Caroline McKenna

Today we are joined by Caroline McKenna, CEO + Founder of Social Good Connect. 

Along with her passionate team, they make employee volunteering as easy as ordering a takeaway!  Connecting employees to their ideal volunteering opportunities through their unique digital search and match technology. And how volunteering can not only make an impact but make you feel even better than going to the gym. It's the feel-good factor. 

How do you embed volunteering into your culture? Caroline shares how Social Good Connect can help you do this by setting clear goals and practical ideas to build this culture and encourage staff engagement. it is about starting with "small, simple things but doing them consistently."

Caroline discusses what B Corp means and how you achieve it. Social Good Connect is only two years into its journey and has become certified, which is a huge achievement. But it doesn't stop there. This is a commitment to making their business a force for good and continuing to align its goals, operations and impact with the Sustainable Development Goals. 

If you are an organisation that wants to learn the value of volunteering and the positive impact this can have on your business, give this episode a listen.


 

We hope you enjoy this episode. If you have a topic you'd like us to discuss or you would like to be considered as a guest please get in touch at hello@samtaler.co.uk.

Transcript

Caroline McKenna, Founder & CEO, Social Good Connect

Sarah Stone (00:12):

Hello, and welcome to let's talk social value, a podcast where we explore what creating value for society means and the practical ways you can go about creating it. My name's Sarah, and my guests work in different areas of social value across public-private, and third sector organizations from the public sector, procurement to ESG and sustainability, social enterprise and impact measurement. I'll be asking them about their work and what they've learned, and they'll be sharing their tips and experience to help us all make our organisations better. My guest today is Caroline McKenna, the Founder and CEO of social good connect. I learned so much from talking to Caroline about volunteering, the kinds of things that charities need help with, and how to embed your values in your working practices. I hope you enjoy this episode. So Caroline, tell us more about Social Good Connect,

Caroline McKenna (01:02):

Social Good Connect is employer volunteering made easy, and we connect employers and their employees to their ideal volunteering opportunities using our digital search and match technology.

Sarah Stone (01:19):

And how did it come about?

Caroline McKenna (01:21):

About ten years ago, I decided to move into the charity sector, I suppose, to try and use my skills in a different way. And I ended up doing consultancy and then worked as the Chief Exec of the International Women's Centre. And volunteers were an absolute lifeline for them. There were about 60 volunteers that we had each week, and we had a full-time coordinator. It was tough to search, find, attract, and recruit the ideal volunteers, particularly employees. And at that time, employers were passionate about the charity of the year approaches, where they wanted to give to a charity, but then they moved on. And so you did all this great work, and then you had to find another business partner to work with. And so it was there that gave me the idea of, I wonder why there isn't an app that matches people like, you know, matching technology that we have out there a bit like match.com, but why couldn't we do that for volunteering? And I thought there must be a way to make volunteering as easy as ordering a takeaway. And so that's really where the idea came from. And I then started working with businesses, consultancy around their social good strategies and CSR. It was there that employers were saying to me, we want to support communities. More charities were saying we need more employed volunteers. And there seemed to be this disconnect about a way in which they could find them. So that's really where it came from.

Sarah Stone (02:41):

And the platform that you used. Did you develop that yourself? Is that your own tech?

Caroline McKenna (02:45):

Yes, we did. We designed and developed it using our digital partner at the time. And we did design workshops. We did focus groups with businesses and employers, and employees. And we did the old map around the room with post-it notes. You know what the journey might look like and what it might feel like, and try to make it as easy and simple as possible. Having never done anything like this before. There are lots of things I would do differently, but at the time, you know, it was a really exciting project. I got some funding through Scottish Enterprise to do a bit of a feasibility project. And that was about the design of the digital platform. But it was also about testing with employers. Is this something if available that they would one find valuable to use and three pay for, you know, the critical feasibility of any business and the findings were that. There wasn't anything like a managed service that made it easy for businesses to access volunteering opportunities. And what we also do is support them to engage their employees in volunteering.

Sarah Stone (03:51):

I was gonna ask you about that. What does the platform do? So do you find the charities and then talk with them about what they need help with? How does it work?

