Fellowship Partnerships – we’re scaling up to help further our charitable mission

It’s been a while since my last blog post, and it’s been a busy 6 months for the Partnerships team!

I have been leading on Fellowship partnerships for two years at the RSA (my 'RSAnniversary' was in May), and I've seen big changes, big challenges and gained insight into the value of the RSA as a convener of networks.  My colleague Adam, wrote a great post in February that outlined our general approach to partnerships, which we strive to keep to whilst allowing us flexibility when working with such a range of organisations - my key aim, is to ensure that we can develop collaborative partnerships that use our resources efficiently and can support the charitable objectives of the RSA and the organisation we're partnering with.

So what have we been doing?

1. Messing around with a new database...

Don't worry, I'll keep this brief! Trying to get to grips with a new database is many things, if not challenging.  However, with the implementation of this new system of administrative delights, we're beginning to recognise the exciting possibilities of having all of our partner administration in one place; easily accessible.  This will eventually feed into all of the work we do with our Fellows from partner organisations and how we report on the impact our work is having.

2. Forging some new relationships...

Legacy Trust UK:  LTUK’s recent report on the impact of Olympic and Paralympic Games on the country’s next generation, was recently launched at a fascinating panel debate held at the RSA, which was hosted by Jonathan Edwards, CBE.  You can watch it here.

Following this, we have begun the process of creating a Fellowship partnership, whereby we hope to connect with the present and former programme managers that LTUK has supported across the country.  There are some fascinating projects and we hope that Fellowship can further support them through the skills we hold within our networks.

 NCVO: As a champion of the UK's voluntary sector, NCVO provides its 10,000 members with key advice and support for nearly all areas of organisational operation.  We met with NCVO to discuss the natural connection between our organisations, and soon recognised this may be an opportunity to make RSA Catalyst support more visible to NCVO's members.  We are also working to discover how RSA Fellows can get involved with NCVO to offer their expertise.

3. Developing our work with existing partners...

Winston Churchill Memorial Trust: The past two years have seen some great developments with our partnership, thanks to key RSA Fellows and staff that have really driven this collaboration.  My colleague Vivs, recently wrote about the advising scheme that is bringing RSA and Churchill Fellows together in Wales, East Pennines and the South West (do have a look at her blog).

We are also hoping to do this in an international way too...

The RSA Fellowship extends across the world to more than 80 countries. In many of these countries we have an RSA Connector. RSA Connectors are a new and growing network of RSA Fellows worldwide; acting as a first port-of-call and a ‘friendly face’ for new RSA Fellows who want to find out more and get involved. As part of the RSA’s continuing partnership with the Churchill Trust, we are piloting a facilitated introduction between selected Churchill Fellows with an RSA Connector in the country they are visiting.  We hope that this will be a valued connection, and may help Churchill Fellows link up with contacts on their travels that will enrich their research.

UpRising: In January we ran an event to bring together London's UpRising participants and RSA Fellows, giving them advice from Fellows and making them aware of the expertise and support that the network can offer.  The 36 UpRiser’s in London that attended are working on some important Social Action Campaigns: crime, food waste and affordability, education (behaviour management), partnerships and communication, young translators, safeguarding young women, bringing politics to people and housing.

We’re looking forward to running something similar Bedford and Birmingham for the new cohorts this year, as we had some good feedback from the London group:

So what now?

Updating our partner web page, measuring our impact and looking regionally...

Two immediate areas of focus for me, will be to re-vamp our Partner page on the RSA Website, (which will reflect the lessons we've learnt over the past few months and give a clear, transparent picture of how we want to work with our partners) and to start along the journey of impact measurement (now that’s a whole different post right there!)  It’s easy to get lost in the smog of emails, phone calls and events, without stopping to reflect and explore exactly who is gaining (or losing) from this, and in what way.  As yet, reporting on the impact that our work with partners is having for the RSA, and RSA Fellows in particular, isn't something that we've done.  However, it has become clear that this is a really key thing to do, not only to for the various stakeholders at the RSA, but also for staff motivation and learning.

I've found  that some of our most rewarding collaborations exist because our Fellows have connected RSA staff to amazing organisations, and put a huge amount of effort into driving these relationships forward. 

For the moment, there will be a few things that I will be focusing upon to draw success stories from our partners.  I’m keen to show how existing and new Fellows are benefiting, so story- telling will be just as (if not more) important than the number crunching.  Two immediate examples come to mind; firstly, as I mentioned earlier, through our work with WCMT, RSA Fellows that are getting to use their time and expertise to help with Churchill Fellows’ research across the country.  Secondly, a relatively new Fellow that joined the RSA through our partnership with the Emerge Venture Lab, Juan Guerra FRSA, was awarded Catalyst Funding and mentoring from the Fellowship Council for his crowdfunding platform, Student Funder.  Juan’s project recently made it to the final 10 from 600 entrants to the EU's Social Innovation Prize.

One continual theme that runs through our partnerships, is the central role that Fellows play to develop these relationships.  I've found  that some of our most rewarding collaborations exist because our Fellows have connected RSA staff to amazing organisations.  They also put a huge amount of effort into driving these relationships forward, and I very much look forward to updating you about the regional/national work with partners in the coming months.

Finally, interested in becoming an RSA Fellow or partnering with us?

Then get in contact with me via jo.painter@rsa.org.uk

Jo Painter is the Partnership Development Manager at the RSA.