Charity & Nonprofit Coaching
Book a SessionYou’re all about doing good.
I’m all about helping you do it.
You’re driven by making a difference, not by making a million. You want to make the world a better place, help people and change lives.
I get it. I’ve been leading and developing charities and nonprofits for more than 25 years.
Now, I coach charity and nonprofit folk to develop the methods and mindset to maximise impact, both in your own life and in the lives of others.
People like Maddy, who’s not a fan of Maltesers (my favourites!) and Edd, who once had tea with the Queen.
Coaching with Steve is transformational! It gave me the space to reflect, problem-solve and become confident in my ability to lead the charity. Our sessions were productive, thought-provoking and inspiring.
Being an experienced VCSE sector leader, Steve intuitively knows the challenges faced by charity CEOs and helps them to reflect and see the significant impact they make.
Steve coaches with care, kindness and humour and role models positive behaviours. He unlocks the potential in those he coaches leading to immediate results but also long-term change for individuals and, in turn, organisations.
If any of my contacts within the charity sector are thinking about coaching for themselves or for their teams, then I can not recommend Steve Allman highly enough.
His knowledge of our sector and the challenges its leaders face is second to none but his style, approach, skills, insight and personality create a really powerful environment that challenges and supports in absolute equal measure.
I really value the time I get to spend with him and I know that I’m a better leader and person for it.

But doing good ain’t always easy.
• Your work is often aligned with your values. You can stop working, but you can’t stop caring.
• You’re driven by purpose. Why waste time relaxing when you could send an email which might just save the world?
• You’ve put your own hopes and dreams on the back burner because you’re too busy helping everyone else fulfil theirs.
• You love helping people, so you find it hard to say no. You take on too much and end up stressed, tired and burned out.
• You’re always firefighting. You can’t see the wood for the trees. There are lots of trees – and they’re all on fire.
• You wanted to change the world but some days you’re so busy you barely have time to change your socks.
Good news! Coaching can help.
Coaching can help you change how you think and react, which changes your behaviour and your actions.
Coaching will help you work towards your goals, overcome your challenges and improve your understanding of yourself.
My approach is based on how our brains work. Expect good conversations, challenging questions, deep listening and some tools and techniques, if that’s your thing.
As a coach who specialises in coaching charity and nonprofit folk, you also get the benefit of my own experience leading and developing charities for over twenty-five years.
It seems to be a winning combination. My clients say coaching’s helped them in so many ways. Gavin’s gone all Frank Sinatra and says it’s helped him lead “his way”. Dee says she can’t recommend me highly enough. Aww, you guys.
Coaching with Steve has helped to restore my confidence following a challenging few months in a previous role and develop my leadership skills and style as I transition into being a first-time charity Chief Executive.
Steve has provided the perfect balance of insightful and honest critical reflection and supportive encouragement. Our sessions have enabled me to feel more self-assured in leading ‘my way’.
Steve’s input has enabled me to learn more about myself as a person, and as a leader, at a crucial time in my career, to grow from his wisdom and guidance and feel better prepared for the challenges that I’m likely to face in my role as a charity CEO.
Steve combines real insightfulness and warmth with the rare ability to show you where (and help you plan how) you need to develop.
This highly thoughtful and skilled approach and his real depth of understanding of the role of the charity CEO (and great use of humour!) means coaching with him is the right balance of action orientated, reflective and supportive.
I worked with Steve in my first year as a new CEO and found his support, insight and challenge an absolute lifeline in navigating the complexities of small charity leadership, in particular leading for change. Cannot recommend him highly enough!

There are two ways to get started.
Book a Coaching Session
Book an online session via the link below. You’ll receive email confirmation and joining details.
If you go on to book a package, we’ll treat this as Session 1 and reduce the package fee.
Set up a free call
If you’d prefer to chat first, drop me a message and we’ll set up a free call.
We won’t do any coaching, but we can discuss your goals and I can answer your questions.
You can save with a coaching package
3 months (£1050)
• Initial Discovery Call (30 mins)
• 3x monthly sessions (90-120 mins) OR
• 6x fortnightly sessions (60 mins)
• Progress Call after 3 months.
• Unlimited email support.
