Here for the long term.
Organisational Resilience Building. Why bother?

I wrote this blog as part of an Organisational Resilience programme co-designed and delivered with Tom Watson for the Lloyds Bank Foundation. It explores why stepping back from the day job to invest in resilience is essential for navigating current pressures and sustaining impact for future beneficiaries. (Jan 26).

Many small charities report feeling under pressure

We don’t need to read much of the sector - or indeed local or national - press these days to be acutely aware that we are operating in increasingly uncertain and challenging times. Financial instability, rising demand, workforce pressures, and constant change have become part of everyday organisational life. What once felt exceptional now probably feels all too routine.

This leaves leaders having to take increasingly difficult decisions, with one of the hardest being when to say yes and when to say no. And let’s be honest, given the amount of money available globally, no charity should ever have to say no. (I could go further and say no charity should ever need to exist in the first place, but that is another blog).

You say sustainability, we say resilience

Organisational resilience is one of those terms that is bandied around without much specificity. It is not uncommon for resilience to be used interchangeably with sustainability, for example, but the two concepts are different.

Sustainability is being able to generate a stable or growing income. It is built by looking in and down at our operating model. Think activity-based budgeting, enterprising income streams and positive risk-taking. Building financial sustainability is a valid goal for any charity. Unfortunately, it is not a realistic option for every charity at all times.

Resilience, however, is available to every charity most of the time. Resilience is looking up and out at what’s ahead and responding accordingly. Sustainability building finance jobs are important for resilience building too, but resilience building also requires horizon scanning, scenarios, red and green flags, and adaptive leadership. It may well mean stability, and, happily, at times, growth, but it could equally mean temporary service reductions or organisational contraction now, to expand again later, when times allow.

Frustratingly, all too often, contraction is seen as profoundly wrong and something to be avoided at all costs. Trustees and Chiefs frequently share that contraction can feel like failure and a source of personal shame. I think it's anything but. To follow the ebb and flow of funding* and murmur like starlings, expanding and contracting as circumstances allow, to keep going decade after decade is far from failure. It is often a brilliant survival strategy. It is resilience in action.

So what is organisational resilience exactly?

Well, according to the British Standards Institution and Cranfield School of Management:

“Organisational resilience is the ability of an organisation to anticipate, prepare for, respond and adapt to incremental change and sudden disruptions in order to survive and prosper.”

Developing a resilient charity is not a single action or system, it is an ongoing practice that includes ways of working embedded deep in the organisational culture that make it feel natural for a charity to:

• Anticipate possible futures, rather than assuming the present will continue forever
• Prepare for financial uncertainty and opportunity through thoughtful planning
• Take design decisions that support adaptation; structurally, financially, and culturally
• Respond calmly and with cate for those we work with.

And so, resilient organisations are not immune to challenge. They experience the same pressures as everyone else. The difference is that they have created the conditions that give them the best possible chance of bouncing back when difficulties arise.

Resilient charities recognise that every decision can lead to a more brittle, fragile future or to a more flexible, adaptive one. Resilience leaders actively ensure that the majority of their choices lead them to the latter. To be resilient is to be anti-fragile**.

Organisational resilience builds financial viability

In 2025, the Charity Commission for England and Wales' Charity Risk Assessment 2025 identified financial resilience as a key regulatory risk for the sector***. This is concerning for all the obvious reasons. But also because those who know charities well know just how very quickly existing problems can escalate. 

In Ernest Hemingway's " The Sun also Rises" two chaps are talking to each other. One said to the other, 'How did you go bankrupt?' The other replied, 'Two ways, gradually and then suddenly'. So many small charities live in the gradual. This is understandable. If what they did made money the oligarchs would be doing it.

The truth is that actively building organisational resilience, whilst it can feel like it is taking us away from the day job, creates options. It allows charities to make decisions earlier, more intentionally, and with greater control, rather than reacting (sometimes blindly and in mild panic as we have probably all experienced)

when many options have already been removed because time has run out. Good resilience practices help charities spot problems early. Really good resilience practices buy time to fix them.

Organisational resilience protects people

Too often, charities are resilient because the people within them are resilient. Leaders absorb pressure, staff work beyond capacity, and everyone holds things together through goodwill and personal sacrifice. When this is due to a temporary, unavoidable surge in need, it simply reflects the dedication of folks in the sector. When this is a systemic way of working that never changes, this is not okay.

Organisational resilience should never come at the expense of an individual’s well-being. The job of leadership is to nurture cultures of resilience, cultures that allow time and space to think, that support decision-making grounded in operational capacity, that recognise when contraction is necessary and when growth is possible.

Burnout and leadership fatigue are increasing across the sector. Investing in organisational resilience means investing in people as well as systems, ensuring charities can keep going without exhausting those who make the work possible. A resilient charity navigates change with care for its people.

Is it that simple then?

If only! The power of charities to build lasting resilience on their own is limited. True resilience comes from all stakeholders working together and taking collective action to create a more enabling environment. Think unrestricted, multi-year funding, think pooled reserves funds, commons infrastructure, participatory budgeting. In this collective resilience-building movement, members think beyond organisational boundaries, make decisions together, and shift power. If charities are to be here for tomorrow’s beneficiaries, resilience - organisational and collective - needs to be built, consciously and collectively.

What three things can charities do to build resilience

For now, it is comforting to know that building organisational resilience doesn’t require having all the answers or unlimited resources. Many, many small charities are taking action to strengthen their own resilience day by day. Small, intentional steps can make a meaningful, lasting difference, especially when taken early.

1. Create space to look up and look out

Many charities are stuck in constant reaction mode. Making regular time, however limited, to look up and out is critical. This might mean a monthly meeting to do scenario planning, review the financial forecast or ask “what if?" and "what else?" about income, demand, and capacity. Resilience begins when organisations allow themselves to anticipate possible futures rather than only dealing with what’s already urgent.

2. Be honest about capacity and design accordingly

Resilient charities are realistic about what they can deliver with the resources they have. This means aligning ambition with capacity, making conscious decisions about when to contract, and ensuring growth, when it happens, is sustainable. Designing roles, services, and systems that can flex helps organisations respond without over-stretching people or finances.

3. Invest in collective leadership and peer support

Resilience is not built in isolation. Even an informal connection with peers to share learning and create spaces for mutual support strengthens decision-making, reduces the sense of carrying risk alone and builds a feeling of collective care. Whether through networks, partnerships, or resilience alliances, collective approaches help charities build confidence, share solutions, and navigate uncertainty together.

There is so much more I could say about this but I tend to go on too much so I shall stop here.

* The ebb and flow of funding is a lovely phrase that I heard from Caron Bradshaw OBE** To be resilient is to be anti-fragile is also a lovely phrase that I heard from Tom Watson *** The Charity Commission Trustee Finance Toolkit is an excellent resource by the way.