Voluntary News - funding

The Community Development Finance Association has launched its strategy which aims to build the Community Finance sector to address the growing gap between demand for finance and credit availability faced by small businesses, social enterprises and individuals.

The ten point plan summary and key excerpts and link to the manifesto 'Just Finance' (pdf, 2.2MB) are at http://www.cdfa.org.uk/about-cdfis/justfinance/.

The latest report from New Philanthropy Capital is 'Job well done: Employment and mental health problems, a guide for funders'. It identifies effective charities and approaches that are helping people who have mental health problems get back to work.

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New advanced apprenticeships in campaigning, fundraising and volunteer management have been approved by the National Apprenticeships Service for funding by the Skills Funding Agency, Skills Third Sector has announced. This means that third sector employers can now get help towards the training costs of apprenticeships in these professions.

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The Community Development Foundation has released an evaluation report on its Grassroots Grants programme, which provided grants of between £250 and £5,000 to small, local community and voluntary groups in England.

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Community Matters has developed a new social impact reporting tool in response to the growing emphasis from Government on community groups being able to demonstrate the impact they are having on their local communities through their activities and services.

Launched only in November 2011, the tool has already received incredible support from the sector with the Charity Commission and Department of Communities and Local Government both lending their names to the tool.

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Community and voluntary organisations have been invited by the government to apply for funding that will help bring empty homes blighting their areas back into use. It is hoped that such schemes will provide extra opportunities for local jobs and training too.

Communities Department news release at http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/2072874

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Umbrella body NCVO has published the recommendations of its Commission on Tax Incentives for Social Investment. The report suggests specific technical tax changes to help increase the level of investment in social ventures.

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A joint letter has been sent by sector umbrella bodies to all local authority chief executives (in England presumably) to remind them of the need to follow the Best Value Statutory Guidance when reviewing voluntary sector budgets. NCVO news item.

Northern Ireland sector body NICVA has welcomed all the recommendations from the NI Assembly's Public Accounts Committee in its report 'Creating Effective Partnerships between Government and the Voluntary and Community Sector'.

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The Social Action Fund, managed by the Social Investment Business on behalf of the government's Office for Civil Society, aims to inspire organisations to create new social action opportunities through people giving what they have, whether this is time, money, assets, knowledge or specific skills.

There are two themes: Encourage people to come together in their locality to support each other, and Focus on the different life stages of volunteering. Grants are a minimum of £100,000, England only.

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A new publication from NCVO aims to give clear guidance to trustees on financial sustainability of their charity, and for them to feel confident about developing a "mixed economy of funding" - grants, contracts and donations but also income from trading goods and services.

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The government's Office for Civil Society and the Big Lottery Fund are running a joint survey looking at how the voluntary sector uses websites and social media for advice and support, funding information, networking and learning. It will help them build on the findings of the Supporting Civil Society consultation a year ago.

They say it should take no more than fifteen minutes to do, at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JZ3J7C2, complete by 20th January.

Before Christmas, a phone survey of voluntary sector members of the union Unite in Scotland found an overwhelming majority are facing cuts.

Almost three quarters had had their terms and conditions changed, and nearly half were at risk of redundancy. However, this only covered ten voluntary sector organisations. See Unite for our Society.

The Scotland Funders' Forum has released 'Beneath the radar: Investing in small local organisations' which highlights growing concern over the uncertain future facing many small local community groups across the country.

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Glasgow Caledonian university has announced bursaries to provide financial help to students undertaking the MSc in Social Enterprise. The bursary will be for five hundred pounds at each stage of the MSc, targeted at people on low incomes working for smaller third sector organisations that do not have a significant training budget.

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The employment minister has indicated that voluntary organisations are eligible to apply for subsidies to employ young people as part of the government's Youth Contract.

The three year scheme will give employers subsidies worth £2,275 per person to take on 18 to 24-year-olds for six months. The Department for Work and Pensions had been unable to say whether voluntary organisations would be included in the scheme when it was launched.

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The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland is preparing to assume its powers to make cy-près schemes. Such schemes enable the transfer of a charitable gift from a charitable purpose which cannot be carried out (for example because a charity named in a will no longer exists), to another charitable purpose which is as close as possible to the original.

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Co-operatives UK and the government's Business Department have launched a community buying challenge to inspire innovative models for buying together. A sixty thousand pound 'Buy Better Together Challenge' fund will go towards training, mentoring and seed funding, with £15,000 for the overall winner.

Applications open in January, but interest can be registered now. See Co-op press release.

UK Giving 2011, this year's version of the most in-depth and long-running study of charitable giving habits, was commissioned by the Charities Aid Foundation and NCVO and published recently.

The total of donations remains flat despite an increase in the number of donors. NCVO news item includes links to the summary or full report.

The Welsh Assembly Government has announced a Communities Investment Fund to provide finance of up to £250,000, primarily through flexible loans, to local organisations and social enterprises.

The fund will invest in organisations to develop trading activities by supporting the purchase or improvement of buildings, equipment and other community business ideas.

See WCVA item at http://www.wcva.org.uk/news/dsp_news.cfm?newsid=1763.