Caroline McKenna (03:59):

We have a brilliant, passionate team of people without whom we wouldn't be here today? But yes, we do everything. So we search for outreach to the ideal businesses. And those ideal businesses are the ones who we find. They care about their people. They care about the community. Our focus is on the SME community, but we do work with corporates; we just don't actively target those then charities on the same; we outreach too. We speak to them and support them with their employee and volunteering needs. So both parties sign up, businesses pay monthly subscription charities, sign up for free charities, upload their opportunities and businesses and business employees activate their profile, putting in a sort of match criteria around skills and experiences and location and causes they're passionate about. And then a match happens, and it brings up, if you imagine, like a Netflix screen, all the charity opportunities that are ideal for you based on how you've set up your profile.

Caroline McKenna (05:01):

And then there's kind of a featured section. That's like, actually, Sarah, you know, try this. That's kind of how it works in a nutshell. And we do everything end to end. When we onboard a business and a charity, we also have a customer success team, ensuring that everyone in that organisation is onboarded. We do welcome webinars. We provide tools, assets, and resources to businesses to ensure that they can embed this culture of volunteering and that people will actively use it. And we see this as a staff benefit. So, we are making it easy for the business community to provide an employee volunteer service where they don't have to research all the charities and find them. We do that for you. They don't have to find out what tools; how will I engage the team? We do that for you. So it's kind of a done-for-you service?

Sarah Stone (05:50):

Do you get feedback from people who've been volunteering?

Caroline McKenna (05:53):

Yeah, we do. We've got some brilliant case studies. We talk about when Steve met George and when Harry met Sally, a take on that, and that's the kind of impact stories we are starting to share. We just didn't have the resources to gather all those stories, but now we've got someone who's an impact engagement coordinator, and they take this a stage further. So if you think about what we do, we've got a digital platform that connects employees to those charities. They apply for those opportunities, and they start volunteering really after that. That's where we stopped. It was like a connection service. But what we are doing now is we're taking that stage further, and we're saying, okay, Sarah, you applied for an opportunity. What happened? And you might then start to tell us about your volunteering. Did we ask the charity what value did Sarah bring to that opportunity?

Caroline McKenna (06:40):

And then, how has it benefited you, your employer, the charity, and the end beneficiary. So it's quite exciting. I mean, the one that we talk about is when Steve met George and Steve worked for a business called Ninja Kiwi, and he hadn't volunteered before they joined the platform. And he decided to support a charity called Care and Companionship and help George, who was in his eighties and couldn't use technology. He helped him set up his WhatsApp, YouTube, and all that great stuff. And he got a phone call from his daughter for the first time in a long period of time because of COVID, and that's pretty powerful stuff. And Steve sort of told us that he was, you know, it was quite an emotional moment and actually, they've now become really good friends, and they meet regularly. And so, you know, there are the indirect benefits.

Caroline McKenna (07:25):

Of course, George is the beneficiary, and he's got all the benefits of that support. And now befriending, you know, Steve said that he feels more loyal to his employer for allowing on the time to do it. And this took half an hour.  And when he goes home, his fiance said he just seems much happier every time he speaks to George. So, you know, it's like, there are so many benefits. So we've got lots of these stories. We've got a brilliant one about Stephanos, who supported a charity called Data Kirk, and he's using his skills for good. He's helping young people learn about his specialist subject. So he created the materials for a 12-week course. The young people sign up, and he runs a two-hour interactive session to bring those materials alive. So just really powerful.

Sarah Stone (08:14):

It puts the hairs on your arms up. Doesn't it? When you hear that, and this is the other thing I often say about social value, it doesn't take much to help people. Sometimes it's the smallest things that people need that can make the biggest difference.

Caroline McKenna (08:26):

Definitely. I mean, we talk about this a lot. So the biggest barrier we get from employees is I don't have time because we're all really busy. We're all on zoom. We're all on teams. It's constant. There just isn't a break. You know, we wanted to create opportunities which are 30 minutes long and 20 minutes long. And that's what we've done. There are things that you can do using your skills in 20 to 30 minutes a week that it doesn't take much time, but it's more exciting than going to the gym. Put it that way, Sarah, because you know, the adrenaline rush you get from giving to others, expecting nothing in return, carries you through that. We talk about it as the antidote to stress at work. Really. It's a wonderful thing that I wish I could bottle and shake over people to make people go; okay, I'm gonna give it a go. And I think that's what a lot of hours have done. They've said, well, I've not done this before. And I don't know what I can do. We help with that as well. We're turning our digital platform into an app at the moment. So in Q2, we will have that ready as an app form. And you can click a button that says; I don't know what to do. And it will ask you five key questions about what you're passionate about and the things you like to do just to help people.

