Turnaround · Income growth · Training and coaching

Steady hands for charities facing change

Danellen Consulting helps charities, voluntary and public sector organisations across Ireland and the UK become financially sustainable, well led and ready for the future. We work alongside your leaders and board, deliver focused projects when you need extra capacity, and train and coach your people.

Talk to Veronica How we work
£25m+
income secured for organisations and clients
£45m+
of projects supported to delivery
5
organisations led through turnaround, restructuring or transition
30 yrs
experience across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland

When to call us

Boards bring us in when the pressure is on

Every assignment starts with the situation an organisation is facing. These are the ones we know best.

Leadership gap

Your Chief Executive has gone

Support for your leadership team and board from day one, interim cover if you need it, and a well-run recruitment and handover when the time is right.

Financial pressure

Income isn't covering costs

A clear picture of where you stand, a route to break-even and new, sustainable income streams.

Turnaround

The organisation is at risk

A clear turnaround plan, worked through with your leadership team, to stabilise finances, structures and stakeholder confidence.

Growth

You're growing faster than your systems

Operations, policies, financial controls and teams that can carry the next stage.

Merger or new model

You're exploring a merger or a new model

Business modelling, due diligence, careful stakeholder engagement and a plan the board can own.

Governance

Your board needs new skills and stronger footing

Skills audits, trustee recruitment and onboarding, board development, risk management and the assurance trustees need.

How we work

Four ways to work with us

Most clients start by working alongside us, so the skills and systems stay with their organisation. Where you need extra capacity, we deliver it for you.

Done with you

Work alongside your leaders

A few days a month, over a set period

Your team does the work, with the plan, challenge and experience behind them.

  • Turnaround partnership for your CEO and board
  • Strategic and governance support
  • Eight Pillars, our income programme

Done for you

Focused projects

Clear scope and end date

Veronica and specialist associates deliver a defined piece of work.

  • Strategies, funding bids and business cases
  • Communications and stakeholder plans
  • Restructuring, remodelling or merger preparation

Develop your people

Training and coaching

Tailored programmes

Leadership, governance, fundraising and communications training for teams and boards, plus executive and leadership wellbeing coaching.

By arrangement

Interim and fractional leadership

Selected assignments

For a small number of organisations each year, Veronica steps in as interim or fractional Chief Executive through a leadership gap, turnaround or period of growth.

Training and coaching

Helping leaders, boards and teams lead well under pressure

Danellen's training and coaching arm builds the skills, confidence and resilience organisations need to thrive. Every programme is designed around the organisation and the people taking part.

Training

  • Leadership developmentLeadership, confidence, communication and managing conflict.
  • Governance and board trainingTrustee induction, roles and responsibilities, board effectiveness and risk.
  • Fundraising and income generationPractical skills for staff, volunteers and trustees.
  • Strategic communicationsTelling your organisation's story to funders, partners and the public.
  • Compassionate, people-centred managementBuilding teams that perform and stay well.

Coaching

  • Executive coachingFor chief executives and senior leaders, including through transition and change.
  • Leadership wellbeing coachingFor leaders carrying sustained pressure or stress, or going through a major transition, using an integrative, therapeutic approach.

Coaching from someone who has led through it · Practising since 2011 · NLP Master Practitioner

Training can be delivered for a single team, a whole organisation or a board, and alongside any of our other services.

Ask about training for your team

Building sustainable income

Sound familiar?

The challenges charity leaders bring to us most often.

Eight Pillars: our income programme

We work alongside your team rather than doing it for you, so the skills, systems and confidence stay with your organisation. Life gets easier, and you can focus on the people you exist to support.

