# OR Society offers free services to help charities build back better

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2021/04/13/or-society-offers-free-services-to-help-charities-build-back-better/
- Published: 2021-04-13T11:33:02+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**The OR Society is looking for charities who would benefit from their team of expert
consultants for free. The Pro Bono OR service offers skilled consultants who can
help solve complex problems related to data, strategy and day to day operations 
using their OR (operational research) skills and methodologies.**

The OR (Operational Research) Society is reminding charities of its free service
as third sector organisations continue to grapple with the impact of lockdowns and
emerging into an uncertain environment.

Charities are facing issues ranging from meeting changing patterns of need, refining
new supply chains, and running operations with strict social distancing considerations.

## Advertisement

Ruth Kaufman OBE, an experienced charity chair and a co-founder of Pro Bono OR, 
said:

> “One of the largest barriers that many third sector organisations face is not 
> even realising that help is available. They might have a tricky strategic tangle
> to negotiate a path through, or a logistical process that is hard to resource,
> and not realise that OR is the perfect approach to help them articulate the need,
> make robust decisions or design better systems.”

## What is OR?

OR is a scientific discipline used widely in the public and private sector for improving
insight, efficiency, and effectiveness.

OR Society video explains what Operational Research is all about

## Webinars to showcase the help available

To explain how it can help, the OR Society is hosting a [series of webinars](https://bit.ly/ProBonoWebinar)
that showcase some of the skills and methods expert operational research consultants
will use to address and solve complex problems.

Ruth Kaufman explains:

> “The success of Pro Bono OR since it was founded ten years ago has been phenomenal.
> We hope that our webinars can help charities to better understand the kinds of
> problems that OR can address and reduce the barriers that prevent them making 
> use of it.”

The learned society is itself a charity. Over the last 10 years it has helped charities
such as Crimestoppers, The RSPCA, and Diabetes UK. Crimestoppers said of its work
with Pro Bono OR: “We’ve benefited hugely from your work and support in all areas
of the project. And from an organisational perspective you’ve enabled us to take
a highly professional approach to increasing the efficiency of our charity.” 

Amy Hughes is the Pro Bono OR Coordinator and she said:

> “OR Society members love using the skills they utilise in a work environment to
> help charities. We now have over 1000 volunteers ready to help charities of any
> size.”

Find out about the [Pro Bono OR webinars](https://bit.ly/ProBonoWebinar) or contact
[am********@**********ty.com](https://fundraising.co.uk/2021/04/13/or-society-offers-free-services-to-help-charities-build-back-better/am********@**********ty.com)
for more information about how Pro Bono OR could help your organisation.