Sarah Stone (09:38):

And how do you get companies and employees to sign up? Cause many people to say, you know, they tried this before, but they don't get much take up from staff.

Caroline McKenna (09:45):

Yeah. So this is common, Sarah. And to me, I took it as an initiative or change that you want to embed across your organization. So if a business comes to me and says, we've sent out an email in January and June, they say, no, one's taken up. It's not working well; the reality is if you send out one email, how can you expect to embed something in your culture? Right? So you know what we started to realise, and this is our learning. Cause we didn't have any tools or assets at the start, now we set goals at the start of our journey with the business, and we'll tell them, what do you want to achieve? And those goals will range from, well, we want 20% of our workforce volunteering. We want to have better connections with the communities.

Caroline McKenna (10:32):

We want impact stories that we can share across our network and encourage others to get involved. Great goals. How are we gonna achieve that? Well, we're not gonna achieve that by sending one email a year. So there are many ways businesses can think about how I would embed something new in my organisation that I want to stick to. So, for example, getting the senior leaders engaged, you know, and all that can be as a webinar, but them coming on a webinar and saying, well, how do I get my team engaged? Is this another thing I need to do? So we take that pain away by saying, just integrate it into what you do. Now. Talk about volunteering in your team meetings, add it as a staff benefit to your job, adverse to your recruitment process, and your interview process. Talk about it in your one-to-ones, make sure it's on the agenda at your SLTs, share impact stories, and share this great stuff.

Caroline McKenna (11:23):

Why don't you get your senior leaders engaged in volunteering right at the start? This is the sort of stuff that we try to do. We try to get people ingrained in this. And sometimes people might need a team opportunity to do that. So we usually offer every business that comes on an opportunity to get together as a team. We're all missing that human connection, aren't we, but we try to encourage that as well to get them started. And it's not a quick fix, either. Our mutual colleague at Scottish Power did a wonderful webinar with our social good connect champions across the business community. He said it took us three years to embed a culture by just doing small, simple things. And we did them consistently. And that's how you turn things around.

Sarah Stone (12:09):

That's so powerful, isn't it? Small, simple things, but do them consistently

Caroline McKenna (12:13):

B one G one, And she's an amazing, amazing woman. I just interviewed her on my podcast. And so it's by one, give one its business for good. And it's a global sort of giving movement. And she talks about the power of small. I was just blown away by that. But what if every business could make a difference in their own way just by doing what they normally do. And so they call them giving impacts. They talk about that, but they just say, just do one thing to make a difference. So if all you do is get your senior team engaged in a webinar, if all you do is encourage your team in the regular one-to-one to get involved in community and volunteer, there is absolute evidence about volunteering and the connection back to positive health and wellbeing. So if you care about your people and you're in an organisation that cares about them, it's just the right thing to do.

Sarah Stone (13:04):

It's so true. When you were saying that, I was just thinking about the fact that part of this social value model. You know, I work in, I do a lot of work with companies bidding for public sector contracts, and they're being asked, you know, what will they do to improve the health and wellbeing of the contract workforce or their suppliers or communities. And I think this is a great way to do that. Often they say things like, well, we don't know how to find the charities or, you know, we haven't got anyone that can deal with the logistics and the admin of it, but it sounds like that's where you come in. Right?

Caroline McKenna (13:33):

Well, that's where we come in. And that is really what we talk about. We are making employee volunteering easy for the people you've just described. Sarah, there are huge benefits to that. Not least the health and well-being, but imagine you're an organization that wants to attract, recruit and retain talent. We all know that younger people coming through the great resignation, you know, people saying. I want to work for a socially responsible organisation. That cares about me as a person and does more than achieve profit. And that is the reality of where we are and where we're going. So if you want to attract and retain talent, this is a great way to do it. If you want to boost morale, if you want to create a positive work environment, but also if you want to contribute to solving social needs. So many of the organisations you work with Sarah will need to report on their ESG on environmental, social and governance goals.

