With the continued focus on social prescribing as a ‘high-value, low-cost’ way of improving the responsiveness of the health system, we thought it would be worthwhile to unpack some of what we learnt in that project to share with other PHNs commissioning social prescribing service models or linkage program providers. This blog is the first of three in a South Eastern NSW case study series: what is social prescribing?

Whether you engage a consultant or not, whether you go deep or light touch - there are a number of key steps that can set your strategic planning process up to be meaningful and insightful. By considering the following tips, you can ensure you have the information and insights you need to begin developing an effective strategic plan.

Inspired by an article published by Pro Bono News and always being curious about how organisations set themselves up for success, the team here at Beacon Strategies asked ourselves a couple of big questions about what we think the challenges and opportunities that NFPs might expect to face in 2021 will be.

The following blog is written by Julia Mullin, a recent graduate who has undertaken a pro bono project for Gateway Baptist Church. The blog explores in detail how Julia approached a ‘needs assessment’ for a new service to successfully and innovatively enter the ‘homelessness’ sector and what Julia learnt conducting a needs assessment within a vulnerable community.

Over here at Beacon Strategies we have been been through lots of internal changes during the pandemic that we haven't had a chance to keep you updated. Not only that, we have been extremely busy on the project front and are always thinking of ways we can deliver more value to our partner organisations.

After the successful commencement of a recent stakeholder engagement and community development contract in partnership with a not-for-profit, we have gained a number of insights into how external resourcing can support the NFP sector to deliver on service delivery contracts. Read on for our thinking on how to strike the optimal balance of direct employment and external resourcing for your NFP.

In a new wave of suicide prevention policies and activities aiming to stem the growing rate of suicide, the Queensland Mental Health Commission have recently released ‘Every life’, The Queensland Suicide Prevention Plan for 2019-2029. In this blog, we explore what the plan means for your organisation and clients.

Social Return on Investment or SROI is an evaluative approach that combines participatory evaluation with aspects of economic analysis. We take a look at what SROI is (and isn’t), how it differs from other evaluation approaches, and some tips on when to consider using it to evaluate your work.

In this final post of our Evaluation Ready series, we explore a few helpful tips to make evaluation a priority within your organisation. Once you know how to put together a basic framework to guide how to do a program evaluation, the next challenge can often be making evaluation a consistent part of the work you and your colleagues do.