How it works Usually delivered over three months, or faster if you need it, with a review at the end and ongoing support as needed. The time commitment is shaped around your team.
  1. PurposeClarity on who you serve, how you serve them and why it matters - the foundation of a strong case for support.
  2. StoryWhere you came from, why you care and where you're going, told in a way that moves donors, funders and corporate partners to give.
  3. VoiceThe right words, key messages and a communications plan, so your whole team can share your vision, work and successes with confidence.
  4. FundersThe right mix of grants, contracts, trusts, corporate partners and donors for your work, and why each one should support you.
  5. BlueprintA practical fundraising blueprint setting out who does what and when, with the systems to cultivate donors, secure funding and plan ahead.
  6. PeopleTraining and coaching that build skills and confidence across your board, staff and volunteers, so new ways of working stick.
  7. ImpactSimple ways to measure the difference you make, with data and stories that satisfy funders, strengthen future bids and show your board what's working.
  8. ExpertiseA senior fundraiser and former chief executive alongside you throughout, with specialist associates when you need them.

Services

What we do

Every engagement is tailored to the organisation's needs, priorities and stage of development.

Leadership and strategy

  • Turnaround partnership - guiding your CEO and board through crisis and change
  • Strategic and operational planning - plans boards can own and teams can deliver
  • Organisational change and restructuring - people-centred change that builds capacity
  • Mergers and new business models - business modelling, due diligence and a well-managed transition, whether you are merging, taking on another organisation or remodelling
  • Interim and fractional leadership - by arrangement, for selected assignments

Income and growth

  • Fundraising and income generation - income built into the core of operations
  • Public sector contracts and commissioning - developing, bidding for and negotiating contracts with government
  • Capital projects and business cases - feasibility studies and funding bids that deliver new facilities
  • Income systems and CRM - processes, administration and agreements that make fundraising repeatable
  • Marketing, communications and public affairs - a stronger profile and a stronger voice

Operations, finance and governance

  • Operational systems, policies and procedures - compliant ways of working that reduce risk
  • Financial planning and controls - budgets, reporting and safeguards that protect resources
  • Governance, risk and board development - skills audits, trustee recruitment and onboarding, and confident boards with the assurance they need
  • Programme and project management - complex work delivered on track

People and impact

  • Executive coaching, training and capacity building - skills that stay after we leave
  • Stakeholder and cross-community engagement - trust built across government, funders and communities
  • Social value and impact measurement - clear evidence of the difference you make

Associates

A wider team when you need it

Veronica leads every engagement personally. Where a project needs specialist input, Danellen brings in trusted associates, so you get one point of contact and the right expertise at each stage.

HR and people

Specialist HR support for restructuring, consultations, policies and employment matters.

Finance and accountancy

Financial systems that give you real information for planning, not just another set of accounts.

Business modelling

Robust financial and business models to test options, plan for sustainability and support decisions.

Marketing and communications

Design, digital, social media and PR support to put your communications plan into action.

Events and conferences

Conferences, launches, supporter and fundraising events, planned and delivered from start to finish.

Mergers and remodelling

Specialist support for mergers, transfers of services and new business models, from due diligence to transition.

Track record

The situation, and what changed

The experience behind every Danellen engagement: organisations Veronica has led through turnaround and change, and the programmes Danellen supports today.

Animal welfare charity

Interim Chief Executive and Strategic Advisor · Northern Ireland · 2025-present

The situation

An animal rescue and rehoming charity needing to stabilise its operations, put its finances on a sustainable footing, strengthen governance and welfare standards, and prepare for a new site and permanent leadership.

Operational breakevenwithin 12 months, through efficiencies and new incomeNew team in placerestructure complete, with a stronger senior team ready for a new site

Ulster Orchestra

Director of External Relations · 2013-2016

The situation

Northern Ireland's only full-time professional orchestra, a £4.5m organisation with 80 staff, facing closure amid a funding crisis. Veronica was one of a three-person turnaround team.

