulate the roles and responsibilities of everyone involved, to ensure that nothing falls through the gaps.
Andrea also sees how this work will ensure that The Bronte retains its essence, despite so much change. When The Bronte recently interviewed potential trustees, one longstanding trustee, who attended The Bronte as a child, sat on the interview panel for the first time – bringing The Bronte’s heritage into the interview room.
“It’s a great side product, giving our trustees confidence and new skills.”
For Andrea, working with Emma is “like having an extension of the team”.
“For Adrienne and I, who were in the thick of it, having another voice in the room just made it so much easier […] when you’re trying to do something quite radical as a charity, you’ve got to take the people with you who’ve only ever known what they’ve known. You need that other voice in the room, to guide them in a gentle way and upskill them on what good governance looks like.”
From experience, Emma knows that this work “is not always easy, particularly with such long standing relationships and a tight knit community.” As she explains, the team’s openness to being challenged and willingness to take on new ideas has been a key component to the success of their work together.
Andrea particularly values Emma’s ability to bring in additional consultants with specific expertise.
“You feel like you’re building a network of supporters for the long term. It’s not one off and transactional.”
Emma is currently supporting The Bronte with a new fundraising and marketing strategy, bringing in Rachel Hicks, who offers specialist marketing expertise, to help The Bronte implement a plan to increase their regular supporters from 100 to 1,000 by next March.
“Rachel translated what was required into something I can now go and talk to the board about. It makes complete sense, but it was not in my sphere of expertise at all.”
With the support of a wide range of consultants, by the Autumn, alongside their refurbished building, The Bronte will have transformed the way it runs its centre and services.
“We’ve basically reinvented the business from scratch to future proof it so that we can scale.”
Reflecting on the professional support and resources The Bronte has received as a YIF grant recipient, Andrea says “I never knew how much I needed them until I got them.”
Next Steps
The refurbishment is currently due to be completed in August/ September 2025, so that The Bronte can return to its building this Autumn. With the re-opening of the building in sight, Andrea feels that its essential to continue preparing the organisation for the next stage of its journey, and when the YIF grant support ends, The Bronte is considering bringing Emma back in, on a paid for basis.
“I know this will cause me more work in the short term, but it needs doing, and that investment will sustain us by driving additional income and getting are systems and processes in place to make it easier, and it will give those people we’ve given jobs to, a nicer job to do.”
Indeed, since The Bronte was awarded its YIF capital development grant, it has expanded from having one employee, to a staff team of eight.
For Andrea, it is all about preserving the essence of The Bronte, so that more and more children and families can experience and benefit from it into the future.
“We’ve been fighting for this community since 1972, and we still are every single day, because it’s so important.”
