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Is your resource fit for small charities- SMALL, a small charity governance practitioner’s test.
I have been thinking about how to provide guidance to creating resources for small charities that stick and are useful. It distils some of my thinking from my recent article on AI resources in the sector and from Charity Excellence’s recent survey finding- only 2% of small charities can easily find the help they need, while 72% say the right help would have major impact.
So what does the right help look like?
I have developed the SMALL method, an easy checklist or scorecard to determine whether your resource is usable for small charities or whether you should use a resource, from my work across five small charities as someone who uses these tools all the time. Run it through AI if you wish to produce a diagnostic for any resource, but always quickly sense check the data:
Step 1: Name the resource’s intended use case. Be specific – “AI policy for a small UK charity beginning to use AI tools” rather than “AI guidance”.
Step 2: Mark as Yes/No against that use case using the five letters.
The five letters and test questions:
- Scalable – Does it still work as a charity grows and contracts?
- Measurable – Does using it produce something tangible — evidence, a record, a decision, or a plan — without extra effort?
- Accessible – Can someone find it easily and start using it in 10 minutes?
- Light-touch – Does it work without training, jargon, or specialist knowledge?
- Low-cost – Is it free or affordable on a shoestring budget?
Notes:
SMALL tests usability for a stated use case. It doesn’t test other factors.
Measurable’s threshold is set lower because some legitimate resources – orientation guidance, regulator updates, sector explainers – produce understanding or diagnostics rather than artefacts. They can be recommendable when well-executed even though they don’t generate fillable outputs.
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