Journey to Excellence with Cranfield Trust

Published 30 July 2026

We’re thrilled to have completed our Journey to Excellence (J2E©) with Cranfield Trust. J2E© offers pro bono management consultancy to charities to help them better measure change, progress and success.

The programme scores charities in four core business areas:

1. Leadership and strategic direction
2. People management 
3. Financial management and sustainability
4. Performance and impact.

Our Journey to Excellence

Our initial assessment identified financial sustainability and brand visibility as key areas of development, so we were partnered with a marketing professional for the duration of the project.

Simon Jobson is an award wining Chief Marketing Officer who has worked for many big brands including Ellesse, BrewDog, Dr Martens and Lacoste. For many years, Simon was a trustee of the Joe Strummer Foundation, a UK-based charity that provided grants and performance opportunities for unsigned musicians. It was this experience and that in brand development that helped us formulate a Marketing Strategy together, which we are now rolling out in earnest.

“We benefitted greatly from Simon’s experience in building and developing brands. He pulled together a draft marketing strategy which was a simple no-nonsense document and gave us a great starting point to build from. Suggestion number one on the list was to do a Fundraising Audit. This was a big piece of work, but it was such a good use of my time. Through it we identified a lucrative revenue stream that we hadn’t spotted before. A Fundraising Audit is now my go-to recommendation for other charities that approach me for advice or support.”

Claire, Fundraising Lead at Stepping Stones

The outworking of our Marketing Strategy has seen us take on Tysie Gallagher as our first Empowerment Ambassador. Additionally, we’ve developed The Luton Sleepout and an ongoing collaboration with Noah Enterprise and Impakt Housing and Support. We’ve also initiated the Shero Walk to encourage the local community to raise money for families facing domestic abuse.

Our participation in the Cranfield Journey to Excellence J2E© was kindly funded by The Triangle Trust. We are hugely grateful to The Triangle Trust, Cranfield Trust and Simon for their support over the last twelve months.