‘Telehealth for the social sector’ Expert Bar launched by Benefolk

Benefolk’s Expert Bar is a new online service that will enable not-for-profit leaders and their teams to access a broad range of experienced, pre-vetted specialists via its website for 45, 60 or 90-minute online or phone-based consultations. The Expert Bar is also a capacity-building solution for grantmakers and funders, who are looking for ways to support and strengthen their partners. They will be able to buy vouchers for the service to provide to grantees.

The Expert Bar was launched on 5 September – International Day of Charity – in Melbourne at an event that included a pop-up, in-person ‘session experience’ of 70 expert consultations for NFPs and funders to try. Philanthropy Australia CEO Maree Sidey addressed the audience on how Australia can lead the way in capacity-building innovation. Maree said she was delighted to see Philanthropy Australia members such as The Ian Potter Foundation, the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation and the William Angliss Charitable Fund get behind the Expert Bar.

“What is particularly special about this work is that it is a one-stop shop for NFP leaders to be able to buy in expertise that has been curated, had extensive due diligence and is fit-for-purpose … provided by those who truly and deeply understand the nuance of our work,” she said.

“And it doesn’t stop there. In a truly amazing and innovating partnership with philanthropy, funders can fund subscriptions and vouchers for the organisations they support as an addition to their grant. I know all of you in the room understand what a major breakthrough innovation Benefolk’s Expert Bar is.

The launch included a panel discussion on capacity-building and wellbeing in the sector convened by Dr Wendy Scaife, Director of the Benefolk Foundation. Panellists were Katherine Ellis, CEO of Leadership Victoria, the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation CEO Peter Walton and Paul Conroy, The Ian Potter Foundation CEO. Via a video message, Sarah Davis AM, Chair of Benefolk Foundation, said the Expert Bar would be “game-changer”.

Q&A with Julia Keady, Benefolk Founder and CEO

In this special interview for Philanthropy Australia, Julia provides an extensive overview of how the innovation will work and her hopes for its impact to improve the well-being and sustainability of NFP leaders and organisational capacity across the sector.

1. What is the EXPERT BAR? Who is it for and how does it work?

Benefolk Expert Bar is a new online service that we liken to ‘Telehealth for the social sector’. It enables not-for-profit (NFP) leaders and their teams to access a broad range of experienced, pre-vetted specialists via our website for 45, 60 or 90 minute online or phone-based consultations.

Users can filter via 14 capability areas and more than 200 sub-capability areas. They simply book and pay (or use a prepaid voucher) and meet with the expert at the scheduled time. The sessions are private and confidential. Benefolk Expert Bar is an initiative of our charity arm, Benefolk Foundation, and all proceeds are used to support our free and low-cost resources for the sector.

2. What’s the data behind the design – why is it needed?

100% of organisation leaders and grantmakers we have spoken to over the last six years have all said that an ‘online expert bar’ would address a number of unmet needs in our sector. This is also backed by our observations and experiences.

Over the last six years, more than 15,000 organisations have accessed our free or low-cost resources. Yet only 300 or so have been able to access full fee-paying services through our social enterprise professional services area, which shows the significant gap that exists in the number of organisations that can afford expertise and assistance.

We know from ACNC data that 73.6% of charities are very small or small, and their advisory and expertise needs are unfortunately often overlooked. Benefolk Expert Bar is specifically designed to be a cost-effective way to bridge this gap and address the inequities in our sector around who can and cannot access professional advice and support.

3. The Expert Bar will offer the tailored, on-demand support to staff, from volunteer to CEO level. How many experts are there and what areas of expertise can they offer support on?

We are launching with 35 experts, who are all pre-vetted specialist consultants and professional service providers from our Benefolk Network. We will be adding new experts to the Benefolk Expert Bar every month over the coming year. Expertise ranges from governance to fundraising, marketing to technology, human resources to financial management, social enterprise to NDIS and everything in between!

