Pro Bono Economics has today published a new report for Clore Social Leadership, a charity dedicated to supporting aspiring leaders in the third sector, which demonstrates a clear relationship between investment in leadership training and improved charity performance.

The research, which uses data from the 2016 Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Small Business Survey, shows that charities providing leadership and management (L&M) training were more likely to have increased turnover and introduced new processes and services.

The report also notes that charities were more likely to provide L&M training than other small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

Clore Social Leadership is a registered charity working to both support and develop social leaders, through the provision of programmes, coaching and peer-to-peer learning and resources.

Pro Bono Economics’ research report was compiled by Dr Mark Graham and Toby Kenward, in association with Dan Healy from FTI Consulting.

Shaks Ghosh, CEO of Clore Social Leadership, said of the publication:

“This result is a very useful step forwards in helping us to better understand the relationship between leadership development and performance in UK charities. Over the coming years we will be continuing to gather evidence to explore how investment by charities in leadership development drives improved organisational performance and better social outcomes.

With Government looking to improve the productivity of the UK economy as part of its new industrial strategy, it is vital we understand the unique contribution that investment in leadership development in the social sector could make.”

Co-author Dr Mark Graham said:

“This report points the way forward for future research in this important area. While a robust analysis of this issue was beyond the scope of this piece of work - so we weren’t at this stage able to establish a causal link between leadership and performance - it does raise interesting questions which certainly warrant further investigation.”

More information and the report are available to view here.

21st March 2019