Caroline McKenna (14:23):

This is one way we talk about us, the S and the ESG; of course, it's just one way, but it is about creating those deeper connections with the community. Then, you know, as a business that cares about this stuff, you're gonna enhance your culture, your brand, your reputation, you know, you're gonna improve your customer loyalty and build a legacy. And one of the things, you know, a lot more about than me, Sarah, but on the public tenders is community benefit question. This is a no-brainer for many businesses to say, well, we don't have to go and find all the charities to work with, but because we work with Social Good Connect, they do all that for us. So it feels like that managed service to help a business, and an organization just kickstart this.

Sarah Stone (15:04):

Yeah. I mean, it's a bit of a no-brainer, really, but I would say that. So what about if a company is listening to this and thinking, oh, that would be amazing. You know, we just got a contract to deliver a new whatever it is in wherever it is a particular location, but they want the volunteering to be focused around a particular location. Can you do that? Can you go out and sort of be proactive behind communities to support them?

Caroline McKenna (15:28):

Absolutely. So we are in Scotland at the moment, and we are moving out. We've got a regional distribution plan for this year. So we're moving out across two regions all over the UK to do that. So we know, many of the businesses that we have, although they're based in Scotland, might be where head offices. So they're across the UK. So we have a mechanism to support causes and locations that the company and those staff are passionate about. We do tend to talk about individual desires. And so, thinking about that old charity of the year approaches, Sarah, if I was to say to you, you know, and you're in my team, right? As a company, we support the local football club for the rest of the year. You might not be interested in football, so you might not get behind that. And what we offer is a way in which we can still do great things for our community, but you, for example, might be able to go and support young people with mental health or elderly people, or the cat and dogs home, whatever that might be. And it gives you the opportunity, but it all feeds back to the employer. However, if there's a particular cause at a particular location, then we can go and do all that work. That's really what we're here to do.

Sarah Stone (16:38):

I like that because you're keeping the human element of it. Cause that's often the worry, people can make volunteering transactional. And actually, that kills it.

Caroline McKenna (16:47):

Some myths around volunteering, Sarah, are that you should send teams of 15 people to paint a wall and dig a garden. And that's what chars love. Oh, I can tell you, they don't, you know, some may need that some of the community, but what charities tell us, and we've got 300 charities on board. Now, what they tell us is that they benefit from a skills approach. So can you help someone with marketing, for example, a strategy, sit with them for half an hour and give them some guidance? Can you help them with their social media and how to raise awareness of their cause? Could you support them with funding and new fundraising ideas they might have overlooked? One of the great things we do is called a charity think tank. And it's where a charity comes in with a key challenge, a big challenge that they have, and we get business people across all the different businesses, not from the same, all different levels, all different skills experience and job titles. And they start processing that issue. So they start, you know, asking key questions and coming up with ideas. And that is for one hour only. And it's so powerful. Imagine you could get six or eight consultants in a room with you for an hour to help you with a huge problem in your organisation. And they can solve that. So it's things like that, that charities tell us are critical to them.

Sarah Stone (18:05):

It isn't often what people think it is that charities need. Is it? And it's also not money. I know people will always say they need money, but I often say to charities, don't ask corporates for money because it's, you might think they've got lots of it, but they don't have lots of it readily available. Ask them for the thing that you would spend the money on.

Caroline McKenna (18:22):

Definitely, and, even if you gave an organisation or charitable organisation money and they still had these challenges or dilemmas, then the money's just gonna go towards the challenge or the dilemma. And, what they would benefit from, of course, money is great, but alongside that is, and actually, we can share and, you know, have some time with you to support you. We did a charity focus group where we told them, you know, what are your biggest challenges? And if we could get the business community to support you, what would that look like? And some of the things they came back with were around. We struggle to raise awareness of our work cause if we're a small grassroots organisation; we don't have the same resources as bigger organisations. And so we struggle with some of that. So, you know, that was a really interesting state of play.