They are the sector’s very best providers, who we have carefully curated and selected. They are respected and experienced leaders in their fields, such as Kristi Mansfield of Seer Data & Analytics, the team from leading grants management group Strategic Grants, outcomes and impact measurement specialists like Sandy Blackburn and Elena Mogilevski, leading fundraising and partnerships specialists like Teisha Archer and Linda Garnett, and leadership specialists like Elise Sernik from Leadership Space. All our Benefolk Expert Bar experts have a minimum of seven years’ experience, have been reference checked seven times, and on average, bring 15 years’ lived experience of the NFP sector.

4. How affordable is it for NFPs? How do the vouchers work and how can funders support organisations to access the service for capacity building?

The service starts at $165 for a small organisation for 45 minutes and our experts have all kindly offered low-bono services to support this initiative. We have kept it as affordable as can, knowing that our sector’s great funders and grantmakers can also subsidise sessions – like Telehealth!

Users can buy one-off sessions, as well as bundles and subscriptions for their organisations. So a CEO (or a grantmaker) might buy a bundle of vouchers that can be used by their team to boost their capabilities and capacity. It’s an effective way to bring in the extra resources you need, especially in areas where there are skill shortages in the sector, such as fundraising, governance and technology. Or for first-time executive officers running small organisations who need extra expertise at their fingertips.

We’re excited that funders and grantmakers can see the impact this will have. The Ian Potter Foundation, Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation, Beyond Bank and William Angliss Charitable Fund helped us develop the concept and launch it this week, and some have bought vouchers for charities and causes they care about.

We also have funders talking about buying vouchers to distribute when they have to send unsuccessful emails related to grant applications, or as ‘add-ons’ to programmatic grants and also buying vouchers for organisations. A funder might structure their grants as 20 grants, and another 100 voucher packs of Benefolk Expert Bar sessions as part of their grantmaking. Funders can reach out to our team to set this up.

We know from speaking with other funders and grantmakers that these solutions are supportive of their mental health and wellbeing too. Many often feel stressed and overwhelmed by the requests they are unable to support, high-pressure conversations and exposure to confronting information and situations. It’s not often considered that many funders are under-resourced themselves for various reasons. A wellbeing uplift for all in our sector is paramount now more than ever.

5. How was it developed? What do you hope its impact will be?

Benefolk Expert Bar has been developed by our inhouse tech and resources team over the last 18 months. It was tested with 18 charities in March 2024. We have also used it recently in our Income Diversification Webinar Series where users were able to attend a webinar and then debrief with the relevant expert. It provides for efficient use of everyone’s time. This comment is indicative of the type of feedback we received in the trials: “Real world accessible advice that I can immediately implement.”

Our goal is ultimately to see a wellbeing uplift across the social sector. So that leaders, regardless of their organisation’s size, budget, cause or location, feel supported to achieve their mission more efficiently and effectively. It’s why we do everything we do at Benefolk – our network, services, resources and advocacy. Our impact is also enabling more and better capacity and capability solutions for the sector, and creating the collaborative ecosystem required to support organisations at scale.

6. How are you feeling about getting up the Expert Bar up and running? How does its objectives fit with those of Benefolk’s mission?

For me personally, it’s a long-held dream come true. It’s taken six years to build the specialist expert network, governance, team, partners and the sector’s trust to bring this type of service together. Our team, partners and experts are all super excited to see this come into fruition and it’s wonderful to see so many people care about this initiative and the support it will provide.

The Expert Bar’s purpose and objectives are core to why Benefolk exists and our mission to eradicate changemaker burnout. It’s also the type of innovation that our sector needs now more than ever to wrap our arms around change-makers who are working in high levels of complexity and change – and at the risk of mental health and wellbeing crises themselves. Personally, I would like to see 30 other funders and grantmakers come on board over the next few months, so we can collectively enable 10,000 vouchers on Benefolk Expert Bar for 2025. Imagine the impact we will have!

This short video provides a snapshot of how the Expert Bar will work.