Promote Performance
Campaign to promote performance improvement in the BME third sector
Voice4Change England and Charities Evaluation Services have launched a campaign to encourage BME third sector organisations to evidence the value and benefits of their work. The campaign targets BME third sector organisations that want to improve what they are doing but may not be familiar with performance jargon.
The campaign, which is part of the National Performance Programme, has been developed with the input of 10 key BME campaign partners across the country including frontline BME groups.
Why is performance important?
Campaign Materials
Campaign Partners
Follow the Campaign
Factsheet of the Week
NEW! Promote Performance case examples
Why is performance important?
Many organisations might think of ‘performance management’ as a new idea and have concerns that it will take up too much time and cost too much. In reality, they are probably doing a lot of work around managing their performance already. This could be through feedback reports to their management committee, returns to their funders, and planning for future activities.
BME third sector organisations can improve their effectiveness by thinking of ways and using tools to improve their performance to help them:
• Do what they are doing better.
• Measure the difference their work is making.
• Make more considered plans for the future.f
• Demonstrate the value and benefits of their work.
• Manage their work more effectively.
• Respond to changing needs and demands.
• Learn how to build on success.
The Materials
There are 4 key performance improvement approaches BME organisations can look at to help manage their organisations performance. These are monitoring and evaluation, strategic planning, benchmarking and quality assurance.
Jemma Grieve, Policy & Research Officer at Voice4Change England leading the campaign said, ‘This is a unique campaign as it not only provides basic information on different methods of improving an organisation’s performance but is supplemented by scenarios relevant to a range of BME third sector organisations, variously skilled at performance management. It recognises that for most BME organisations improving performance is not about starting from scratch but about recognising and building on what they already do to make sure their work is effective’.
Each of the factsheets provide key information on each performance approach as well as a scenario involving a BME organisation describing how it can help them build on what they are already doing. They have been designed to be relevant to BME third sector organisations.
Factsheet 1: Capturing Progress
Capturing progress through monitoring and evaluation can help an organisation to gather information about their work and the difference that it makes. This factsheet explores monitoring and evaluation through the use of a scenario that BME organisations can relate to and providing further information about this approach.
Factsheet 2: Thinking Ahead
Thinking ahead through strategic planning can help an organisation to better plan for the future. This factsheet explores strategic planning through the use of a scenario that BME organisations can relate to and providing further information about this approach
Factsheet 3: Meeting Expectations
Meeting expectations through delivering quality through the use of a relevant system can help an organisation set and meet the expectations of its users. This factsheet explores delivering quality through the use of a scenario that BME organisations can relate to and providing further information about this approach.
Factsheet 4: Sharing Good Practice
Sharing good practice through benchmarking can help an organisation to learn by a good example set by others. This factsheet explores benchmarking through the use of a scenario that BME organisations can relate to and providing further information about this approach.
Download Sharing Good Practice
Campaign partners
In September 2009 we recruited 10 BME infrastructure organisations as partners for the campaign to promote the use of performance tools in their work. The role of the partners was to the attend 3 pilot groups held across the country involving frontline BME third sector organisations to shape the focus and nature of thecampaign materials. The 10 partners are also running their own campaigns which will begin from 4th March 2010.
Black Training and Enterprise Group (BTEG)
OLMEC
UNI
Black South West Network (BSWN)
West Midlands Race Equality Advisory Board (WMREAB)
BME Alliance for the East Midlands (BEAM)
MENTER
Becon
One North West
Just West Yorkshire
Dr. Daljeet Singh, Regional Policy Officer for BECON, a campaign partner says, ‘Performance improvement is of great significance for the BME voluntary and community sector organisations. BECON is committed to improving infrastructure services in the North East to ensure BME groups can take part in local decision making and campaigning. Clear and precise information on performance improvement can help us do this by supporting small organisations to embed good practice in their governance and general approach to working in their locality. We are pleased to be working with Voice4Change England to support locality based groups to do what they do better.’
Follow the Promote Performance Campaign
You may want to keep up to date on what V4CE and other campaign partners are doing and how this is making a difference to BME third sector organisations.
NEW! Get the Factsheet of the Week: Capturing Progress
Promote Performance case examples
In 2009/10 Voice4Change England ran a Cascade Performance Improvement Support project working with five Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) third sector infrastructure organisations.
You can now download case examples following the journey of each organisation:
- Case Example 1: Derby Millennium Network
- Case Example 2: Black South West Network
- Case Example 3: Black Training and Enterprise Group
- Case Example 4: Imkaan
- Case Example 5: MENTER
The five organisations received training and support from Voice4Change England and Charities Evaluation Services. The case examples highlight the different types of work that took place, the challenges and how the work benefited each organisation and the frontline groups they support.
Charities Evaluation Services’ National Performance Programme has commissioned this work from Voice4Change England. The National Performance Programme is funded by Capacitybuilders’ National Support Services programme and is led by Charities Evaluation Services (CES) in partnership with acevo, the New Economics Foundation, New Philanthropy Capital and Voice4Change England.