Savedfrom closure, with a new business model, new income streams and new financial partnersRebornas a treasure for everyone in Northern Ireland, through the Music Room, launched at Stormont in 2016 and now its Learning and Community Engagement programmeUnique in the UKa union agreement negotiated so musicians deliver outreach and education as part of their orchestral schedule

Rural Support

Chief Executive · 2020-2023 (four years)

The situation

A charity supporting farm families, taken on weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic. It needed a new direction and vision, a way to maximise its impact, and to grow and restructure to deliver it. Veronica set a new five-year strategy, created the NI Farm Support Hub with DAERA funding, negotiated contracts with DAERA, the Department of Health, the PHA and health trusts, and launched new services with the Agriculture and Health Ministers.

3×financial and staffing capacity, plus a new wraparound model of support28,500+farmers and family members reached in the charity's 20th anniversary year22 organisationsbrought together in a new Agri-Rural Health Forum, including the Health and Safety Executive NI, putting farmers' mental health at the forefront of the industryRoyal visitHRH The Prince of Wales, now King Charles III, guest of honour at the 20th anniversary celebrations in 2022

SOS Bus NI

Interim Chief Executive and Strategic Advisor to the Board · 2024-2025 (20 months)

The situation

A frontline crisis intervention charity working with people experiencing homelessness and those affected by addiction, through more than 100 trained volunteers. It needed to stabilise its finances, rebuild its structures and restore stakeholder confidence.

Strongerfinances stabilised, governance rebuilt and a new permanent Chief Executive in place2,500+crisis interventions a year across night-time, daytime and event welfare servicesNew daytime serviceCompassion in Action, taken from pilot to National Lottery funding, and the Compass Alliance launched with city-centre businesses

IFA Farmer Health Checks

Concept, funding, programme support and independent evaluation · 2024-present

The situation

Brought in by the Irish Farmers' Association to create the concept for a national farmer health programme in the Republic of Ireland and secure its funding from DAFM. Delivered with Croí, the HSE and Teagasc, it has grown from a pilot to a nationwide programme.

€800,000+raised for the programmeAlmost 5,000health checks at 87 events in three years; Public Health Initiative of the Year 20254 in 10people checked in 2026 had raised blood pressure readings, with 41 advised to see their GP straight away

NI Women in Agriculture Taskforce

Lobbying, training and taskforce support · Ulster Farmers' Union and DAERA

The situation

Women make up 51% of CAFRE's full-time higher education agriculture students, but just 3.8% of DAERA Business Development Group members. The work takes forward the NI Assembly's "Breaking the Grass Ceiling" recommendations, starting with a leadership programme for women in farming.

DAERA fundingsecured by lobbying government for change, to set up the Taskforce and roll out the trainingUnanimouscross-party support in the NI Assembly100%of pilot participants would recommend the programme
Veronica Morris, Founder and Managing Director of Danellen Consulting

About

Veronica Morris, Founder and Managing Director

Veronica has more than 30 years' experience across the not-for-profit, public, arts, health and agricultural sectors in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. She has been a Chief Executive, an interim Chief Executive and a director, and has been instrumental in leading five organisations through turnaround, restructuring, merger preparation and leadership transition.

She founded Danellen Consulting on a simple belief: leadership must hold heart and strategy in equal measure. She moves quickly to understand what is really happening, steadies the organisation, and builds the income, governance, systems and communications it needs to thrive, working side by side with boards, staff and funders.

  • Non-Executive Board MemberNorthern Ireland Environment Agency (DAERA)
  • Chair, Resource & People CommitteeNIEA Board
  • Former Chief ExecutiveRural Support
  • TEDx speakerand Executive Coach
  • MA European BusinessUlster University
  • BA (Hons) Marketingand Chartered Institute of Marketing Diploma

Sectors

Where we work

Charities, voluntary and community organisations, social enterprises and public bodies across Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Great Britain, Europe and the US.

Health and wellbeing Mental health Agriculture and rural affairs Arts and culture Animal welfare Education and training Community and voluntary Children and families Environment Public sector

Contact

Facing a challenge or a period of change?

Start with a confidential conversation. Tell us what you're facing and we'll tell you honestly how we could help.

Emailveronica@danellen.com
Phone+44 7552 452841
LinkedInVeronica Morris
Email Veronica