Charities need to expand innovation beyond just fundraising or income functions, a new report says.
The Innovation in UK Charities report, produced by charity sector-focused consultancy firm Good Innovation, finds that: “Innovation most commonly sits in fundraising or income functions (56%), rather than centrally or within services or programmes.”
It says charities which “take innovation seriously at a strategic level” start to consider not only how they can innovate to increase income but also how they can innovate to increase impact.
“Service design, programme delivery, community engagement, new ways of reaching beneficiaries, these are innovation problems too, and in many cases they’re where the most significant change is possible,” it states.
“A charity that only innovates on income is leaving half the opportunity on the table.”
As well as expanding the focus of innovation, charities need to expand those that are trained on the topic, the report recommends.
It says most charities focus on training those working on innovation, but this should be expanded to upskilling senior managers.
“Senior leaders who have never had to deliver innovation tend to underestimate how much it requires, and their support evaporates at exactly the moments it’s most needed.
“At this stage, investing in an immersive programme that trains and coaches senior leaders on what effective innovation sponsorship looks like is one of the highest-return things a charity can do.”
An appetite for change
The report is based on interviews and a survey with over 70 innovation leaders and practitioners across the charity sector.
It shows that there is a clear appetite for changing how charities approach innovation, with 87% believing the sector “needs at least significant or fundamental change in how innovation is delivered”.
It also finds that just over half (53%) run fewer than two innovation cycles per year, while nearly six in 10 feel their organisation does not meaningfully enable innovation.
