SFP Monthly Newsletter - Issue 65, October 2008

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Issue 65, October 2008

Support and news from the Sustainable Funding Project 

NCVO Diary Dates 

1. Planning and management 
2. Donations 
3. Grant funding 
4. Public Service Delivery 
5. Trading and social enterprise 
6. Loan finance and social investment 

Contributions and contact details 

Past newsletter editions 

Support and news from SFP

Only Connect  

Thank you to everyone who submitted an application for this round of bursaries. The next round is now open until December 12 – learn more about applying for the Only Connect bursary scheme and browse our list of registered hosts.

Read this month’s Only Connect case study featuring Community Links, an innovative charity running community-based projects in east visit to Bristol-Hub.

Consultations

NCVO are currently consulting on the Conservative Green Paper and the future of the Compact, we would welcome your views on both of these issues. You can complete the Compact consultation online before the end of October and our initial response to the Conservative green paper is also available on our website. 

We will be discussing the green paper at forthcoming events such as the NCVO Political Conference on 27 November and the NCVO Autumn conference in Manchester on 7 November. If you would like to respond directly please email Ann Blackmore, Head of Policy or telephone 020 7520 2477.    

Go on... showcase your work

If your organisation has an interesting story to tell about taking a sustainable funding approach (e.g. beginning to trade, undertaking public service delivery, taking an innovative approach to financial management) we would like to hear from you. Contact SFP or telephone 0207 520 2519.

Take part in the Compact Voice Survey

Compact Voice has launched a nationwide survey to explore the views of the sector on the future of the Compact. This is a unique opportunity to shape the future of the Compact and ensure is it as relevant and powerful as possible. With the national Compact entering its tenth year, now is the right time to explore the Compact, build on its successes and tackle its failings. Compact Voice urges everyone in the sector to respond. Download the information pack, “Framing the Debate” and fill in the online questionnaire.

New Case Study: Learning Links

Discover how Learning Links (Southern) has grown from a single grant funded project to an organisation with a projected income of £1.6million for 2008/09. This growth has been achieved through seeking out appropriate contracts, launching trading ventures, working in partnership for the benefit of the wider local community whilst keeping to the mission. Download the case study.

Discursive articles available 

Have you visited the SFP virtual library lately? Recently added articles cover a range of topics including; understanding and identifying risk, and developing and managing an asset. Visit the library.

New feature: Sustainable Funding + 1
NCVO Strategy and Impact Team

There’s so much going on and not enough hours in the day to get everything done… Each month, SFP will provide a quick introduction to another team within NCVO and outline how you can benefit from their expertise and resources, saving you valuable searching time.

SFP October: Where are we this month?  

• Workshop:Train the Trainer - a one-day workshop for funding adviser. 
  Date: 1 October 2008
  Host: Voluntary Norfolk 

• Workshop: Getting Ready for Enterprise - course for voluntary and community organisations thinking about developing a trading idea. 
  Date: 14 October 2008
  Host: Birmingham Voluntary Service Council

• Workshop:Train the Trainer - a one-day workshop for funding adviser. 
  Date: 21 October 2008
  Host: East London CVS Network
  

Where are we next? View the 2008 event calendar.
Learn more about our package of workshops.

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NCVO Diary Dates:

Save money on Sage Software - free seminar
London - 9 October

Is your accounting software working for you? As an NCVO member you can benefit from up to 25% off Sage products and upgrades through CentrePoint Software,NCVO's recommended supplier for over 5 years. Come along to a free seminar at NCVO to find out more about how your organisation can benefit from using Sage 50, Payroll and HR. Book you place online and read more about utilising accounting packages.   

1. Planning and management

Charity confidence in an uncertain economy 

NCVO's third Charity Forecast report will be launched on 6 October. It is based on a survey of over 200 charity leaders - Chief Executives and Trustees - and shows their plans and confidence for the next 12 months. Find out if charities plan to increase their workforce, collaborate more or compete more, and if charity leaders believe that the worsening economic climate will be a negative force for their own organisation.

The report costs £100 (£25 for NCVO members) and you can also buy a subscription to four issues of the report for £200 (£50 for NCVO members). 
Buy your copy online. The report is supported by Chantrey Vellacott DFK. 

