Blog
Mainly what the spend is for, in plain terms, before any tool or supplier is mentioned, and what will be different the day after it is delivered. Then check that needs were written down before any demo, that the choice is on value rather than price, and that the process could be explained to a funder. Nobody needs a perfect answer to every question: the ones you cannot answer at all are where the money is about to leak. I am a charity trustee myself.
The purpose, agreed with the people who will use it, and a clear picture of what changes the day after delivery.
What are we trying to achieve, in plain terms, before anyone mentions a tool or a supplier? If you cannot answer in a sentence, you are not ready to spend.
Have we asked the people who will use this, whether staff or the people we serve, what they need? What we assume they need is rarely the same.
What will we be able to do differently the day after this is delivered? Without a clear answer, you are buying a document rather than a change.
That the need was written down before any demo, and that the choice can be explained to a funder.
Have we written down what we need before looking at a single product or demo? Get that order wrong and you buy a better-looking version of the same mistake.
Are we choosing on value and fit, or only on price? The cheapest quote that does not deliver wastes far more than a dearer one that does.
Have we run a fair, transparent process we could explain to a funder or the Charity Commission? That is how you show donated money was spent responsibly.
Whether its own team will be able to run the result, and who will own it once the supplier leaves.
Can our own team update and run this afterwards, without paying the supplier every time a word changes? A website you cannot edit is a liability with a nice homepage.
Who owns this once the consultant or agency has left? If the answer is nobody, it will decay.
Whether the reporting is honest, and how it will know the work succeeded.
If we already use an agency, do their reports match the raw data? More than once I have found a reassuring monthly report rosier than the analytics underneath it.
Is what we have built accessible to everyone we serve? For most charities that is the point of the work.
What is the one number that will tell us, honestly, whether this worked? There is also a checklist for charity trustees to take into a board meeting or a conversation with an agency.
Related evidence: Fund management system. Next in this journey: Digital on a charity budget.
Because none of it looks like a mistake on the day it is signed: a website nobody can update, a system that fights the people using it, a review that comes back as a single useless page. It looks like a mistake eighteen months later, when the money is gone and the problem is still there.
No. What matters is noticing which ones you cannot answer at all, because that is where the money is about to leak.
Most clients begin with a conversation. No pitch, no hard sell.
Just a straightforward discussion about where you are and whether I can help.
Book a free 30-minute call