Guide Dogs has appointed a consultancy to identify areas where it can cut spending, and will pay the firm according to the value of the savings it recommends.
Richard Leaman, who took over as chief executive of the charity in March after a 35-year career in the Royal Navy, told Third Sector he expected the firm, PA Consulting, to recommend savings of about 5 per cent. He said it was not yet clear whether this would involve redundancies.
He said the charity's income from legacies had fallen by about 5 per cent in the past year, and he wanted to make sure it was not wasting money. "I'm trying to drive out unnecessary costs," he said. "The firm has an incentive to bring our costs down because it will be paid a proportion of the value of the savings it recommends."
A spokeswoman for the Management Consultancies Association said about 10 per cent of private sector firms paid consultants this way.
She said the figure had grown since the recession and an upward trend was also likely in the voluntary sector.
