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“The Pilotlighters were such a friendly, interested, knowledgeable and generous bunch of people, who gave time and thought to Imara and were genuinely interested in hearing more about our service."

“Our Pilotlighters gave us a number of things to consider across different areas of the project, based on their experience. They helped us think about possible routes to market, and were particularly helpful in ensuring we maximised the commercial potential.”

"The whole process was very well organised and supported. Having access to a wealth of experience, although not directly linked to the charity sector, allowed outside-of-the-box thinking in a condensed short time, we all agreed that this was a very useful exercise."

It is hard to start a charity, but it is also hard to kill one. This is a resilience, characteristic of charities, that we have a purpose that moves people to act, and we have a culture that allows for different forms of participation. In this post, I want to look at three tips for financial resilience for charities.

Via the Pilotlight Direction programme, Lindsey and her team were matched with five Barclays Pilotlighters, who were tasked with the challenge: How does Advice Services Alliance (ASA) best scale it’s impact and establish a sustainable income stream?

With the support of The National Lottery Community Fund to expand its work in the region, Pilotlight aims to partner with at least 250 experienced senior business leaders who will provide strategic coaching to help local charities become more effective and resilient.

At the end of the programme, the Pilotlighters presented Jade and Ben with a variety of considerations and recommendations for different growth models. This included a risk framework, financial growth model tool and suggestions for standardised governance documents.

We are pleased to announce that Pilotlight has been successful in our bid to secure funding to cement our work in the Midlands for the next three years. We were recently awarded almost £290,000 from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK, to help expand our work across the Midlands.

A wave of informal volunteering helped charities and community groups to play a critical role for communities over the pandemic. Now that the cost of living crisis is hitting home, the role for the voluntary sector is once more key, but this time it is not clear that volunteering - or emergency funding - will be able to help.

Pilotlight is excited to be shortlisted for Charity of the Year: with an income of £1 million - £10 million at the 23rd Annual Charity Times Awards.

Last month our Programme Manager Jonas Fathy spoke at the annual general meeting of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on volunteering. Pilotlight had been one of many charities working with the NCVO to develop the Vision for Volunteering, and Jonas had been asked to share Pilotlight’s perspective on the Vision.

When we worked with Kathy Verges in 2010, she was CEO at Crossroads Care Havering, which had a turnover of around £600k. Kathy retired as Chief Officer in January 2022. After a series of mergers Kathy led the charity on to re-brand to create TuVida, which had national reach and a turnover of £14m. She reflects on her work with Pilotlight.