The coronavirus sees us working very differently. A number of our team are currently furloughed, unable to work or volunteer for brainstrust, a core of seven are working to deliver a different service to meet the needs of our beneficiaries, fundraise and continue with statutory duties and obligations in these different and difficult times.

Here we hope to share headline information from our weekly Monday calls about what is going on at brainstrust. This provides a way for all of our team to keep in touch, so that we can be back up to speed swiftly once the world recovers.

Our principles in these times

• To be invaluable. To our patients and carers, our funders and supporters, and each other.
• To be flexible and adaptive.
• To be reflective.
• To be goal and outcome focussed.

Our Strategies

All our activities during this crisis are to ensure that we are:

• Keeping the lights on
• Providing a service this vital time
• Setting up for the future

Support and policy

• Maintain support service with current and new patients and caregivers
• Develop and deliver an online support service
• Keep essential projects alive that can be launched when the full support service resumes
• Keep close to policy news via our excellent network(s)
• Identify and respond to new challenges caused by Covid 19
• Transparency, pace and pride in the work that we are doing – communication is key

Fundraising

• Grant focus in the face of reduced public fundraising and emergence of emergency funds
• Direct appeal to public and warm supporters to ‘keep our support going’, with group stewardship to alleviate capacity challenges
• Rigorous data capture to be in place for future donor development
• Flat structure with everyone getting involved
• Excellent internal comms to help with financial planning (forecasts are important) and stewardship and reacting to opportunities as they arise
• Transparency, pace and pride in the work that we are doing – communication is key
• £20,000/month keeps the lights on

Marketing

• To position brainstrust as valuable to all stakeholders in these challenging times
• Increased frequency of comms, and close monitoring of feedback and performance
• Rapidily assimilate and disseminate relevant news and information to support the above, including policy and support news
• To  keep stories and lived experience at the heart of our brand
• Transparency, pace and pride in the work that we are doing – communication is key

Finance, operations and governance

• Communication is key – up, down and sideways.  Between specialisms re. income and expenditure, and stewardship and with suppliers re. terms and flexibility
• Capitalise on any opportunities from government that help us secure the future
• Keep on top of statutory obligations
• Keep the board informed and work with the board

Update 22 May 2020

Near enough 2 months ago, at the end of our first week in formal ‘lock down’ I wrote to summarise brainstrust’s situation and reaction in the face of the Coronavirus pandemic. This note is here for reference. We have since developed our strategy and planning, updated as often as appropriate on this page.

Whilst the threats we are facing remain at large, I think we can safely say today that things are heading in the safest direction we could wish for in the circumstances and the plan that we put in place is working.

We focussed on 3 areas, which I will update on here, in turn

1. Keeping the lights on

Over the past 8 weeks we have seen incredible pace, productivity and team work across the board, for this, thank you. We have worked hard, and smart. Our remote coaching and online events are working well with sustained impact. Phase 1 webinars were a good pilot and Phase 2 events are showing phenomenal promise. Now that we are familiar with the technology and are putting more energy into promotion sign-ups for the first event are at 28 people in less than 24 hours.

Alongside this, we pivoted our fundraising work to focus on warm prospects and grants, and took a step back from challenge and community activity. This was a bold but clear step for us, and we can now be confident that for the short term it was the right one. New grants secured to date total in excess of £40,000, and bids are pending well over £120,000. Moving fast and with confidence in our work has been key here. All of this emergency support can be attributed to our appeal, which continues to be topped up by direct support from our community (est. value around £15,000 to date).

Concurrent and rapid reduction in costs was a vital part of this plan – it is vital that we acknowledge the sacrifice made by all who have accepted reductions in pay and/or furlough as part of our plan. This sacrifice has assured our organisation’s survival through the initial trauma inflicted by this pandemic and has enabled us to look ahead to the future. Thank you everybody for being so accommodating, this will not be forgotten.

2. Providing a service at this critical time

I’ve probably covered this above!

