Smart Aid Information

Smart Aid is a not-for-profit organisation that encourages local professionals to give their time and professional skills to help a variety of good and truly worthwhile causes - www.smart-aid.co.uk The idea being that as part of a corporate social responsibility program a firm of say accountants might help paint an old people's home. Whilst this is of course worthwhile we don’t feel it is the most effective use of the accountants time and skills and they could give more value to the charity if they gave them accountancy advice that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford. We have found that the majority of small charities we have been involved with are very good at delivering their core mission, but at times the cause is not run as effectively or efficiently as it could be. We therefore use an independent business coach to treat the charity more like a business, albeit their core mission is not around profit. This way we really understand what help a charity actually needs rather than what help they feel they need and work with the coach to create an action plan that can then be delivered upon with the help of various professionals and their networks from a wide variety of businesses