2024 Shortlist | Unfold
Unfold
Shortlist – Improving Impact: Charities with 4-30 paid staff
About the Charity
Unfold works with some of the most marginalised communities in Westminster and neighbouring boroughs, offering one-to-one mentoring to young people (aged 10-25) and women with children aged 5+. While the charity’s programmes are open to everyone, it has developed specialised programmes of support for groups with unique needs – including refugees, asylum seekers and young people excluded from mainstream education. Unfold also runs support groups for women and young people seeking asylum, where participants come together to socialise and access information on what’s going on in their communities.
During its goal-focused programmes, Unfold offers 12-24 mentoring sessions (online or in-person) to participants. Based in positive psychology, mentoring is designed to boost confidence and well-being, support participants in developing a growth mindset, tackle isolation, connect people to community groups or services to meet their needs, and enable participants to identify goals that matter to them in order to enhance their autonomy.
Charity number: 1082452 | www.Unfold.org.uk
Community Development | England – London | 11-25 paid staff
What the Board Achieved
Unfold embarked on a journey of transformation, redefining its approach to empowering individuals amidst the challenges posed by the pandemic and economic downturn. The charity’s mission centres on empowering individuals to realise their potential. Recognising the need for expansion and improving infrastructure to support that expansion, the board embraced a digital overhaul that included rebranding and implementing a robust data management system. The charity changed its name from ‘Westminster Befriend a Family’ to ‘Unfold’, launched a new website and CRM system, expanded its reach and successfully improved service delivery. .
Quantitative metrics, such as increased impressions and engagement rates, alongside qualitative feedback, underscore Unfold’s increased impact. The establishment of specialised programming for specific groups, guided by service user leadership, yielded tangible outcomes, as evidenced by success stories like Lana’s journey from exclusion to pursuing her dream of studying fashion. The CRM system enables comprehensive monitoring and evaluation, informing ongoing improvements to meet evolving needs effectively.
The board played a pivotal role in facilitating increased impact through active involvement in rebranding, website development, and CRM system implementation. Leveraging their expertise in communication and systems management, trustees collaborated with staff and service users to ensure plans aligned with organisational goals and user needs. Trustees with relevant expertise were able to coach and advise staff members responsible for managing the projects, while also helping other board members to understand the process and set reasonable expectations for progress.
The digital transformation journey brought both challenges and learnings. The board set up decision frameworks and evaluation criteria in advance, which proved instrumental in navigating high-stakes decisions, fostering accountability while engendering operational engagement. The board’s commitment to data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement remains central to the charity’s plan for sustaining impact over time.The board prioritises ongoing adaptation and specialisation of monitoring systems, collaborating closely with advisory councils to address evolving needs effectively. Feedback from service users, particularly vulnerable groups like young people seeking asylum, informs iterative improvements to service delivery as the board can access meaningful real-time data through carefully designed dashboards on the new CRM. By mobilising trustee expertise and analysing impact data trends, the board ensures that Unfold’s programmes remain responsive and impactful.
Additionally, the board played a central role in the foundation and training of the charity’s Youth Advisory Council, which offers advice and feedback, and holds the board and management team to account. The success of the Youth Advisory Council, for which the charity was shortlisted in the Charity Governance Awards in 2023, has led to the establishment of a Women’s Advisory Council. The board collaborates with these Councils, ensuring that their priorities are reflected in Unfold’s mission and direction and improving the impact of its services on those most vulnerable.
What the Board Achieved
Unfold’s journey exemplifies the transformative power of strategic governance, collaborative leadership, and continuous learning. Implementing a new CRM system transformed the charity’s ability to collect feedback, monitor, evaluate, and improve impact among the vulnerable communities it seeks to support. Judges appreciated that trustees were able to ask themselves the right questions and work collaboratively with all stakeholders to define a strategy to help the charity achieve its goals, using data to inform decision making and support continued improvement or growth.