3. Setting up for the future

We have survived the immediate trauma and are now able to look ahead. Thanks to the pace, focus and success of recent work, and the sacrifices that you have made, we are looking to implement some broadly positive, tentative next steps to recovery. Whilst the pandemic still poses a real threat, it does feel that we are working in a new landscape and working differently in a ‘new normal’. With this in mind we will be looking at the following, afforded to us by the fab work that has been carried out by all in the past 10 weeks:

1)        We can afford to, and will be increasing support capacity

2)        We will be looking to keep and build new skills across the support team by rotating roles in and out of furlough

3)        We are looking to reactivate our community and challenge supporters sooner rather than later, the litmus test here being engagement with Run Row Ride, and feasibility of a September Follow the Seagulls.

4)        We have drafted a plan to facilitate faster personal, professional growth at brainstrust once the economy reopens

These 4 strands are the first steps of journey ‘back to business’. We are very early in making these steps in our sector, but very happy and fortunate to be able to do so because of support primarily from the Rank Foundation, the Ann Rylands Foundation, the Edward Gostling Foundation and Awards for All. I hope this sets the direction, and I am working closely with the leadership team to develop the detail which we will be sharing over the coming week.

Whilst I wish at this point I was writing ‘right everyone, back to it’, we simply aren’t there yet. We should all however be confident about the medium term and see this as a sign that we have weathered the worst any organisation could face.

As it stands we are on a way to having a Covid story that we can all be proud of, and on a personal level I couldn’t wish to be a part of a better team.

Thank you,

Will

The week ahead

wc18th May

• JM/EF to launch phase 2 webinars. Excellent content/line up of speakers in place. CF working on visuals. WJ to develop headline messages/structure to bring events together under Thrive brand originally intended for workshops
• This week’s webinar – Fatigue, weds 12-1.
• Run Row Ride LOCKDOWN Edition launching this week too. EF/TC/ED to be reflective on stewardship and capacity as this event gains traction
• NLCF bid near completion and a priority this week in anticipation of there being increased competition with wider launch imminent
• ED has some interesting work ahead aligning impactasaurus with Salesforce, hoping to report back this week
• SLT meeting on Tues. Focus to be on recovery as things are looking to be stabilising. This meeting includes monthly resource review.
• Previous week’s positive news around support from Rank Foundation’s resilience fund and Awards for All news sets a positive direction, but mindful that emergency grant opportunities will soon have run their course.
• All to be reflective of own wellbeing and take holiday/leave as needed.

Previous weeks

wc27th April

Key headlines from the last week:

• Lottery are welcoming a bid for additional support to £90,000, plus application to awards for all in Scotland. If successful this would unlock return of members of our team.
• Still awaiting response re. Rank bid
• 2.6 challenge launched to charities and then to public. Some limited engagement for our work, but worth getting behind
• CBILs application with Chris Baker for signing, then on to Natwest for review. It’s a long shot, but let’s see what happens.
• Large increase in volunteer numbers, with interest in peer support
• Webinars and tea with brainstrust well attended, with good but limited feedback
• SLT meeting to review resource/team held (outcome below)
• Fast-paced and impactful policy activity around lack of throughput in hospitals. Our connections, and this work are proving to be invaluable.

27/4 The week ahead

Support and policy

• Fatigue webinar is on Wednesday
• HB/JE working on programme post 20th May
• WJ to add salesforce field for peer support volunteers
• NCRI supportive and palliative care sub group meeting is on Tues (11 – 4)
• Patient Information Forum have invited us to a call on thurs re. new standard for health and social care info
• Further investigation into WhatsApp and Facebook video support underway
• Given increased complexity of cases and demand for coaching, we are revisiting the Thrive platform. There is funding that could fit for this too.

Fundraising

• Donation of £1000 received from Robin Bowler
• Focus is on lottery bids, application to mind, plus other smaller bids in pipeline
• EF/TC to discuss stewardship of 2.6 challenge supporters (only a few, but important they are looked after)
• Forecast and pipelines to be updated in advance of Wednesday’s board meeting

Finance and governance

• Significant focus on preparing draft annual accounts for Weds board meeting
• Papers to be circulated asap
• KS to update on appeal totals
• WJ to liaise with HDI re. billing
• Quarterly board meeting is Weds, 1500 – 1700. To include general updates, approval of draft annual accounts for audit, and some broad discussion around what the longer term future might look like.

