Growing a small organisation into a national one

The charity has proved itself on a small scale: a few sites, a small team, a programme that works and that gets noticed. The moment has come to change scale, to move from a handful of branches to national coverage, without losing what made the model work. The departure of the founding or long-standing leader opens that transition at the precise moment it becomes decisive.

The first year is about consolidation: taking the reins, settling a small team that may be unnerved by the change, professionalising the way the organisation is run without turning that into a straitjacket. What follows is about acceleration: opening new sites, building the funding model, developing private income, which often becomes the one part of the job the chief executive cannot delegate.

An entrepreneur first, not an administrator: someone who has built or grown an organisation, equally at ease with a major donor and with a front-line team. Real experience of raising private funds is often a threshold rather than one advantage among others.

You are a builder, not a caretaker. You can convince a philanthropist and a front-line team with the same sincerity. Growing an organisation without losing its soul excites you more than it worries you.