• No risk, cancel any time, remaining sessions refunded.
6 months (£1950)
• Initial Discovery Call (30 mins)
• 6x monthly sessions (90-120 mins) OR
• 12x fortnightly sessions (60 mins)
• Progress Call after 3 months.
• Unlimited email support.
• No risk, cancel any time, remaining sessions refunded.
12 months (£3600)
• Initial Discovery Call (30 mins)
• 12x monthly sessions (90-120 mins) OR
• 6x fortnightly sessions (60 mins), THEN
9x monthly sessions (90-120 mins).
• Progress Call after 3 months.
• Unlimited email support.
• No risk, cancel any time, remaining sessions refunded.
Steve tells you what you need to hear, even if it's not always what you want to hear! He's supported me through some major changes at work and increased my confidence in my own abilities as a leader.
Steve has used his skills and experience to develop senior leaders to improve their impact in our charity. His pragmatic and iterative approach encourages quick progress and a balanced and measured response to every type of challenge.
Steve’s outlook on leadership is refreshing and based on realistic outcomes with authenticity high on the agenda. I would recommend every senior leader or CEO in the Third Sector to have a session with Steve!
My goals are becoming achievable. My reality is less foggy. The options are clearer and my will to work towards my dream of ultimate career fulfilment has been invigorated!
What I appreciated about my sessions with Steve was his ability to ask sharp questions to get to the heart of an issue.
He also has a sense of ‘been there, seen it, done it’ with regard to the charity CEO role, which was a tremendous support for someone in my position.
I felt comfortable being fully open and honest with Steve and (although it’s a cliche), he did create that ‘safe space’ for the coaching work to happen.
Steve also has a wicked sense of humour (in a good way), that both puts you at ease, but also challenges you.
Arriving at the end of 2022, and stepping into 2023, I have some clarity on my goals for the short & middle term.
Steve provided one to one coaching over a series of zoom sessions during a lockdown. I found the sessions very useful throughout and it gave me the opportunity to actually learn a lot about myself and the way I work just through Steve's engaging discussions, his questioning and his ability to listen and encourage. Each session was very relaxed but after each one I found myself growing in confidence. I would certainly recommend Steve for any individual or organisation.
The coaching I had from Steve over a six-month period was genuinely transformational.
I’d found myself at a mental crossroads in my career, having spent several years in a mainly fulfilling senior management role but not clear on how, or whether, to take my next steps.
I felt an instant affinity and rapport upon meeting Steve, which developed into a real sense of trust and empathy as we began coaching.
His openness, integrity and willingness to share his own personal and professional challenges, along with his strategies for overcoming these, helped me understand and appreciate the interdependencies between our personal and professional lives, how anxiety in one can compound the other, and how these are best considered in unison rather than in isolation.
Although relaxed, informal and frequently very humorous, Steve’s coaching style is one of supportive challenge, with the focus firmly on helping individuals draw on their own innate abilities and experiences to help themselves, rather than imposing solutions.
Feeling I had someone’s undivided attention and genuine interest in me and my career felt like a real luxury and was a potent catalyst for me to implement some meaningful and lasting changes in my personal and professional life.
One of Steve’s skills which I found particularly valuable is his ability to identify and propose small, practical and incremental changes to my behaviour and thinking processes, which in turn have had a positive impact on my emotional well-being and professional confidence.
I would refer to three of them in particular as ‘Eureka moments’:
• A small change to my morning routine helped me overcome significant anxiety around my teenage son’s school refusal, and feel better placed to understand and support him through this.
• Alternating my home workspace, including time working from the garden and a local cafe, revitalised my energy levels and proved to me that a change of environment really is as good as a rest!
• Steve’s stern admonishment ‘What’s the point of looking at emails and worrying about them outside office hours? What are you actually going to do, other than not sleep, if you get bad news at 10 ‘o’clock at night…?’ led to my personal imposition of a ‘no peeking at emails policy’ which has been genuinely liberating for me.
10 months on from meeting Steve, I’ve completed my coaching sessions and find myself with a new lease on life and an abundance of ideas and plans for enjoying and developing my current role, and, most importantly, the confidence and self-belief to make this happen.