1. Who are you?

My name is Adrian Melrose. I am a Chartered Accountant by training but left the profession a while ago. Most of my subsequent years have been spent in management consulting and technology. In 2003, I co-founded a company called 2B Reputation Intelligence which was sold to Factiva in early 2005. 2B’s solution provision spanned technology, communication & data analysis. Currently, I am the Chief Executive of a Venture Technology company called Webface which takes up a proportion of my time and I am involved in several start-ups and a few philanthropic ventures.

I dream of being successful enough one day to have a Foundation where I can direct funds to causes that spend the funding wisely and efficiently and make the world a better place! Whilst I don’t think its right to dispense with dreams like that, my business background has taught me me about leverage and catalytic growth: meaning its more practical in the short-term to take a little bit of money and create something that creates exponential value: similar to what the ex-Goldman Sachs founders of New Philanthropy Capital are doing. Giving Matters is the vehicle which I am using to create something that WILL make its mark in this area.

2. Who works for Giving Matters?

I like to think that I have a distinct advantage in that I haven’t worked in the Third Sector exclusively - this allows me the luxury of having an outside view and an ability to apply a commercial eye and a common sense view to the challenges of the sector. Where I am light on Third Sector experience, Louise Cook, my colleague and co-founder has plenty of it - she has worked for charities big and small. Lou writes her own blog at Fundraising Technology.

Louise & I draw on the expertise of our the people at iConcertina (a webface company) when it comes to technology. Our 35 years combined experience means we can reach-out to many freelance consultants with whom we’ve worked in the past- experts in business consulting, data analysis and the charitable sector.

2. Why Giving Matters?

A bit of a long story…..I have been lucky enough to have some time on my hands to get involved in a few philanthropic ventures: as a past trustee to a small UK charity called Inspire and a current trustee of Vitalise , I am aksi involved in a donor-capacity with south african grass roots charity called Thusanani and have spoken at a few charity get togethers and worked on a few clients in the charity sector too.

I could argue that I’ve seen quite a bit from differing angles within the Third Sector and this has led me to start a consultancy and project business called Giving Matters Limited.

3. What’s Giving Matters all about?

Often, too busy with service delivery or donor recruitment, UK charities aren’t asking themselves enough questions: they don’t seem to be committed to measurement and analysis. Too many opportunities are being overlooked, simple cost-effective technologies aren’t being implemented. Giving Matters is here to change that.

We are not just here to work with charities though: a key part of what we do is to work with corporates on their corporate social responsibility strategy.
4. Why isn’t Giving Matters a not-for-profit or charity itself?

Giving Matters chose to incorporate itself as a limited company and pay tax on its profits because it needs to raise capital to fund projects. We have accepted venture capital from investors who, to date, are all private individuals who we call venture philanthropists. Individuals who have made some personal wealth in their lives but still need a reasonable return on their money. They also subscribe to the ethos of wanting to create catalytic value for the Third Sector with their investment and they are willing to take a calculated risk in doing so.

5. Why does a Consultancy need capital?

Remember we are not just a consultancy. Giving Matters needs capital to fund and build its projects. Our revenue stream from consultancy pays our way and allows us to put together exciting models for our projects. As an example: currently we are funding a project called Thirdsay - once the business is built we’ll be licensing it to Thirdsay Charity. All our projects have sound business models behind them: after all we need to account to our shareholders and ensure their investments are safe & sound as well as creating that Third Sector catalytic value which, afterall, is what Giving Matters is all about.

6. Why a blog?

Although I can’t claim to be a blog pioneer, I was blogging a while ago- long before “blog” could be dropped into a dinner party conversation without explanation. Blogs are a great way to stimulate conversation. Blogging is a disruptive technology: Big brands, corporations and the media have been unsettled: they are no longer in control over traditional communication channels. Anyone with internet access can be heard and as long as they have a credible, balanced and fair point: there will almost certainly be an audience.

The Giving Matters blog gives me a platform to talk about the things we are doing, things that we find interesting in the Third Sector: and the beauty is I can do this in a conversational and often controversial way. Please join the conversation!

If you have any other questions please post them as a comment to this blog post - I will answer them in an open and transparent way. Otherwise feel free to contact me - details available on the contact tab of this blog. Thanks for reading!

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