Government to reduce regulation burden on charities

The Office of the Third Sector in the Cabinet Office published the Government’s plans to raise the minimum income thresholds above which charities face more onerous reporting requirements – reducing the regulatory burden on many small charities while maintaining an effective regulatory framework. 

The recommendations are to be introduced in secondary legislation by the end of the 2008/9 financial year. Read more about the threshold changes.

Charitable Incorporated Organisation Legal Form Consultation
Your views by 10 December

A long-awaited consultation on the new corporate form for charities created under the Charities Act 2006, the Charitable Incorporated Organisation, is now under way. Run jointly by the Office of the Third Sector and the Charity Commission, it covers details of what the new form might look like and the rules a CIO will have to follow. Read the consultation guide and access the papers at the Charity Commission website. 

2. Donations

Charities must work hard at legacies as the economy worsens

Gift aid made simple

The latest guide in the Sayer Vincent series focuses on gift aid. It summaries what gift aid is, how to claim it back and how to minimise the risks of errors being found during inspection visits. Browse the series at Sayer Vincent’s website.  

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3. Grant Funding

Faith into Action - round one funds available
Application deadline - 1 November 2008

Faiths in Action is a £4m grants programme open from 1 August 2008 to faith, inter faith, voluntary and community organisations and groups in England. Administered by the Community Development Foundation (CDF) on behalf of Communities and Local Government (CLG), Faiths in Action aims to bring communities together, promoting positive relationships and collaborative social action between people of different religions and beliefs.

Grants will be distributed in two rounds. Round one, which opened 1 August 2008, will issue grants of up to £12,000 to be spent over two years. It is hoped the grants will support a wide variety of local activities in a range of community settings, including innovative new ideas as well as ‘tried and tested’ approaches.More information, including briefing event dates is available at the CDF website. 

Green Grant website launch 

The UK's first green funding website exclusively for businesses has revealed the best and worst English regions for local and regional environmental funding initiatives. The free directory contains information on over £1.2 billion of funds available to your organisation – visit the site and run a search, sign up for tailored updates and discover what you are eligible for. 

Mind begins £7.5 grants initiative

Ecominds, funded by the Big Lottery Fund's environment programme, Changing Spaces, will distribute funds to 125 projects from community groups, schools and businesses in England over the next five years.

Applicants to Mind must demonstrate how they plan to involve people with mental health problems in their environmental projects. The scheme will operate a rolling application programme that assesses about 30 bids three times a year. Successful proposals will have a maximum of three and a half years to complete their projects using the grant. More about the initiative is available on the Mind website. 

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4. Public Service Delivery

Regional investment road shows for funding advisors 

Futurebuilders England is hosting a series of regional road shows, aimed at helping funding advice workers and other third sector advisors to give guidance on how to make a successful bid for investment. The free events take place at 11 locations across England – visit the Futurebuilders website for more information.

Funders' data demands are 'often uphelpful'

Commissioners and funders need to make sure the monitoring requirements they impose on sector organisations generate information that helps them to improve their effectiveness, according to a major study carried out by Charities Evaluation Services.

The report, which surveyed more than 700 organisations and 100 funders and commissioners, also found that funders rarely offer enough funding to allow organisations tofulfiltheir compliance requirements. Ellis said charities were unable to include the cost of monitoring, such as building new IT systems, in their tenders because it would make them uncompetitive. Download the report.  

Futurebuilders and Royal Bankof Scotland Partnership

Futurebuilders and RBS have announced a joint partnership arrangement to increase the financial support available to third sector organisations. The partnership will allow the two organisations to work together, refer potential clients to each other, and offer co-financing options to the third sector. Visit the Futurebuilders website for more information.

Community control of assets steps up

The government has announced as part of its "communities in control" agenda that a new 'asset transfer unit' will be led by the Development Trusts Association. This will offer an independent hub of advice across England, for local people and authorities, to help community groups take over underused or derelict public buildings and land and put them to better use. The DTA, along with partners such as the Local Government Association and Community Matters, expects to have this functioning from January 2009.

This was announced alongside twelve 'participatory budgeting' or 'community kitties' pilot areas, engaging local people in how public money is spent – read more about the announcement.

