What charities can learn from the England women’s football team

Watching the progress of the England women’s football team through the Euros forcibly reminded me of how the average charity operates. Let me explain.

Let’s be honest, the England team’s performance was horribly erratic.

An early loss at the start of the tournament had many of us doubting we’d get far. And in almost every game we played, we were behind, in most cases almost up to the wire (in fact, we were only ahead for about four minutes across the whole of the knockout stage), and yet somehow or other a player would pull a goal out of the bag and the whole game changed.

This feels like when our charity fails to win an important funding bid.

We feel the intense pressure, much like a penalty shootout, that if we don’t score the next bid we might be out of the game.

After Beth Mead’s second attempt in the final shootouts was saved and everyone was on tenterhooks, Alex Greenwood stepped up and scored.

This is so like when all of a sudden a bit of funding that we applied for months ago, and completely forgot about, suddenly materialises and gives us hope.

All three of England’s knockout games went to extra time.

Isn’t this so reminiscent of the endless rewrites of papers to get a decision from the board; the hours spent wrestling with a funder application which is asking for different information from every other funder, or wants the same information but just presented differently, and the deadline is the next day.

And let’s not forget the indomitable Lucy Bronze, who played the entire tournament with a fractured tibia.

Just like we keep going even when we are beyond knackered and feeling, frankly, wounded but know that our presence is needed and will help our team.

And on top of all that, trying to tactfully remind the board that they are not supposed to behave like critical fans shouting instructions from the stands.

They’re part of the team helping to deliver the results, even if they’re pitchside, so less of the criticism and more of the support, please!

Finally, in my view, Spain were by far and away the better performing team, not least being considerably less stressful to watch than England!

But were they the better team in the end? Is teamwork really about flawless performance or is it gritty, grubby determination in the face of all obstacles?

The England team just refused to give up. They refused to believe they couldn’t win.

So, they scrapped and scraped and fought through every setback and every edge-of-your-seat moment – in pretty much every match, but especially the final.

That’s what we do in our sector. Whatever is thrown at us we keep going.

We find a way to extend the time, protect our goal, get through the defence and finally score. Because we also refuse to believe we’re out of the game.

So what if we end up in the charity equivalent of a penalty shootout after extra time, hearts pounding with fear.

We don’t give up. That’s what matters.

This article was originally published on the Third Sector website. Take a look here.