Every act of caution made sense on its own. Together, they were holding the organisation still. That was one of the clearest findings from the strategic review Social Intent completed in 2026 for New Dawn New Day (NDND), a women's charity in Leicester. It probably describes a great many small charities right now.
A charity doing remarkable work
NDND was founded by local women on one of Leicester's estates. It has grown into a trusted, trauma-informed, women-only service for women with multiple unmet needs, many of them in contact with the criminal justice system. Its work is independently evaluated, and its partners describe it as hard to replicate.
It was also carrying pressures many charity leaders will recognise:
- income concentrated in a few statutory contracts, approaching recommissioning
- a listed building that no longer served the work
- a board and senior team with more ambition than capacity
- a strategy period coming to an end
One question, not a new strategy document
The board asked us to answer one question: what should NDND realistically invest in next, and what should it stop or defer?
Over twelve weeks we listened to thirteen stakeholders: trustees and the Chair, the senior team, commissioners, partners, a comparable women's centre and women who use the service. We reviewed 74 documents, from accounts and minutes to contracts, bids and the risk register, and tested them against what people told us.
The result was thirteen evidenced findings, 41 recommendations in a clear order, and six decisions ready for the board to minute.
Driving with the brakes on
The diagnosis was simple to say and hard to see from the inside. Each cautious choice was sensible. Together, they stopped the organisation moving.
The answer wasn't to release every brake at once. It was an investment ladder: fund one thing properly, prove it works, then fund the next. The backbone of the organisation comes first, because each step frees up the capacity for the one after.
The building was reframed too. Instead of an accommodation problem, it became a strategic step, with an achievable interim move ahead of the longer-term ambition.
Alongside that, NDND now has a one-page strategic intent, a Theory of Change, an income strategy with a costed model, a funder pipeline with five cases for support, and a clear statement of what to stop.
Built to be trusted, and to be used
A few principles made the difference:
- every statement labelled as evidence, stakeholder view, our interpretation or board decision, so the reader always knows which is which
- a confidence rating on every finding, and a section on what the review could not establish
- honest challenge aimed at systems, not people, and said to the board as much as to the executive
- our own interest in follow-on work recorded in the report, with advice to test the market
- a decision sheet, a 90-day plan and a minute block, so the work is used rather than filed
A question for your board
If your charity feels busy but stuck, the problem may not be a lack of ambition. It may be a set of sensible brakes that nobody has looked at together. What would your board invest in next, and what would it stop?
Matthew came in as a critical friend, and that is exactly what he was. He listened to everyone — trustees, the senior team, our partners, the women we support — and gave us back something we can actually use. Not a strategy to sit on a shelf, but a set of decisions, in order, with the evidence behind each one. He told us things we needed to hear, and he did it in a way that has helped the Board have the open, honest conversations it needed to have. We have a plan we can get behind.
Sarah Nelson, Chair of Trustees, New Dawn New Day
