When Beverly Serle's charity needed a business boost, Sally Cohen, managing director of Elizabeth Arden, offered her expertise. Sarah Hanson hears how the genetisist and the business brain met
Beverly Serle In 2005 we noticed a downturn in receipts as a result of the "tsunami effect". Everyone was giving to the Tsunami Appeal and it was more difficult to get funding for other charities. We had to reassess how Unique, set up to support the families of those with rare chromosome disorders, was operating. We needed a more expert business approach to our planning processes. Our acting chairwoman, Jill Manvell, looked for an outfit that could give us advice, and discovered Pilotlight.
Sally Cohen I got to know about Pilotlight [which matches industry brains with charities that need business guidance] through a neighbour, Richard Thomas, one of Pilotlight's trustees. As an American, I had always done volunteer work in the US. It's just a part of how we're brought up. I've lived in the UK for nine years now and found it quite hard to find something I could really add value to, rather than just give a donation.
BS We had several challenges when we approached Pilotlight including fundraising, staffing, strategy and business planning. In particular we needed help with marketing. There are so many different chromosome disorders—how do you get such a diverse message to the donors and families affected? My background is not in business, but as a postdoctoral research microbial geneticist. Sally was excellent at helping us with our marketing messages, giving us confidence in the product and helping us to understand our different target markets.
SC Unique needed someone with a marketing background on the team and asked me if the charity sounded interesting. My father was a geneticist—he did a lot of work with various genetic diseases—so the charity really did interest me. We helped Unique get some of their projects on the road.
BS "Beating the Isolation" is one project that Pilotlight helped us put together. The idea is to go out and find isolated families [dealing with chromosome disorder issues] in the UK and beyond. Pilotlight helped us organise an operational plan and a timeline. It helped us prioritise what we should do and when.
SC We were not there to do fundraising for the charity but to give them strategic advice. Things obvious in the corporate world are not necessarily obvious to charities. They needed to learn to operate more like a business. They were nervous about what they could do to grow. They also had concerns about office space, funding, succession planning—many of the same start-up issues as a business. The administration and general office management was sucking the life out of the leaders. They needed to employ an office manager. By filling this role they could spend more time on strategy and marketing.
BS The beauty of the process is you have the knowledge of those people to tap into. It made us think strategically and, because we were meeting every month, it was good discipline for us. It galvanised us into action. We wanted to build infrastructure, particularly on the operations side of the charity. We now have an operations manager, which has freed up a lot of our time. Our next priority is to get a professional fundraiser. Pilotlight made us see we have to spend money in order to start bringing in funds. But if we can't bring in extra resources, we can't bring in extra staff. It's like growing a small business.
SC Unique was fragile before, with questions over roles and responsibilities. We helped them understand that what they're going through is normal—other charities and businesses have the same issues to deal with. It gave them a confidence boost.
BS To have a professional sounding board has been such a bonus. Now we have an operational plan in place and we are more structured. We know where we're going and what our aims are. It is lovely to have an independent view from experts saying we have a really good product. We have been really privileged. Lots of charities don't have this opportunity. Pilotlight recognised that we have an excellent project—all we needed was their business expertise.
SC Being a Pilotlighter makes you get a perspective on the world. I love the opportunity to do something different and to work with noble people who are doing wonderful things. I don't have the psychological make-up to do this myself so I love the fact I can help. It makes you step back to see how organisations work. It's useful to get back into the real world, with real issues.
