They’re all the rage aren’t they, big bets. Amalgamate huge sums of money, and bet the lot on a proven winner.

It’s not that the theory is wrong. But there is a catch. There is just the small matter of ‘amalgamate huge sums of money’.

For you, probably, amalgamating money of any size is a hell of a challenge.

But there is a way to make huge progress in your organisation: little bets.

Little bets (from the title of the book by Peter Sims) is a culture and process of innovating and testing fast, on a small scale. Failures are fine. Indeed, expected. They lead you away from the mistakes and towards the successes.

The not-for-profit sector is characterised by fear.

You do what you’ve always done, and then you can’t be criticised. Even when doing what you’ve always done is no longer working very well.

Test, test, test. Make little bets. Lots of them.

How many different ways could you be telling your story? Test them. Digital channels mean we can create and test meaningfully, quickly.

It’s time to bet small.