C3 Partnership

To help you consider why and how to begin the performance improvement process within your organisation, here is brief feedback from 6 organisations that have already experienced the practical benefits of the C3Perform approach - helping them to achieve results and success by becoming more competitive, confident and credible with potential buyers and investors, current and future partners, plus paid staff and volunteers.

COMPETITIVE

Being competitive is about focusing on the quality of services and achieving greater social, economic and environmental value. Improving competitiveness means customer needs are considered in the design and delivery of products and services, for example generating new and repeat business plus customer satisfaction:

• Bristol Community Transport (BCT) hires out minibuses to third sector organisations and runs community bus services. They have used C3Perform tools to dramatically improve the quality of their services. Eighteen months on from starting the process, Jan Jones, BCT manager says, “Feedback from people using our service is now very positive. We have improved our booking systems resulting in far less reported problems from users. C3Perform tools have provided a structure for the process and have helped us to identify where we could improve and how to do it.”

• Life Cycle UK helps people to take up cycling. They embarked on a program of work to review products and services to improve efficiency, resulting in 58% increase in trading income over one year. Redesigning their service to meet customers’ practical needs resulted in their courses being fully booked. “Now we are much more focused on how to achieve our aims. Staff are happier and more motivated because things are going well and our customers are clearly happy with what we are offering.”

CONFIDENT

C3Perform tools aim to increase the confidence of organisations, and in their products and services. Self- assessing using C3Perform tools helps organisations to focus on what they are doing and how well they are doing it. It helps the organisation collect and use this information to improve the way they manage, for example:

• Health Advocacy Partnership provides support to Patient and Public Involvement Forums in Wiltshire, Bath and North Somerset. Staff were supported using C3Perform tools to improve morale resulting in staff being empowered and motivated and feeling that their views counted. There is now renewed confidence in their organisation. “The C3 process has greatly increased my respect for management.”

• Bristol Wireless, a co-operative committed to building a wireless computer network by providing free and adaptable software, ICT support and training services, used C3Perform tools to review and match their goals with the local authority’s objectives for mutual benefit. “Now that we are more focused on our own objectives, we have been able to identify how they fit into the council’s objectives more clearly.”

CREDIBLE

Credibility with funders, investors, customers and partners is a valuable asset for any organisation. C3Perform tools enable organisations to gather essential and useful evidence of their work and to communicate it in a clear and meaningful way that delivers results, for example:

• BREAD Youth Project offers support services to young people including peer education on sexual health. They used C3Perform tools as an away day activity with workers and trustees, later enabling the team to discuss BREAD’s performance improvement as part of a successful interview with the Big Lottery Fund. Using the evidence that came from going through Perform Workbook resulted in securing grant funding of £500,000. “Since engaging with C3 we feel more confident when presenting the impact of our work to funders and other stakeholders.”

• Creative Souls provide a place where young people and adults from St Pauls can engage in creative and educational activities using art and music. Using C3Perform tools enabled them to operate more strategically and helped secure investment from three funders.

Improving performance really does deliver significant advantages to third sector organisations. It helps increase competitiveness when competing for public or private sector customers. It generates up-to-date and relevant information on how an organisation is performing. It improves confidence within the organisation and in the eyes of stakeholders and partners. It strengthens credibility with buyers and investors looking for excellence and high quality products and services.

Buyers, investors and funders will become more interested in doing business with third sector organisations if there is positive evidence and effective performance improvement systems in place, which allow them to assess the quality of products and services, plus the competitiveness and credibility of potential partner organisations. C3Perform Toolkit helps you to develop and activate management systems for continuous performance improvement and a strong learning culture to meet these challenges.