Key findings:

Charities have potential to gain through taking an Open Innovation approach - working with external organisations to get a new perspective and to test out new ideas. However, there are some key areas that charities need to work on:

• Breaking down internal siloes
• Focusing innovation investment on core business concerns such as increasing giving
• Taking well managed risks and not being afraid to be seen to 'fail'
• Developing a culture that embraces testing of 'imperfect' ideas as a way of developing ones that will work
• This publication is a series of blogs that focus on the work that Nesta carried out with ten large charities to test out their ideas for new ways of increasing giving of time and money.

We worked with the team at 100% Open who supported the charities to carry out their plans and to help them to make the most of the new partnerships and approaches that their projects created.

The articles explore some of the common themes to be aware of and distil some practical tips and insights gained through working with the charities over the past 18 months. We hope that they provide a useful insight into applied innovation in the charity and voluntary sector.

Authors:

Nesta and various authors