Workstreams

(Section 2: Programme Initiation Document)

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This document is a section from the Programme Initiation Document, the merger programme management system prepared by the joint Working Group and approved for use by the Transition Board in May 2008. The complete document provides a structure and approach to project management that would be used to create NewCharity UK. The detailed document contained six main sections:

1. Mandate

2. Budget

3. Workstreams

4. Programme Timescales

5. Quality Assurance Plan

6. Risk Register

This section, Workstreams, provides a record of the programme of work that has been initiated, its scope, and the names of those senior people within each of the two organisations responsible for delivering it.

1. Current Workstreams

The Directors General agreed an initial set of 11 workstreams for the NewCharity UK Programme in early June 2008. These are highlighted in the table below. The Directors General designated Leaders for these workstreams and subsequently, in conjunction with the Business Continuity Group, agreed the introduction of a further eight workstreams.

Due Diligence / Communications
Governance / Partner Involvement*
Business Plan & Budget / International
Brand / Database
Fundraising / Property, Offices & Assets
People / 3 Nations*

* The 3 Nations work originally formed part of the Partner Involvement workstream, but given the significant contribution it was to play in the successful creation of the new charity, a separate ‘3 Nations’ workstream was later created.

Later, the list of programme Workstreams grew to 19 – with the addition of workstreams dedicated to issues relating to: IT, Research, Local Delivery of Services, Policy & Influencing, Information & Advice, Retail, and Social Enterprise.

The 19 workstreams were numbered as follows:

1.1 Due Diligence

1.2 Governance

1.3 Business Plan & Budget

1.4 Brand

1.5 Communications

1.6 People

1.7 Communications

1.8 Partner Involvement

1.9 International

1.10 Database

1.11 Property, Offices & Assets

1.12 IT

1.13 Research

1.14 Local Delivery of Services

1.15 Policy & Influencing

1.16 Information & Advice

1.17 Retail

1.18 Social Enterprise

1.19 3 Nations.

2. Workstream Briefs

The Programme Management Office (PMO) co-ordinated all the Workstreams. Programme Managers supported each of the Workstream Leaders in producing briefs for each workstream. The briefs highlight the aim, scope and risks associated with each workstream. See for example, the sample completed Workstream brief below for Brand (1.4).

Workstream Title

/ Brand
Workstream Number / 1.4
Workstream Leader / XX
Reports to: / XX
Phase / Phase 1
Date / 05/08/08
Version / 3.0

Background to the Proposed Work

The successful development of NewCharity’s brand is critical in addressing one of the key rationales for merger; the need for a brand that is understood by all and removes the current confusion that is evident in the existing brands by our beneficiaries, supporters and in local and national government and legislative bodies.
It is imperative that the new brand architecture has the flexibility to meet the needs of a diverse stakeholder group, addressing multiple audiences with varied messages.

Aims

·  To deliver a costed brand development and implementation process that engages all key stakeholders and accommodates the needs of all existing Age Concern (AC) and Help the Aged (HtA) sub brands for the consideration of and approval by the NewCharity UK Transition Board.
·  To work closely with all the existing sub brands within AC and HtA to ensure the new brand architecture allows enough flexibility for different audiences and markets. This includes the 3 Nations, AC federation and its Members, intune, ACEnt, AC Training, Research into Ageing, Heyday and HtA retail.
·  To align with the strategy of NewCharity UK so that what we do (our business plan), works in parallel with our image and personality (our brand).
·  To optimise the brand launch opportunity to create positive PR and a good footprint for NewCharity.
·  To actively engage all sub brands in new brand implementation.
·  To integrate all sub brands - including the Age Concern federation, the 3 Nations, Heyday, RiA, HAI, trading – forging a new identity in way that binds the parts within a greater whole.
·  Through delivery of successful new charity brand to achieve the overarching aim of removal of current brand confusion by liquidating both HtA and AC brands in the marketplace.
·  To make recommendations for a new charity name – that considers the need for legal placeholder name versus the opportunity to create a new brand name in advance of the formal launch of the new brand.
·  To lead the internal communications regarding brand workstream activity.
·  To establish a positive vision and internal perception of the brand workstream to engage and motivate staff - including setting the basis of education about what branding is, the process and expected outcomes.
·  To brief and direct executive management (eg Chair, Chief Executive) to undertake brand workstream leadership activities (such as staff briefings and external stakeholder briefings).
·  To set brand workstream KPIs before, during and after the launch.
·  To make recommendations for the interim treatment of the name and brand for the transition between the soft launch in April 09 and the proposed new brand launch in April 10.

Scope Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3

Phase 1 (to September 08): stakeholder engagement, scoping business case, broad brush brand development budget and implementation budget, benchmarking key brand attributes for future tracking.
Phase 2 (to April 09): collating information, writing brief for agency, new brand development, recruitment of brand champions at the Age Concern federation and 3 Nations level in order to communicate effectively and appropriately across the network.
Phase 3 (to April 10): continuing new brand development and preparations for brand launch through all stakeholder networks.
Phase 4 (to April 12):
Continuing an integrated brand build activity through strategic corporate communications across all business activity to optimise budgets. Quarterly spikes of activity, conveying brand messaging as well as business activity to build the brand in a cost efficient manner. Ongoing staff brand engagement, training and activism.
·  Continuing element of brand build budget across all marketing activities.

