BEAN RESEARCH - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Senior Evaluation Manager
- Trustee at SOFEA
Arani has a track record of delivering evidence driven projects to customers in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, both in the UK and internationally over the last nearly two decades.
Arani is proud of her track record in delivering impact-focused findings for over 200 not-for profit clients. She has designed and led complex evidence gathering projects for senior stakeholders at globally recognised brands including WaterAid, Save the Children, Marie Curie, NHS Charities and UK/EC Government departments, as well a smaller community-focused charities.
Arani has worked with funders, funded organisations and charities. Her experience spans a range of causal areas, but she has particularly enjoyed projects with a sustainability, education and/or youth-focused, as these align with her personal interests. Since joining Bean in May 2024, Arani has developed a range of impact frameworks for small charities including Crafts Council, Heal Rewilding and worked with the DEI team at Motorsport UK to develop over-arching and nested frameworks, as well as working with all these clients on embedding measurement tools and reporting dashboards.
Her key area of focus is around designing practicable and insightful evaluations that go beyond the summative - she is always mindful that good evaluation should drive future change. In addition to conducting a range of evaluations directly, she has been a technical expert for FCDO funded projects, guiding INGO fund applicants on Theory of Change and logic model development. She is conducting an evaluation of the Greater London Authority's Minority Business Matters programme and is supporting a range of charitable funders with their annual impact reporting.
Arani is a trustee at SOFEA, an Oxfordshire based youth charity and volunteers for Young Women's Trust and FemMentored.
Arani is an experienced and curious research and evaluation practitioner with a decade and a half of experience delivering evidence for causes that matter. Her clients include some of the UK's largest charities and international Government departments. Arani is a trustee at SOFEA, an Oxfordshire based youth and sustainability charity.
Bethan Lloyd combines a wealth of expertise in sustainability with a strategic, results-driven approach to social impact. With a Master's in Management and Corporate Sustainability from Cranfield University, Bethan has a keen understanding of the intricate relationship between business and society. Her academic focus on social impact reporting has equipped her with the tools to quantify and communicate social value effectively, making her a valuable asset to any team committed to making a difference.
Bethan brings expertise in sustainable strategy and social impact, with experience spanning procurement and social value initiatives for high-profile clients. Passionate about creating positive change, she's an Accredited Social Value Practitioner and Steering Group Member for Young Professionals in Social Value, dedicated to advancing impactful, community-focused solutions.
Combining analytical thinking and a love for creativity, Cath has been involved in the marketing and research world for over 20 years, finding the meaning in numbers and interpreting "the story".
With a First Class Masters in Business Science in Cape Town, Cath has always valued rigour in research approaches together with excellent communications to deliver reliable measures and actionable insights. She began her career working for the Unilever Institute of Strategic Marketing, at the University of Cape Town. After a brief stint in London, her time at TNS (now Kantar) turned into a permanent move to the UK, where she held roles at Kingston University and the then-startup, Shazam, leading their diverse market research projects. Cath spent 10 years at Mindshare, a global media and marketing services agency, in the business intelligence team, using data and insights to support and advise business decisions.
At Bean, the flexible and independent work environment suits her enjoyment of digging into the numbers, visualising data, and extracting understanding from mountains of information. Integrating her experience of the gamut of research roles, Cath is equally at home in a spreadsheet; writing a questionnaire; running client workshops or focus groups; or briefing a research agency as an objective client guide.
Cath works primarily with funders to support foundations in developing an understanding of the impact of their grants, how they can better monitor and integrate measurement and as a result, how they can fund and support greater social change.
Cath Weight has worked with Bean Research since 2019. She has 20 years of experience immersed in the development and execution of consumer and business intelligence, both agency and client side. Cath provides the backbone of our work with funders - supporting foundations to understand how they can fund and support greater social change.
Charlotte Turner is an evaluator and researcher with over 30 years of experience, renowned for her expertise in social value. As the Founder and Director of Bean Research, she has made significant strides in the field, serving as a pivotal voice and advisor on social impact. For the past decade, she has also been the social impact and value lead at Cranfield School of Management, where she passionately teaches social value as part of the MSc Sustainability programme and is a Level 3 Advanced Accredited Practitioner of Social Value International.
In 2012, Charlotte established Bean Research after holding key Director roles at Business in the Community and Ipsos. At Ipsos MORI, she conducted evaluations for both international and local charities and corporations, pioneering methodologies that illuminate the real impact of interventions through a lens of attribution, transparency, and stakeholder perspectives. Notably, she co-founded the CSR research unit in 1995 at Ipsos MORI, a time when corporate engagement with social issues was gaining momentum. Charlotte's tenure as Research Director at Business in the Community saw her collaborate with over 650 businesses and charities, measuring and evaluating the profound effects of their partnerships on communities and organisations.
Having evaluated more than 50 charities and 24 funders, Charlotte possesses a deep understanding of the challenges faced by these organisations. Her rigorous research techniques are the backbone of her work, but what truly sets her apart is her commitment to a collaborative approach. Rather than presenting a predetermined evaluation framework, she and her team excel at listening, challenging conventional ideas, and proposing tailored evaluation strategies that meet the unique needs of each project.
Charlotte is a researcher with 30 years of experience in this space, a regular speaker and adviser on social impact and value, the Founder & Director of Bean Research, the Social Impact Assessment lead at Cranfield School of Management and an Advanced Social Value Practitioner.