Caroline McKenna (19:09):

I suppose they wanna tell their story better. They want to chat with other businesses. They can't afford consultancy, but if someone from a business can spare an hour, why wouldn't they come in and help them with the challenges they're facing or help them think about strategies in a different way. And they also struggle to forge closer relationships. You touched on it, Sarah, but many of them will send begging letters or just ask for money. And actually, that business isn't aligned with their values or their cause. And so, to me, it's always about how can we align a business in a charity together in a way that's meaningful and beneficial for

Sarah Stone (19:42):

Both. That's true because that's when the magic happens, isn't it? You know, it's like, yeah, I remember talking to a heating company about this once. And I remember the Chief Executive was a bit sceptical about social value, and he, you know, didn't really kind of get it. And then, when I started talking about how charities often give advice about insulating your home and saving energy, his eyes lit up because he's a heating engineer; he hates heating being wasted and energy being wasted. And I said, you know, I'm sure you are heating boiler technicians would be able to go and give some advice on that. And he said, oh, they love it. They'd love it. It is amazing when you connect organizations with companies working in the same area. But I had one question: is it just charities that you help, or can people volunteer for community groups as well?

Caroline McKenna (20:25):

Yeah, we have community groups. So we've got like Keep Scotland Beautiful, which has hundreds of community groups, gardens, and things like that. We also support social enterprises limited by guarantee companies. So it's not just charities. It is non-profit.

Sarah Stone (20:39):

Brilliant. And tell me about the B Corp corporation stages. You've just got that, haven't you?

Caroline McKenna (20:43):

Yeah. So basically, for people who don't know B CORPs, companies that meet the highest social and environmental performance standards, transparency and accountability, it is a bit of a movement. There are about 4,500 across the world, and there are around 600 in the UK. Now we are a really small organization to be certified as a B Corp. And it's very unusual, but it's always been an ambition of mine. And that's the reason why I wanted to do it early. So we are, we are not even two years into our journey yet, and it's taken us a year and five months. I think it was to become certified because we had to go through many checks and ensure everything was in place. So we are early, but it is hugely important to us that we are part of a movement. That's people using business as a force for good, I suppose, which is what one of our values is.

Caroline McKenna (21:34):

And together, you know, we are making sure that we have fairness and high standards on our governance, our staff, our people, the community, the environment and our customers. And so there's like hundreds of questions within each of those areas. For example, around the people side, it asks about, you know, how your staff are paid. What percentage of full-time and part-time workers do you have to ask about financial security. So who's on the lowest wage? Who's on the highest paid wage. What do you do? What are your staff benefits? What do you offer? What's your provision for healthcare and health and wellness with your team? How do you develop them career-wise? How do you engage them? How happy are they? How satisfied are they? How do you empower your people? When people have left, why have they left?

Caroline McKenna (22:27):

Do you ask them, do you get that feedback? How many days off do you give staff? Do you just give them holidays? Do you give them extra days? So, for example, we give your birthday day off, and we give a wellness day a year. So a duvet day, the team call it, right. But you know, a day where you go, I can't do this today because my head's about to explode. Cause I've got so much going on at home. So I'm taking it today. So that's the sort of stuff. So the questions are detailed. They're really difficult. And they're difficult for a reason because you need to be accountable, and it doesn't stop when you're certified, you know, it's easy to get somewhere, isn't it, it's like it's easy to lose a stone, but to keep the stone off is hard. It's a bit like that analogy, making sure that we continue to grow in our impact, accountability, and transparency about who we are, what we do, and why we exist. Really.

Sarah Stone (23:16):

When they say to you things like, how do you look after your staff and what do you do to, you know, protect the environment? Do they give you the kind of level that they want you to aspire to?

Caroline McKenna (23:25):

No. So it's just, it's a questionnaire. So, for example, they would say things like are the majority of your employees paid on a fixed salary or a daily or hourly wage.

Sarah Stone (23:36):

How would you know what the right answer was?