Marketing 

• Added focus on coaching given anecdotal impact and increase in relevance/demand. Some strong, current stories to support this
• With 2.6 challenge complete, appeal can take the front seat again
• Graphics working well to promote online activity
• Call with Ben Young reaffirming, and we are working even harder to be ‘invaluable’ in this difficult time

24th APRIL – AN IMPORTANT NOTE ON OUR TEAM AND RESOURCING

SLT met Thursday 24th April to review resourcing and agreed the following: We are 3 full weeks into working as a smaller team, with a number of our gang furloughed. Whilst this has felt like a long time, it hasn’t been. Our strategy (outlined above) still feels like the right one in the current context, and the right one to get people back to work as quickly as we can to meet demand. We are seeing good uptake of online services, warm leads for large grants, signs of support from existing funders. Our shift in policy focus is the right one too. As a result, and at this stage, we will not be making changes to the support or fundraising teams. Post and admin remains a challenge, but we are keeping on top of this, and it is not more than 1 day a week’s work with decreased uptake of physical resources, fewer requests from hospitals, no professional or public events and reduced shop orders. It is not be reasonable for us to ask you, Charlotte, to come back for one day a week, which would forfeit your right to paid furlough.

Much of our service, positioning and fundraising work is reliant on increased volume of good, consistent communication at the moment,  so no changes here with Eve doing much to support all of us.

We do have a capacity challenge around finance and governance, triggered by year end and request for increasingly complex financial information at this busy time from grant funders.  Therefore Peter will be coming off the subs bench to support with preparation of accounts, audit and related matters during this busy period. 

We will continue to review the situation, with the next meeting to do this on the 16th May. Any grant or fundraising news of course will trigger an immediate review with the new information. We are also considering the value in rotating members of the team to keep skills up, but it is too soon to do this with stability and momentum taking immediate priority.

I trust this is clear and rational. Do please call me if you have any concerns or queries, or simply to catch up and check in on 07855 987340.

Best wishes to all – Will.

wc20th April

Support and policy

• Behaviour and personality change webinar on Weds 22nd
• Increased demand for Peer Support
• Last week’s webinars and meet up had 21 attendees from 36 sign ups
• Worrying communications from hospitals about lack of activity – patients aren’t presenting
• There are a couple of urgent resource orders which can be fulfilled 21/4
• Phone app ready for installation to alleviate pressure on JM/HB and to provide fundraising cover/support. Team to install, test and feedback

Fundraising

• Key supporter letter to another 5 prospects (warm response from CEO of Rutherford and Hills family)
• Rank Foundation bid (£40-£80k) submitted, awaiting feedback
• Steel Charitable Trust and Jules Thorne applications in progress, near ready for submission
• Stewardship email for appeal donors issued, next steps to be considered
• 2.6 challenge to continue to be promoted

Comms

• Moving the appeal into next stage, first action to resend to recipients that did not open the initial mailing
• Preparing content for appeal (how we work alongside NHS, proving ourselves invaluable)
• Engaging fundraisers, sharing Mairi’s story to Follow the Seagulls fundraisers
• Crowdsourcing tips from Facebook group to assist with ‘valuable’ positioning
• Detailed support broadcast for patients and carers
• Updating coronacomms page with latest policy re RE COVID-19

Finance and governance

• Key focus beyond business as usual is working with Harrison Black to secure furlough grants in a timely fashion. April payroll to run in line with usual timings based on current information
• Noted that we have have c £800 in Facebook donations pending, likely Robin Grant and Gerry Thomas birthday fundraising
• Resource/team planning – SLT to review on an ongoing basis, WJ to coordinate these discussions. Our commitment to furloughed members of our team that “this will initially be for 1 month, ending on 1 May, but subject to review as the wider situation plays out. We will bring roles ‘back to life’ as the situation evolves for the better.”
• KS to draft notes from previous 2 board briefings, which are to be considered formal meetings in light of exceptional circumstances
• Agenda for meeting 29/4 to be considered, along with appropriate board papers (in light of increased comms with board, it is anticipated there will be less to prepare from an exec management perspective, however draft year end accounts should be ready for approval/submission to audit).