How to make a consortium great

Five years ago consortiums were not on our radar at B Arts. Although we were aware of their operation in areas such as social services, education and delivering complex multi-agency projects, we had never been part of a formal consortium. Fast-forward five years and we are involved in three.

Appetite is the Stoke Creative People and Places programme, and we are a consortium member delivering this £3m programme funded by Arts Council England, alongside Staffordshire University, social housing and day services provider Brighter Futures, and Partners In Creative Learning, with the New Vic Theatre as the lead organisation.

It might not evolve in the way that you would have shaped it, but there is nothing to be gained by trying to influence other partners to support your view against the lead

We are about to finish leading the Making it Work consortium, a Catalyst programme working on developing fundraising capacity in independent arts organisations based in Stoke-on-Trent. Our consortium partners are Stoke-based organisations Airspace Gallery, Bitjam, picl and Restoke.

Finally, Artcity is a five-year programme funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation with the aims of encouraging graduate retention from creative courses, gaining more arts investment into Stoke-on-Trent and improving the city’s creative profile. Again, we are the lead, with a partnership of five other arts organisations in the city: Airspace, picl, Restoke, Cultural Sisters and Letting In The Light.

There are many ways that organisations come together to create a joint programme of activity and share resources and responsibilities. A consortium is usually underpinned by a formal memorandum of understanding that sets out on what basis the consortium is being established, how long it runs for and what the roles and responsibilities of those involved will be. It is not always necessary to have one single lead organisation, which holds the funding agreement with the investors, but if not the consortium will probably need establishing as a separate legal entity. The lead holds the agreement with external funders and sets out, via sub-grant agreements and schedules of activity, the contributions that each partner will make to the overall programme and the proportion of the overall funding they will receive.

So, how can you be a great lead organisation? Here are some tips:

1. Always focus on the purpose of the consortium. Why are you working together? What is it you are trying to achieve? What is the role of the lead and the partners both individually and collectively? Being clear about these, and not indulging in ‘mission drift’, will help everyone feel confident in their role.
2. Get the paperwork right at the start. We were very lucky that the New Vic Theatre invested in a good set of documents for the consortium (a sub-grant agreement and memorandum of understanding). These have enabled us to operate with a clear understanding of what the lead organisation expects from the partners, and what it is disbursing in return.
3. Don’t change the budget. It is the one actual expression of the programme that is objective and agreed. Once the lead organisation or the partners start trying to alter previously agreed payments or renegotiating schedules of activities, the consortium partners do not know where they stand or what they can rely on.
4. If you can, pay the partners to be partners. If you can pay consortium partners for attending meetings and participation in the business of the consortium, you’ll find that getting reporting out of them becomes much easier. There can be a temptation to put all the money into consortium activity, but don’t short-change governance. For smaller organisations, especially – that may not send someone on a full-time salary – participation money will make a world of difference to their capacity to engage.
5. Only connect. As the lead, the more you can communicate about the activities, opportunities and direction of the programme with individual partners, the more secure they’ll feel in you as a lead, and bring any issues to you then and there rather than store them up for a formal meeting.

And here’s how to be a great partner:

1. Do turn up, especially if you’re being paid to do so. If you don’t, the lead will start to feel that they don’t know how committed you are to the consortium and the programme, and thus feel less secure. By their nature, partnership meetings are not the most thrilling in the world, but they are vital to keep the programme moving forwards. Try to send the same person – other partners will be exasperated at someone with no prior knowledge of the project turning up to a second year consortium meeting.
2. Remember the lead has 100% of the risk and reward. If it all goes wrong, the funders will come to the lead for reassessment, remedial action and possibly even clawback of funds. You as a partner have only to deliver what is in your schedule of activities without worrying about whether the whole programme is on track to meet the funders’ targets or not.
3. Don’t try and be another lead. The programme is inevitably, bearing in mind the point above, shaped more by the lead than the other partners. It might not evolve in the way that you would have shaped it, but there is nothing to be gained by trying to influence other partners to support your view against the lead. Make your case, voice your views, but then accept the decisions made.
4. Stick to the schedule. If your sub-grant agreement matches payments against activities, and your community engagement project is running late, keep the lead in touch, so that in turn they can keep the external funders in the loop.
5. Leverage your participation. Though you’re not the lead, it’s still very much yours to discuss with other people and other potential partners. A good consortium gives the partners a sense that they are part of something bigger than just their own work, and should add substance to their own programmes.

Trevelyan Wright is the Executive Director of B Arts.
www.b-arts.org.uk