Resources and outline estimates of time

Key variables are time and budget
Timeline: Will be determined by availability of budget and the need to effectively engage with all stakeholders, principally the AC federation and the 3 Nations.
It is proposed to softly launch NewCharity at merger in April 09 through limited and muted publicity, whilst developing the new brand for a full public launch by April 2010.
There is a tension between the need to fully engage with the AC federation and the 3 Nations and to ensure the new brand identity is acceptable to them and meets their needs, versus the need to develop and deliver the new brand asap. This is driven by the need to minimise the interim period between merger and the new brand launch, so as to limit confusion arising from the lack of clear identity for NewCharity in the short term.
Budget: New brand development is a fixed cost likely to be circa £300,000 for a process that fully researches markets, audiences and opportunities and meets the needs of diverse stakeholders.
The variable cost is new brand implementation and the key considerations are:
·  Whether NewCharity meets the cost of implementation for the AC federation and the 3 Nations. It is recommended that these costs be met in order to remove the barrier to new brand implementation at local, regional and 3 Nations levels.
·  Whether to launch NewCharity with a ‘big bang’ across all public facing platforms or to introduce it slowly on an ad hoc basis. The former approach is recommended, in order to remove the potential for brand confusion and sweat the synergies.
·  The extent to which NewCharity is able to leverage PR to promote new brand messages.
·  Whether there is any above the line advertising or marketing.
·  How the brand is launched to staff and has ongoing traction and engagement with the Charity’s employees.
·  Leadership activities, time and support (speaking engagements, building brand profile in the media).
·  Timeline creep.
It is proposed:
·  To consider integrating the NewCharity launch with a fundraising appeal launch to fully exploit budget synergies and offset the cost of the new brand launch and development and vice versa.
·  To promote the NewCharity brand launch through leveraging PR and to minimise spend on above the line advertising in order to meet the cost of brand collateral at local, regional and 3 Nations levels.
·  To engage the AC federation and 3 Nations by fully integrating the brand launch at local, regional and national levels.
Some proposals for leveraging PR and engaging stakeholders in the NewCharity launch include:
·  A high profile celebration and street parties over one weekend in Trafalgar Square, London and in equivalent sites in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, plus flagship events in as many cities as possible, organised by AC’s throughout UK, down to street parties for local ACs, to include fundraising street collections and the sign-up of campaigners. The national organisation is to cover the cost and provide collateral. Secure the pro-bono engagement of celebrities to deliver local, regional and national media opportunities.
·  Procure free publicity from corporate supporters – eg posters in their high street outlets. (XX is pleased to support NewCharity – for more info contact xxxx & etc.)
·  A national commercial radio media campaign, subject to affordability.

Risks

Joint ACE/HtA Working Group Report:
Core Risks:
Brands – failure to decide on an overall brand strategy, including planning and managing the future of the brands, leading to a loss of confidence, including among charitable and commercial partners. In addition, failure to develop/deliver a brand strategy would lead to a loss of income from fundraising, an increase in confusion among our audiences about the brands, reputational damage, and a failure to capitalise on the opportunity to build on/improve on the current position.
Transition Risks:
Brand – a) 2 or 3 existing brands continue in existence and are not coherently managed either inside the new organisation or across all the existing and new partners; b) lack of investment in brand strategy development leads to sub-optimal decisions; and c) damage is sustained by existing brands, without securing the anticipated benefits.
Other Risks:
·  Failure to deliver brand with enough flexibility to meet the needs of stakeholders.
·  Negative PR about the cost of new brand development and implementation – mitigated as far as possible through leverage publicity through PR, minimise ATL.
·  Interim treatment of brand during transition between merger and new brand launch creates more consumer and staff confusion.
·  Delay in new brand development and implementation creates consumer and staff confusion.
·  Stakeholders not fully engaged or bought in.

Implications

·  Fundraising effectiveness
·  Customer/Donor confusion and lack of brand relevance
·  Staff morale & turnover
·  Clarity of purpose to service users, the sector, government
·  Brand and business strategy mutually supporting to enable success

Stakeholders involvement

Need full buy-in from all existing sub brands in both charities. These have been identified as ACEent, intune, Heyday, Research into Ageing, AC Training, AC federation and its Members, HtA bought-in-goods retail.
In addition, there are a number of project sub-brands (eg engage, Sponsor a Grandparent, Cows n’ Things, Fit as a Fiddle, Aid Call, Seniorlink), but since they need a looser engagement with NewCharity brand it is proposed that they are outside the scope of this workstream.

Involvement of partners and UK wide issues

·  Age Concern federation – need to be fully engaged in the new brand development and delivery.
·  3 Nations – will need to be fully engaged with the new brand development and delivery.
·  HAI – will be kept fully informed on developments, but active engagement in the process is not essential as they are not a brand partner.

Links to other workstreams and interdependencies

·  Business planning – need to ensure brand it is fully aligned with business strategy, including in the nations (see below); need to leverage PR as far as possible since there is limited budget for advertising.
·  3 Nations – need to ensure the brand meets the needs of Nations and is fully adopted
·  Partner Involvement - need to ensure the brand meets the needs of Age Concern federation and is fully adopted.
·  Fundraising – possible link between brand and appeal launch.

AmalgaMate – A toolkit of ideas and practice for mergers in the third sector

Based on the merger to form Age NI, developed by CO3, funded by Atlantic Philanthropies