Case Study

NCVO

NCVO is the national membership community for charities, voluntary organisations, and community groups in England.

Greenhouse was commissioned to carry out an independent review of NCVO’s commercial services as part of a wider strategic review. The brief was to assess the effectiveness, sustainability and future potential of its income-generating activities, and to help NCVO think clearly about how its commercial offer could best support both its mission and its longer-term resilience.

Our work combined stakeholder interviews, member research, fieldwork, financial analysis and benchmarking, alongside a detailed review of internal documentation. We looked at key service areas including training, consultancy, corporate partnerships and venue hire, identifying strengths, challenges and opportunities for development.

Following the findings report, we supported NCVO with a second phase of practical proposals, helping to turn the review into clearer priorities, actions and measures for the short to medium term. This included recommendations on pricing, performance measures, service planning and implementation.

Kora-Lee Holmes, Strategic Review Lead at NCVO, said: “The assessment by Greenhouse has left us with new ideas, actionable insights, and recommendations that we are already beginning to operationalise. The biggest compliment I can give is that both I and colleagues genuinely recognised the organisation and the challenges we face in their assessment, but with fresh perspectives and practical ideas for how we could move forward.”