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A full house for our Fundraising Fundamentals training as we took a big group of think tankers through a whole of day of core fundraising knowledge and skills. We covered who and why do donors fund think tanks, how to generate leads, how to get your introduction, how to make the ask and how to manage the donor relationship so you successfully secure repeat funding.

In January our Regulation Working Group met online for a detailed catch up. This is an ad hoc network that we call together every few months and where our members can discuss the regulatory environment think tanks operate in, any current issues or changes and share their thinking on what organisations in the sector need to be aware of and planning for.

Paul Swinney, late of Centre for Cities and now Chief Economist at The Data City returned to the think tank world to tell us a bit more about what Big Data can offer policy research. He showed us how it can make your research go faster and deeper and how it was already being harnessed by other think tanks. The recording is now in our webinar archive.

A brand new training session was run for the first time in December. This training is aimed at those working in the communications teams of think tanks and is split over two sessions to fully explore the topic. Part 1 looked at the purpose of a comms strategy, defining comms goals, understanding and mapping audiences and developing a strong key message. Part 2 will take place in the new year.

Our Operations & HR Network (one of our most established networks) met in-person just before Christmas for a big meeting covering everything from our new compliance master list that everyone has contributed to, diversity in recruiting, AI policies, salary discussions with staff and many many more.

Earlier in the year we ran a series of workshops with the Active Bystander Training company. This was in response to the recent changes to sexual harassment in the workplace legislation. Rather than each think tank sourcing their own training provider we took a recommendation from one of our members and arranged for several sessions that the think tanks could book a number of spaces on depending on their staff needs at the time. This November we hosted a further session for new joiners or those who missed the earlier sessions.

Hannah Corbett, former Head of Communications and think tank PBE joined us in November and took us through the key learnings, opportunities and pitfalls of rebranding a think tank and what to consider before embarking on such a project, based on PBE’s recent experience.

In November we held our popular media training with a full house! This is a very intensive all-day session that takes think tankers through the different formats of media interviews including press, radio and TV. We also cover how to really hone your message, how to deal with difficult questions and what journalists are looking for.

November saw our inauagural Smart Thinking Think Tank Awards ceremony held in central London. We had 51 think tanks apply for the 8 award categories and a stellar judging panel, chaired by David Gauke, to decide the winners. The awards culminated in a high-profile ceremony on 12th November where we not only found out the winners but also held a reception for the leaders and thinkers in the UK policy sector.

This month’s webinar was aimed at those working in the operations side of things. We had strategic IT company Nutbourne come and take us through what a think tank needs to be aware of when thinking about their cyber security and the items to prioritise. The webinar was especially tailored for think tanks as generally smaller organisations with limited budgets but important research to safeguard.

Our biggest network! This is for Researchers and Senior Researchers where they can gather and meet lots of other people working in research, across lots of different think tanks. We have a casual sandwich lunch where everyone gets the chance to mingle and then we break off into groups to work on a short, fun policy challenge!

Dani Payne from think tank Social Market Foundation ran a great webinar for our members on how to talk about policy on TikTok. And not just how to talk about it but  how to start building an audience for your work on the platform as well as letting us in on some of the things you need to consider to have success.

Every 6 months we host the leaders of our think tank members for a CEO lunch. It is a chance for those running think tanks to get together and discuss current challenges, discuss wider sector issues and have a general discussion with others in the same important role.

For the second year we hosted our popular Interns Showcase! An idea from one of our members, this is where we invite interns or research assistants from a range of think tanks to present to our members on a particular policy topic they have been working on. It gives the interns a chance to practice public speaking and is a great way to round off their placements. For the audience we get a chance to hear about lots of different policy areas.

Rob Colvile, Sunday Times columnist and former head of the Telegraph comment desk plus think tank head, led a brilliant webinar in June on how to go about crafting, writing and pitching op-ed pieces to newspapers and other outlets, as well as general tips on from a very practically-focused Q&A!

Our latest people management session featured some very lively discussion and excellent roleplaying! Attendees had the chance to go through several roleplay exercises – to practise both delegating and having difficult conversations. We moved them to new partners throughout the day and it was great to see everyone growing in confidence as they practised more and more.

Sarah Carter-Bell from Parliament’s Knowledge Exchange Unit joined us for May’s webinar and led us through how think tankers can better plug in better to Parliament and boost the impact and reach of their research. Sarah covered the areas of Parliament that draw on research, Select Committees and APPG engagement plus a very thorough Q&A!

In April it was time for our Researcher Network lunch that brings together both researchers and comms professionals for a bit of networking, a bit of lunch and (a new addition) a bit of team work. We split the attendees into 5 groups and asked them to imagine they had just set up a think tank and had their team and office in place – what would be the first 3 things they would then do. Lots of interesting answers!

At the end of April we were brought in by the policy and communications team at Historic Houses to provide bespoke media training to their staff and trustees. We spent a lot of time tailoring the content and, as a result, saw huge progression across the day with everyone leaving much more confident in dealing with the media and with a much clearer idea of what Historic House’s core message was.

Jonathan Simons talked to us about what a focus group does, how to construct one, how to run one, and what you can and can’t you get out of them. A brilliant, practical session for anyone curious about focus groups!

By popular demand, in National Mentoring Month, Smart Thinking launched its very own mentoring programme! We realised that a mentoring programme would be particularly valuable in a sector as small and unique as the think tank world, where there is no one set career path. A mentor offers the chance to learn more about how your career could progress and the many different options you have to develop it.  Applications are now open to be both a mentee and a mentor.

Just before Christmas we launched our latest member network – to add to the growing collection – and here were some of the members. This network is for those leading or playing a key role in the fundraising and development side of their organisation, whether that be as Head of Fundraising or as a research lead with a strong fundraising component in their role. The discussion covered changes in the funding landscape, the challenges that presents and how best to make fundraising everyone’s responsibility within a policy organisation.