Looking forward to Lucent’s next 5 years
In September, we took some time out to celebrate our 5th Birthday. In this post, we share our learning and detail how we are working to help organisations deliver more impact.
Five years in – looking back
One of the real privileges of our work is being part of such a diverse range of organisations – from start-up philanthropy and micro charities through to major household names, from alternative transport to children and families, to environmental charities and heritage organisations all the way through to those defending human rights. The organisations we work with continually inspire us and we never stop learning from you.
One of the things we have learnt is how often the same challenges come up even in these very different settings. So we wanted to start by sharing this learning.
The first piece of learning is that in the UK and globally, the need for voluntary action and for services that are inspired by making a difference, not by profit, is stronger than ever before.
But this can feel overwhelming. We have worked with £5m organisations and £500m organisations who share the same challenge –that even if they doubled or tripled their resources they would not come close to meeting the need out there for their services. This is an issue that is not going away. What is clear is that organisations, regardless of how big or small they are, need to be working in partnership to make the difference they want.
The second is that levels of uncertainty and ambiguity are higher now than ever. Climate change and global conflict mean that we are all operating in an environment where we know less and less, and control less and less. Often called the perma- or poly-crisis. All organisations are going to need to find a balance between structure and flexibility.
The third is that issues of equity, justice, and inclusion are not only what we are working on out there – when we are delivering or running campaigns - but also what we need to work on in here – in our daily interactions, our teams, our plans and strategies. Organisations need to see this work as part of their being, the very core of their work, at the same time as having a concrete set of priorities and action that are the only way to make progess.
Looking forward
Having pooled this learning, Lucent then had to take a big old dose of its own medicine: we took time out to do our strategy ourselves over the summer. Goodness, it is hard work! We ended feeling even more empathetic to you for the highs and lows of a good strategy process.
What we knew at the beginning, and has never changed over the five years of Lucent’s life, is that we want to be in service to you, partnering with you on the areas that will make the most impact to you, your organisation and the people that you serve. And that is why we are doubled down our strategy offer.
When need is far bigger than the resources allow, trying to do more and more with less and less or turning the handle faster on what you’ve got is not the answer. You need to focus, decide what really matters and develop a clear stretching but achievable plan. And you need to make sure that your commitment to equity and inclusion is written throughout your strategy. This strategy work will remain the core of our offer over the next five years.
We have also extended our commitment to support your learning processes. Traditional evaluation processes just don’t work when the world is so fast moving. We support you to learn and adapt in real time so that you can keep shape shifting in response to the changes around you. Together, strategy and learning partnership help you not only have a plan, but do the plan.
And we are developing two further services. The first is to support you with getting new ideas and initiatives off the ground. We know that often new ideas shrivel and die, because it is not clear how to get them off to the best start. That is where we want to come in and we are currently developing a package to support you to get those ideas off the ground.
The second, is support to collaborations and partnerships. We know that no organisation can solve the big social and environmental problems alone. And while partnership can be long and complex work, we have seen with our own eyes in the partnerships we already support that they allow people to think bigger and go further can go further in achieving their ambitions for systems change if they partner with others.
Through all of this, we want to continue to deepen our expertise in green, human rights, children and young people, and foundations.
A Birthday gift
Thank you for engaging with us as your partners for impact. We have created a postcard pack of our 5 favourite tools for impact, for you to use with your teams. We are great believers in the pay it forward principle, so if you want to share it with anyone who is a rising star, struggling with knotty issues or just wants to know that they are not alone, please send it on to them with our love.
Lucent’s 5 Favourite Tools for Impact
If you’d like to hear more about our new services, drop us a message.