Thread AUDIT - SMall Charity Week 2026
Apply for a free AI and Process Audit
We're giving three small UK charities (fundraising income <£1m) a full Processes & AI Audit, normally £2,500, for free. You have a conversation about how your charity really works and you'll get a clear, comprehensive report. It will show you exactly where you can automate processes, improve efficiency and give your team hours back for your mission. We'll show you what it would cost, the software you need, the costs and any policy decisions you need to make.
Applications close: Monday 6th July
Selected charities announced: Wednesday 8th July
Free information webinar - what the audit is, what you get and how to apply. Thursday 25th June.
We ask you a few simple questions that should take less than 15 minutes to complete.
We read every application and select the charities where an audit will do the most good — and every applicant gets something genuinely useful back, whether selected or not.
What the audit is
One conversation. Five areas. A report you can act on.
A 60–90 minute discovery session with a Thread consultant, AI-assisted analysis of what we hear, and a written report your whole team can understand. This will outline the quick wins first and we'll explain in jargon-free language. We look across the five areas where small charities lose the most time:
Finance
Repetitive processing, reconciliation and reporting that quietly eats your week.
Governance & trustees
Compliance tracking and the chasing that goes with it. Plus board reports drafted from data you already hold.
HR & volunteers
Onboarding, offboarding, 1:1s, training records etc. Processes built once, then run themselves.
Service delivery
Capturing and using information safely, including the sensitive data where the line matters most.
Fundraising & marketing
Story capture, supporter communications and event admin like medical forms. All handled, stored safely, deleted on time.
If your application is successful
What selected charities receive
Discovery session
60–90 minutes with a Thread consultant who knows charities, not just technology. Recorded with your consent, solely to produce your report.
Your written report
Your quick wins, prioritised tools, projected capacity gain in real hours, and a data-ethics layer that's honest about where AI shouldn't go.
Review call
A 30-minute walkthrough so the report doesn't sit in a drawer — you'll leave knowing what to do first, and what it costs.
Support & training
You'll be able to implement our recommendations on your own, but if you need help then we'll give you a special discount on our services to help you put the audit into action.
The full audit is a £2,500 piece of work. For three selected charities, it's free.
How it works
From application to report in four steps
Apply — five minutes, no essays
Tell us who you are, where time leaks in your charity, and what you'd do if you got it back. That's the heart of it.
We select thre charities
We're looking for real, specific pain and a clear sense of mission. Selection is at our discretion, and we confirm the outcome with every applicant by Wednesday 8th July.
Discovery session
One 60–90 minute conversation about how your charity actually runs — across finance, governance, HR, service delivery and fundraising.
Report and review call
You get the written report and a 30-minute call to walk it through. Then it's yours — act on it with us, with someone else, or on your own.
If you're not selected
Nobody walks away empty-handed
Free places are limited, but every charity that applies and opts in to hear from us gets real value back:
Your biggest opportunity, spotted
A short summary of the single biggest opportunity we saw in your application — yours to keep, whatever you decide next.
Our money-back guarantee
Commission the full audit for £2,500 and if it doesn't surface at least three worthwhile quick wins, you get your money back. Simple as that.
An audit that pays for itself
Go on to commission implementation within 90 days and the £2,500 is credited in full against it — so the audit effectively costs you nothing.
Why so confident? Because the audit is built to find time, and small charities are full of opportunitiesit — compliance chasing, onboarding admin, board reporting, event paperwork. The report shows you the hours, the tools and the cost, in plain English.
Your numbers
What could the time be worth?
Why so confident? Because the audit is built to find time and we know there are opportunities to harness technology to help, but many charities don't have the internal expertise and can't afford consultancy support. We're bridging that gap and using AI to help by automating processes, workflows and connecting tools together based on our work with hundreds of charities over the last decade. We have transparent pricing for on-going help and support if you need it.
A loaded cost — salary plus on-costs, divided by working hours. Volunteers' time counts too.
Over three years, that's around £12,240 of staff time pointed back at your mission.
Illustrative only, based on the kinds of savings we typically look for in small charities — not a promise. The audit exists to find your figures, and the £2,500 fee comes with the guarantee above.
How we worked this out +
Assumed hours back per month, per area, with better processes and the right tools:
- Finance: ~4 hours/month (invoice processing, reconciliation, routine reporting)
- Governance & trustees: ~3 hours/month (compliance chasing, board report first drafts)
- HR & volunteers: ~4 hours/month (onboarding, 1:1 admin, training records)
- Service delivery: ~3 hours/month (capturing and finding information safely)
- Fundraising & marketing: ~3 hours/month (story capture, supporter comms, event admin)
Monthly hours = the areas you ticked, added up. Value per year = hours × your hourly cost × 12. Payback = £2,500 ÷ monthly value. Estimates are deliberately conservative and assume nothing about your setup — which is exactly why the audit starts with a conversation, not a spreadsheet.
Who should apply
Built for small charities with stretched teams
- You're a registered UK charity (England & Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland).
- Your team is small and your to-do list isn't — repetitive admin is eating hours that belong to your mission.
- You're curious about improving processes, using automation and exploring AI but want honest, charity-literate advice — not hype, and not a sales pitch dressed up as a report.
- Excited, nervous, sceptical or split — every starting point is welcome. You don't need to have touched an AI tool in your life.
- You can spare one 60–90 minute conversation and a 30-minute review call.
Questions, answered plainly
FAQ
Is it really free? What's the catch?
For selected charities, genuinely free. No card details, no auto-enrolment into anything. We're open about why: this is the first cohort of a new Thread service, and a small group of real charities helps us make and shape the service. You get a £2,500 audit; we get sharper questions and, if you're happy, a case study.
How do you choose who gets a place?
We read every application and select for clear, real pain and a strong sense of what you'd do with the time you got back. We also pick a deliberate spread — different sizes, different focus areas — so selection is at our discretion rather than first-come-first-served. It's an application, not a lottery: what you write is what we consider.
We've barely touched AI. Should we still apply?
Yes — especially you. The audit assumes nothing. If your team is nervous or split about AI, that goes into the report too: there's a whole layer on where the data-safety and ethical lines sit for your charity specifically.
What happens to our data and the recording?
The discovery session is recorded and transcribed solely to produce your report, with your consent confirmed at the start of the call. We don't need access to your databases or supporter records to do the audit — we work from the conversation.
How much of our time does it take?
About fifteen minutes to apply, 60–90 minutes for the discovery session, and 30 minutes for the review call. Roughly two and a half hours, total, for a report that's designed to hand you back hours every week.
What happens after the audit?
That's up to you. The report is written to be actionable whoever does the work. If you'd like Thread to implement any of it — automating compliance chasing, onboarding workflows, board-report drafting, story capture and more — we'll quote it plainly, and paid-audit fees are credited against implementation within 90 days.
What if we're not selected this round?
If you've opted in, you'll get a short note on the biggest opportunity we spotted in your application, free. You can also commission the full audit on standard terms: £2,500, with our guarantee — at least three worthwhile quick wins or your money back — and the fee credited in full against implementation commissioned within 90 days.
The small print
Application terms
- Open to registered UK charities only. One application per charity.
- Three charities will be selected at Thread Fundraising's discretion against the published criteria. This is an application round, not a contest of chance — no entry fee, no purchase, and the decision is final.
- The free audit has no cash alternative.
Five minutes now. Hours back, every week.
Applications close Monday 29th June. Tell us where the time goes — we'll show you how to get it back.
No jargon. No hype. No obligation after the report.
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