A feature on Coutts website shows how busy female executives can have an impact in just three hours a week.
Jane is 38 years old, has two children and is a partner at one of the large consulting firms. She is constantly juggling the demands of a high profile career with the needs of her young family, constantly dreaming about getting more sleep and constantly trying to figure out a way to give something back to society.
She’s worked hard to get where she is today. But she’s also been fortunate enough to have had the unending support from family and friends. Now, she’d like to give that support to others, make a contribution in some small, positive way. She just doesn’t know how.
“That’s our typical female Pilotlighter,” explains Fiona Halton, chief executive of Pilotlight, the charity that brings together some of the UK’s leading business people with small charities to help them grow. “They’re at the height of their career, want to get involved in charity, but they have a young family, 101 things to do and just don’t know how.”
Halton has the answer. By giving just three hours a month to Pilotlight, their time can boost the number of people a charity reaches by over 50 per cent within two years, and grow their income by 48 per cent.
“Our typical female Pilotlighter is at the height of their career, wants to get involved in charity, but they have a young family, 101 things to do and just don’t know how.”
Halton and Pilotlight do this by assembling a dream team of four business people, or Pilotlighters, who all have different skills and are from different organisations. They then match these with a charity or social enterprise that wants to grow.
“The charities have been founded by someone who has spotted a problem and come up with a way to tackle it,” Halton explains. “But, as the charity’s grown, the people have found themselves running a small business. They need to grow to be sustainable, but they lack the business skills to do it. Pilotlighters have these skills. So our model brings these two groups together,” she says simply.
Except it’s not that simple. What can three hours a month really achieve? It’s a long lunch, a meeting that’s run on, even a daily commute. In fact, with the help of Pilotlight’s highly skilled project managers, this time is all that’s needed to turn charities into more sustainable and efficient organisations.
A project manager is assigned to each of the charities Pilotlight agrees to help. They bring together the team of Pilotlighters with the charity, chair a meeting every 4-6 weeks, and ensure that, over a 13-month period, a solid business plan is created that helps the charity or social enterprise grow. “They manage the meetings, take notes and push action forward in between, so that all our Pilotlighters need to do is point their brains at the problem,” explains Halton.
But it’s not just the charities that benefit. Pilotlighters also gain significantly from the process, with research showing 77 per cent are more effective in their professional work as a result of their involvement, while 84 per cent feel more fulfilled.
It’s why companies donate an annual fee for their executives to be involved. They recognise the vast developmental opportunities it gives their leaders without taking them away from the office for long stints.
“Pilotlighters learn about influencing in an environment where it’s very difficult to influence people because there’s no hierarchy. They learn a whole set of different skills from the other business leaders they’re working with, and it often prepares them for trustee positions or non-executive roles.
“It’s also a great option for women re-entering the work market, especially women who have held senior positions in the past. It validates the importance and power of the skills these women have learnt in their day jobs,” she says.
Fiona Halton’s work has always involved bringing two worlds together. In the 1980s, she started up British Film Year, which brought British cinema to general public, and led to her being a finalist in the 1986 Veuve Cliquot Business Woman of the Year. Later, she launched the Great Investment Race, which brought City investment teams together with charities.
Then she received a call from Comedy Relief founders Richard Curtis and Jane Tewson, asking her to work on their inaugural fundraiser, which brought together comedians with grant makers and logisticians to raise £13m for charity.
“It’s also a great option for women re-entering the work market, because it validates the skills these women have learnt in their day jobs.”
But the more she worked in the philanthropic world, the more charities she discovered that needed her help. Suddenly organising one event, and benefitting one charity, just didn’t seem enough.
So the mother-of-three joined Pilotlight in 1998 and became chief executive in 2000. Within ten years, the organisation has grown from helping four charities a year to transforming 56 from their bases in London, Glasgow and Wales, which opened in March.
But not even helping 56 charities a year is enough for Halton. The reason for this rolls off her tongue. Four million children in the UK living below the poverty line. Fifty per cent of families with a disabled child living in poverty. One in six pensioners not seeing anybody all week. “Terrible statistics,” she sighs. “And I think, well, we’ve only one life. What can we do?”
What Halton wants to do is double the number of charities Pilotlight helps over the next few years. To do this, she needs more Pilotlighters, more businesswomen like Jane who are juggling and busy, and barely have a moment to themselves. But who, deep down, know they want to give something back. All it takes is three little hours.
Find out more about Fiona Halton and Pilotlight at www.pilotlight.org.uk
By Barbara Walshe
This article first appeared on Coutts website