It was in a question-and-answer session with groups from Birmingham’s voluntary and community sector that the idea came to me. We were talking about how useful independent consultancy can be when organisations get into difficulties. Perhaps there is a conflict between the board and staff, or an important partnership is not working out or maybe staff and management are at odds about how to address a financial deficit. A participant said he thought that an outside perspective can be so helpful, but the problem is charities just can’t afford to employ consultants. That got me thinking how can I, a freelance organisational consultant address this issue. And that’s how I came up with the idea of ‘pay what you can’ consultancy.
At first, I thought why don’t I offer some organisations free consultancy. The problem with that is that people tend not to value things they get for free. Organisational consultants are not magicians. To make progress on an organisational issue requires time, commitment and energy from the client. In fact, consultants are really facilitators supporting clients to take a fresh approach to a problem. As a consultant I need to know that the client organisation will allow me access to staff and set aside time for meetings. The payment of a fee, however small is concrete evidence of a client’s commitment to the process of organisational consultancy.
To begin with I was going to call the service pay what you can afford. But when I googled this I found that lots of arts organisations venues such as the Barbican and Battersea Arts Centre and also some restaurants use the term ‘pay what you can’. They offer tickets at a big reduction publicising a guide price to help people judge what to pay.
So, I’m offering the same deal with pay what you can consultancy. I hope in a small way this helps charities access the support they need. And I encourage other consultants to do the same.
Apply for pay what you can consultancy here https://coproductionworks.co.uk/pay-what-you-can-organisational-consultancy-a-place-2-think/