Caroline McKenna (23:38):

Well, you assume, don't you, that it's about determining how your questions about employee impact and you know, they give you sort of information on that. They have like a learn more tab that tells you, tell me what this question is for. And actually, much of it relates back to the sustainable development goals. So it gives you which goal it's related to, which specific targets for, and those reference points. It is about impact. And it is about salaried employees or workers that received a fixed amount of pay. And you know, they're concerned that you're a zero-hour contract and you shouldn't be, and you know, it's all that sort of stuff. So they do give explanations, but they don't give what the answers should be. You only get that back when you get the assessment that says you've failed that area. So, you know, out of those five areas, you get a score, and it's where's your score out of those questions

Sarah Stone (24:34):

Is that why it took a year and a half because you failed a section, and they gave you the feedback and then you went away and worked on it and applied again.

Caroline McKenna (24:39):

There were some sections that we hadn't fully formed in. And the one that we hadn't was our environment, I suppose, because we are so early in our journey, and the environment question is about your management practices and your impact on air, climate, water, land, et cetera, et cetera. And it's about your company's operations. So things like, do we promote taking your bike to work? Do we promote walking to work? Do we give space and time for people to do that? You know, what facilities have you got? What is your environmental model? What are you passionate about? We hadn't done anything in there. So we had to go and learn it, understand it. We had to make sure that on our due diligence side, we are not working with any organisation or any charitable organisation that is, for example, currently under a fraud investigation, you know, and anything like that. So it's like the disclosure things, you know, that was one area we struggled with.

Sarah Stone (25:39):

Did it throw up anything where you were like, oh, we aren't very good at this or did it make you change the way you do anything?

Caroline McKenna (25:44):

Yeah, the environment stuff for sure, because we hadn't even considered it genuinely. Hadn't considered a lot of it. You know, even in the customer space, they talk about, do you monitor customer satisfaction? Do you assess the outcomes produced for your customers? Do you manage the privacy of your client data? Do you have written policies in place for ethical marketing? Like that's all the stuff that we had to. Okay. There's the section. Here's everything that's asking us. We are low in that we don't have everything in place yet. So let's learn it, understand it, look at what we can do as a small growing organisation and start to put some of that in place you learn all the time, don't you. So you learn from your customers all the time through insights and focus groups. And so things like getting policies and showing the privacy and security of customer data are high up on our list because we captured data within our digital platform. Where are we sharing that with our companies enough? No, we just were not; that wasn't one of our ticks; we've done that, you know? So just things like that really that it it's super helpful. Cause it makes you think about what you're doing differently and more robustly.

Sarah Stone (26:54):

And it sounds rigorous. I can see now why so many people rave about it. Um, I haven't understood it. And so you'd explain it like that before. I suppose I just thought of it as a bit of a trademark, almost that people threw around and, you know, just something that people got to look good. I didn't realise it was as robust as that. 

Caroline McKenna (27:11):

And you have to prove it, so it isn't just ticking a box and saying, yes, of course, we've got all that in place. You have to prove every single part of it. Do you know? So if you are saying that you have our organisational chart that outlines the governing structure of your organisation and the reporting structure, that you have job descriptions for all employees that don't just outline the responsibilities, but they outline the decision-making authority and that you have management team meetings to plan strategy or make operational decisions. You got to prove it. If you don't have your minutes in the place, you don't have your job descriptions there that are fully formed. So that's why it takes so long. Say it isn't just a checklist of things. It's like. You need to be able to prove that you have this. You have to make sure that your company articles have specific wording in them that matches the ethics of being a B Corp. So that's why it's wonderfully robust. And we've worked damn hard to put this stuff in place, and now we need to ensure that it's in place and delivered daily.

Sarah Stone (28:14):

And do you have like one person whose job it was to do it or was it you?

Caroline McKenna (28:17):

We had different people because we gave ownership and empowerment to different people. So we had an operations manager when she moved on, so we've passed it on. So I think there's been three of us plus me in the organisation. That's picked up certain aspects of it and made sure that we understood it and had everything in place. And if we didn't, we got it in place, and we were communicating and sharing it with the wider team. So we have our face-to-face team meeting every month. And you know, most of the time, we get everyone there COVID dependent. And it's one of the things we talk about. One of the key things we discuss at every team meeting is our values. But the other thing that we talk about now is our B Corp assessment and ensuring that we have a robust understanding of what it means to be a B Corp and how we incorporate this every day.

