Our benchmarked surveys help charities of all sizes to improve their staff satisfaction and retention.
About Birdsong – we love what we do
Birdsong Charity Consulting has been supporting the UK charity sector since 2004, helping charities to work more effectively with their people. Birdsong’s approach is grounded in transparency, integrity, confidentiality, and respect for the individuals and charities we work with.
We believe that a compassionate and open working culture is essential to a healthy and successful organisation. This requires knowing what your people really think and feel and this is why Birdsong have become specialists in delivering staff and volunteer surveys for the charity sector. We enable leaders and HR professionals to gather the honest opinions of their people and to receive clear, benchmarked results that they can act upon.
Our Directors
Your main contact when working with Birdsong will be Emma Howard, Birdsong’s Managing Director. With over 20 years' experience working in the charity and social enterprise sector, Emma is no stranger to the complex, rewarding and challenging situations that can exist within the not-for-profit world. Her experience in senior charity roles included developing and communicating a scaled-up impact strategy to secure multi-million grants, initiating and leading global Monitoring & Evaluation and Project Management functions, as well as providing executive-level support to senior team peers and CEOs across a wide range of day-to-day and strategic/organisational issues.
A passion for using insightful data to help and accurately inform teams and stakeholders has always been at the core of Emma's work and she loves that Birdsong enables this so effectively for organisations throughout the charity sector, no matter their size or area of focus. Emma has been an integral part of Birdsong since 2017, proudly becoming co-owner and Managing Director in 2020.
Emma is well-supported by a small group of experts, including Birdsong’s co-owner Jules Howard. Jules is a science writer, data specialist and strategic project manager and has worked both directly and indirectly with the charity sector also for more than 20 years. As Birdsong’s Technical Director, Jules is especially interested in the overarching and in-depth insight that Birdsong’s work provides to the charitable sector.
Our Founders
Birdsong was founded by Sam Attenborough and Frances Hurst in 2004. Their blend of charity sector leadership and management consultancy expertise meant that Birdsong fast became a unique, trusted and valued partner to the UK charity sector. Sam and Frances built Birdsong on the belief that how people work together is just as important as what they do. This principle remains at the heart of Birdsong today.
Make contact with us
Discuss your survey requirements and/or your results:
A survey is just the beginning of a journey to improve staff satisfaction and engagement, so at Birdsong we will always be happy to help you understand your results and/or to talk with you about taking forward any challenges that may present themselves following a survey. You can contact Emma directly at emma@birdsong.co.uk to set up a call or to ask any questions you have over email.
Consultancy support:
If you require further support following a survey, or perhaps you aren’t yet ready to run a survey as you want to first address some cultural issues within your charity, then the experienced organisational and leadership consultants at our sister organisation 'Thoughtful Bear' (run by Birdsong’s co-founders Sam Attenborough and Frances Hurst) will be able to help. Visit their website to find out more, here.