New charity The Lens aims to encourage staff innovation and entrepreneurship within existing Scottish charities

The brainwave of a member of staff in a Scottish charity has led to the creation of a brand new body that aims to kindle sparks of ideas that already exist within other charities.

The Lens has been set up by former Aberlour business development manager Steve McCreadie to nurture innovation and enterprise within Scottish charities and help them to become more sustainable.

Through the programme existing third sector staff will be encouraged to become “intrapreneurs” and develop new and creative ways of working. The programme aims to give charities the support they need to take educated risks, grow leadership and develop innovative new approaches to charitable activity.

The Lens has received £200,000 investment from the Scottish Government and £50,000 from the Robertson Trust after successfully piloting the idea within Aberlour. There it lead to the development of three new initiatives, including Options Adventures, which runs adventure short breaks for children with disabilities through self-directed support.

Now McCreadie plans to help other third sector organisations come up with ideas that will help ensure they can adapt to change and remain sustainable in light of public funding cuts.

He said: “There is a huge amount of talent within Scotland’s third sector and staff in organisations often have brilliant ideas that would resonate with their service users."

“Our role is to help people to develop their ideas, acquire new skills and engage in service redesign. We need all our collective intelligence to respond to the opportunities and challenges ahead and make sure we can deliver sustainable impact where it’s most needed.”

Initially the Lens will work with four charities, the Prince’s Trust, Loretto Care, the Carer’s Trust and Cornerstone. The idea is to develop techniques that approach familiar challenges in new ways, improve business innovation and models, help access new investment opportunities, and connect with new networks and collaborators. Each charity will receive a tailored programme of workshops and coaching developed to meet their organisational needs.

Fergus Ewing MSP, minister for Business Energy and Tourism, launched the Lens in Edinburgh.

He said: “With the help of this new initiative, third sector organisations who are delivering much needed public services are going to be supported in unleashing their entrepreneurial talent. This will ultimately lead to greater sustainability and impact. In doing so, The Lens is joining a host of other organisations as part of the Scotland Can Do movement of becoming a world-leading entrepreneurial and innovative nation.”

Kenneth Ferguson, director of the Robertson Trust, added: “Created within a charity, The Lens is responsive and forward looking. It helps test new ways of working in collaboration with staff and service users of the organisations it supports. We want to encourage third sector organisations in Scotland that are committed to positive change to build their capacity and consider how The Lens can help.”