Sarah Stone (29:03):

Just on that, when you talk about your values at your team meeting, how does that work?

Caroline McKenna (29:07):

So we, well, we do little games in little competitions, right? So I just randomly, when we're talking about something that has nothing to do with values, I'll say, right, Betty, what's our second value.  So, for example, at Christmas, we had an award ceremony, and the team had to give an award to the person we've got three values given the award to the person they believed had displayed that value the most that year with examples of what they'd done. And it was so powerful, and it was just a wonderful feedback session for each team member because, you know if one of our, um, values is about creating impact and it's about enabling, empowering and moving barriers for people to do good and create the impact they want to make in the world.

Caroline McKenna (29:52):

And so that's a nice, lovely statement, but what does that mean in practice? And so that award little small award ceremony, but when everyone had to put a vote in for who they felt, you know, there was some brilliant examples of, oh, well, Betty did this and removed all these problems and these issues for one of our customers to make sure that they could work with that charity to deliver X it's that sort of bringing to life on the values. I'm hugely passionate about values because it's the foundation of who we are. It's how we behave. It's what we do. And hopefully, it's what people experience. So, you know, if you were to speak to any of the team, I would hope that you would sort of say, God, they have, you know, our other ones bring in the passion. They got the energy. They're full of spirit, and they make things happen. That's one of our values, and I hope people will start to say that about us. And that is some of the feedback that we've started to get.

Sarah Stone (30:45):

That's amazing and such a good idea. I hadn't even thought of that, but you must be intentional about making values part of your culture. It doesn't just happen organically. I think many really large companies often find it harder because they're so disjointed and enormous. 

Caroline McKenna (31:02):

Yeah.

Sarah Stone (31:03):

I'm just gonna finish by asking you about something that you use at work or in your job, which is useful and you couldn't be without; it could be an app, or it could be just a website that you've discovered recently or a blog that you sign up to. Is there anything like that you just kind of can't live without that you can share?

Caroline McKenna (31:20):

Oh, can't live without, well, we use click up. It's a productivity app where we store our 10-year goals, three-year plan, one-year plan, and 90-day rocks. And it's all measured within there. And I don't think I could do it without an easy place to hold it. So I have the team using all sorts of stuff, right. Trello or use this, use that. And everyone's like, oh God, we hate everything. Cause everyone likes to do their own thing. But Tia, our Operations Manager, has got everyone excited about using click-up and what it can bring. So it tells us if we're off or on track and what the activity is happening to get us back on track. It's got all of our teams in their marketing, sales, and operations, and it's just a great way to see all the amazing stuff going on, and it's all in one place.

Caroline McKenna (32:02):

So I would say that has probably fundamentally changed because before, we were using a big ugly spreadsheets era. And if I may have just one other one, the book I recently read called traction, called Get a Grip on your Business, is practical and full of tips about this kind of preparation for the growth stage. And it's about getting everyone sorted and clear on your vision, ensuring you've got the right people with the right accountability, and doing the right things. It's about data; cut through everything else and ensure you're measuring the right stuff. It's about issues. How do we become great at solving problems throughout the organization processes? What are our five or six core processes that everyone knows about and then traction? How do we bring discipline and accountability, and execution into it? So it's a brilliant model, and it's brilliant, but we are doing it ourselves. You can get consultants to come and work with you, but it's made a huge difference to how we drive things forward.

Sarah Stone (33:02):

Oh, amazing. Thank you. I will look that up. That sounds right up my street. Do you want to just share where can people connect with you online? And what's the website?

Caroline McKenna (33:10):

Social Good Connect.org, and I'm Caroline. So Caroline@ Social Good Connect.org is my email. I'm on LinkedIn, Caroline McKenna. 

Sarah Stone (33:20):

Amazing. Well, thank you very much for coming and talking to me today. It's been awesome.

Caroline McKenna (33:24):

I loved it. I love what you do, Sarah. Thanks for having me. Thank you.

Sarah Stone (33:27):

Thanks for listening to Let's Talk Social Value with me. Sarah Stone. My guest today was Caroline McKenna, and the show was produced and edited by Chris Keen.