Developing a high–performing organisation

Key highlights included:

• Developing a new commercial strategy focusing on meeting the needs of our members and clients all over the world.
• Growing RIBA Journal to secure its spot as the most widely circulated architecture magazine globally, and one of the most widely read. In 2023, we: – Circulated over 240,000 copies in the UK. – Circulated a further 12,000 internationally. – Secured an income of over £1.1m – consisting of 263 pages of advertising between RIBAJ and PIP, and over 120 advertising campaigns. – Grew page views to over 1,000 per month and 1.15m per year. – Delivered special activities including the MacEwen Award, Rising Stars Award, Future Writers, EyeLine, PiP webinar series.
• Welcoming Autodesk as our headline sponsor and corporate partner for the Stirling Prize ceremony, which had over 450 attendees. Published over 20 books, some of which were recognised with significant awards including Architectural Book of the Year (Country and City Guides) for ‘Queer Spaces’.
• Encouraging over 22,000 people to activate RIBA Academy accounts, and 45,000 people to participate in programmes. Enrolled our largest ever intake of Part 3 students in the UK, Hong Kong and Gulf.
• Launching the Principal Designer Register training programme and assessment. Our live introductory webinar secured 1,000 registrations and 400 delegates undertook training between October and December 2023.
• Delivering over 620 RIBA–related events at 66 Portland Place and RIBA North, including 240 live CPD sessions and sell–out Future Leaders and Guerilla Tactics conferences. This was recognised by the Construction Media Index, who rated us as the best organisation for events.
• Facilitating over 140 client bookings ranging from £10K to £250K.
• Re–opening RIBA North with Tate Liverpool – a collaborative partnership to deliver a programme of temporary exhibitions, family activity, public talks and events and other events inspired by the unique collections we both hold.
• Continuing to grow our products and services portfolio comprising RIBA Jobs, RIBA Business, PI insurance, pension packages and signboards.

People

We increased our investment in attracting and retaining a diverse community of talented colleagues and launched our new employee value proposition (EVP), to support RIBA to become a high performing, innovative organisation and a great place to work.

Key highlights include:

• Launching our new guiding values, focusing on the behaviours we want our colleagues to exhibit. We held departmental and team meetings to discuss how we will bring them to life, agreeing how living the values will be measured, which expectations will be universal versus applied differently in different departments, and how senior colleagues will role model these behaviours.
• Reviewing our pay and reward framework, whilst benchmarking all roles at RIBA against the relevant market data, to improve attraction and retention of talented colleagues.
• Successfully launching our new benefit proposition and a new Benefits Hub. This has helped to raise awareness about the wide range of benefits on offer, remove duplicate costs and made all benefits available to everyone.

Technology

We made steps to become a digital–first organisation and agreed an ambitious programme of work to improve our infrastructure, including a database platform that will enable us to better provide tailored information and services to members.

Key highlights include:

• Identifying key areas of digital, data and technology investment.
• Installing conferencing solutions at 66 Portland Place to provide improved hybrid working arrangements.
• Developing ambitious digital House of Architecture plans to transform our technology and improve the online experience for our members.

Governance

We implemented new governance structures to ensure that RIBA’s governance framework is fit for purpose and adheres to best practice. Good governance is fundamental to RIBA’s success and it is vital to ensure compliance with our legal and regulatory requirements.

Key highlights include:

• Implementing the Volunteer Code Protocol.
• Successfully delivering national and regional elections.
• Commencing comprehensive governance review.

Fundraising and Investments

RIBA is about to embark on a journey of transformation, following a board decision in 2022 to approve a significant investment programme – the House of Architecture programme - which gathered momentum in 2023.

The programme contains five separate work streams including; the essential renovation of our London landmark building, transition arrangements, plans for a new centre to bring together our world-class collections, investment in our digital technology and fundraising activity to support the programme.

In undertaking the House of Architecture programme, the Board of Trustees have carefully considered the fund structure of the charity. In doing so, they have been even-handed in assessing the needs of both future and current beneficiaries. This careful balance has been considered with long term financial sustainability in mind, to ensure the board maximises the benefits of membership. Indeed, the Charity has been working hard over recent years, in order to diversify income, to help subsidise the cost of membership. RIBA’s total unrestricted general reserves are such that we can continue to assert that RIBA is a going concern. However, within the funding strategy to achieve the aims of the House of architecture programme, the board has determined that significant fundraising will be undertaken in the next five years.