Update - Longer Contracts Are On the Way 

As mentioned in last month’s newsletter, voluntary groups and social enterprises all stand to benefit from new guidance published by the Government, ensuring every Whitehall department offers three year funding to third sector organisations in all but exceptional cases. Read more and download the guidance document. 

Read the latest Public Service Delivery Network Bulletin.

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5. Trading and social enterprise

Shared HR project set for expansion

Charities are being invited to join a new social enterprise that provides shared human resources services. The initiative has grown out of a two-year pilot programme to provide shared HR support to 13 London homelessness organisations. Homelessness charity Broadway was given £160,000 by the London Housing Foundation to run the pilot and has now set up Real People, a social enterprise to provide consultancy-style HR services to charities.

Visit the Real People website (assessed and selected as an NCVO Approved Consultant) for more information. 

Business planning with the Tool Factory

The range of software available includes start up and social enterprise business plan writing tools which organises the 'words' as well as 'numbers' parts of your business plan (produces full financial reports), and pulls everything together into a single document you can print, save as a PDF or export to Microsoft Word for further editing. Other tools include a Social Impact Tracker, a monitoring database that measures your social impact creating your reports, an e-newsletter writer and a “how to” guide when establishing an ethical business.
Visit the Tool Factory website for more information.

Futurebuilders: investment creates UK's largest 'out of hours' care 

Futurebuilders England has invested £550,000 to fund the formation of Urgent Health UK (UHUK), a consortium of five of the country’s largest social enterprise providers of out of hours care. The investment will create the largest social enterprise of its kind in the UK, allowing UHUK to tender for more out of hours contracts, often in partnership with NHS Direct. The investment will increase the service delivery of its five partner members by enabling them to tender for contracts outside of their geographical area. Visit the Futurebuilders website for more information.

Identity crisis for sector revealed in new research 

New research has revealed huge confusion and misunderstanding about social enterprise - even among those most likely to offer the warmest support. A survey of hundreds of people whose values chime most strongly with the sector's has revealed that 72 per cent are not aware of any social enterprises or understand what they are. Read more about the findings.

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6. Loan finance and social investment

Venturesome report clarifies barriers to social investment

"Financing Civil Society" is a major new report on the UK social investment market is a way of providing clarity in order to drive the development of the social investment market. The report calls for greater clarity and cooperation in the social investment market to help charities achieve their social aims and highlights the barriers to and opportunities for future development. Learn more and download the report.

Related article: could government loans mean less choice?

NAVCA conference and AGM 2008

NAVCA’s 2008 Conference was recently held in Nottingham. The keynote speakers were Greg Clark MP (Shadow Minister for Charities, Social Enterprise and Volunteering) and Peter Wanless (Chief Executive of the Big Lottery Fund). Greg discussed the Conservative’s Green Paper including funding for infrastructure organisations. Peter discussed the upcoming consultation on the future of the Big Lottery funds including new sources of income and the possibility of using loans and endowments alongside grants. To hear what they said, find links to podcasts, videos of the speeches and photos of the event - visit the NAVCA website.

Opportunities for green investment
London - 17 November 2008, 2.30 - 5.30pm (free)

Are you concerned about climate change? Are you reducing your carbon footprint and increasing your recycling? Have you thought about going green with your investments?

This seminar for charity staff and trustees will explore the opportunities and trends in environmentally responsible investment and help you understand how it can help charities to safeguard the environment for future generations by supporting green initiatives or avoiding environmentally damaging industries. Register online, via email or telephone Sam Collin at the EIRIS Foundation on 020 7840 5738.

Contributions

If you would like to contribute to a future edition of the Sustainable Funding Project's Update newsletter, please contact us.  

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Past newsletter editions

September 2008, Issue 64 
July/August 2008, Issue 63 
June 2008, Issue 62 
May 2008, Issue 61 
April 2008, Issue 60 
March 2008, Issue 59 
February 2008, Issue 58 
December 2007/January 2008, Issue 57 
November 2007, Issue 56 
October 2007, Issue 55 
September 2007, Issue 54 
July/August 2007, Issue 53 
June 2007, Issue 52 
May 2007, Issue 51 
April 2007, Issue 50 
March 2007, Issue 49 
February 2007, Issue 48 
December 2006/January 2007, Issue 47