Case studies
We’ve spoken with over 50 leaders and thinkers across the sector to understand why transformation gets stuck. Here we’ve shared some of their stories.
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RNIB: The uncomfortable bet on focus
How do you transform a 150-year-old charity with 27 different business activities into an organisation that can demonstrably shift outcomes for blind and partially sighted people, when evidence shows that 25 years of good work hasn't changed the fundamental indicators of exclusion?
How RCOT reshaped the top table
The Royal College of Occupational Therapists showed what happens when leadership attention becomes the resource that unlocks change.
How Changing Faces undertook a cross-team, no-holds-barred strategy process
Their fundamental strategy redesign focused on collaborative, evidence-based discovery and dismantled silos and created shared ownership.
How Turn2us learned to name the gap between ambition and resources
Declaring something strategically important and resourcing it fully are two different commitments. This case study reflects on one director's experience of being part of this dynamic, and what it taught her about her own leadership.
How a crisis gave Amnesty International UK permission for difficult strategic decisions
The challenge: Amnesty International needed fundamental organisational change, but missed a catalyst to force difficult strategic decisions
How closing down EveryChild grew its impact
The challenge: How to fundamentally transform from a traditional international NGO (EveryChild) into a member-led organisation aligned with decolonisation principles — without the forcing function of a crisis
Save the Children's journey to Agile delivery teams
Over a number of years, Save the Children UK started a significant transformation process. The organisation needed to mirror externally how they wanted to operate internally.
How small changes led to big results at Prostate Cancer UK
This "start small, find the stories to tell, build on the success" approach, combined with both top-down leadership support and bottom-up team engagement driven by influential internal champions, allowed Prostate Cancer UK to successfully embed agile ways of working and an increase in income.
How culture enabled CharityComms to transform during crisis
CharityComms, an organisation dedicated to supporting communication professionalism, operated largely through face-to-face channels. But when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the rules changed overnight.
How merging culture and digital made transformation stick at Scouts
The turning point of Scouts’ transformation journey happened when they merged two previously separate programmes: digital transformation and culture change.
When culture wasn’t protected, progress unravelled
Slowly but surely, this counselling charity was embedding collaborative, open ways of working. But as the urgency to scale grew, attention to culture slipped.