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We are a leading charity, working at the centre of the giving world. We help donors to give more impactfully and charities to build their resilience so they can do more of their life-changing work.

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Case study

Somers Town Community Association: a forward-thinking business plan

How our Advisory team supported the development of an adaptive five-year business plan that reflected staff and community needs and voices.

Project snapshot

Who

Somers Town Community Association

What

Strategic advisory support to inform the development of a new five-year business plan.

Why

To build a forward-thinking and inclusive plan. 

How

Charity advisory

The cause

Established in the 1970s as a tenants' hall, Somers Town Community Association (STCA) is run for the benefit of Somers Town residents in Camden, London.

The area is culturally rich and diverse, but faces challenges like urban redevelopment, ageing housing, loss of community space, deprivation and poor health.

Over the past decade, STCA has grown its reach and now offers a diverse range of health, wellbeing, youth, environmental and employment programmes across multiple sites.

The objectives 

STCA asked CAF’s Impact Accelerator team to support the design of its 2025-2030 business plan by acting as a critical friend through our Charity Advisory service. It wanted to make sure the plan is forward thinking, adaptive and meets the current and future needs of Somers Town residents.

This plan would be delivered by combining the knowledge of the Advisory team, external evidence and data, and the perspectives of STCA’s staff members, who are longstanding residents that bring professional skills and lived experience to serving the community.

Our support

STCA’s employees, volunteers and trustees completed CAF’s organisational resilience survey, revealing a strong internal culture and sense of purpose, alongside opportunities to better describe its impact. A benchmarking exercise helped STCA’s senior leadership team to compare the organisation to other London community associations.

The CAF team ran an in-person workshop with STCA’s entire team to explore what employees value, STCA’s strengths, income opportunities and future community needs. Following this, we analysed multiple inputs including financial and social impact assessments and a Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental (PESTLE) analysis by trustees.

From this, the CAF team developed a strategic framework to guide activities, resource planning, public engagement, and impact measurement. This framing was refined with STCA’s senior leadership and colleagues, then used to draft the business plan.

Our experts reviewed the draft plan, providing feedback to clarify STCA’s overall vision, workplan and help ensure outcomes were clearly articulated.

“Thank you for challenging us and being the critical friend we needed at this point in our evolution… I have honestly never worked with an external group that has really taken the time to understand STCA without trying to change us.”

Sarah Elie MBE, Chief Executive, STCA

 

The impact

CAF’s support helped STCA align its purpose and activities for the next five years, informing workstreams and partnerships. Emerging from our work together, STCA’s logo was redesigned to emphasise its four strategic aims:

  •  Build Community Skills
  • Improve Community Health
  • Provide Community Space
  • Leverage Community Power.
“CAF’s involvement was a key part in enabling us to make a document that truly represents us now, but also the version of ourselves that we want to be in five years’ time.”

Sarah Elie MBE.

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