Changes to our Project Groups
After a few successful years, two of our London Funders project groups are taking on a new shape. Good Practice in Grantmaking and Voluntary Sector Infrastructure Development will no longer have their quarterly gatherings and instead all members of London Funders will be invited to regular discussion sessions aimed at Learning from Funders. Buzzacott LLP will host these events about every six weeks and their facilities mean that we can comfortably have 30 or so participants around a table. We are starting with a discussion amongst funders on the virtues of scaling up good projects – and different approaches to sustainable growth. See above for the first meeting on 5 October: further meetings will be publicised shortly and we should be delighted to hear from e-bulletin readers with ideas for future topics (email Yvonne).
Recent meeting highlights
March 2010
Jill Walsh of Capacitybuilders London Region looked at the impact of Capacitybuilders' support in London and especially at the take-up of recent recession-responsive funding.
Robin Boles introduced the services of In Kind Direct and led discussion on how funders could encourage third sector organisations to make good use of their support.
Tracey Lazard from Disability Action in Islington presented the findings of research among organisations led by disabled people which looked (for City Parochial Foundation) at HR issues specific to such groups. There are many factors which increase the resource needs of such organisations and which make their staff management particularly complex and demanding and CPF’s work to raise awareness of this is important.
Download Jill's presentation
November 2009
Two speakers in particular: Andrew Little updated the group on the development of Inclusion London, the new second tier association of deaf and disability groups. The group also discussed the impact of Capacitybuilders’ support in London and especially at the take-up of recent recession-responsive funding.
September 2009
Presenters were Sharon Long of CYP (Children and Young People) Engage Network, a second tier forum for London, and Janet Fleming, Interim Director of the new sector skills agency, Skills-Third Sector. A dozen members of the group had a lively discussion about employment, recruitment and training issues in the voluntary and community sector and the way in which second tier agencies support the children’s agenda. Sharon’s group is beginning to formulate good advice on commissioning, especially in how commissioners can work with consortia and sub-contractors so as not to exclude expert but smaller organisations from tendering. On employment issues, funders around the table shared their experience of encouraging funded organisations to budget for training and skills development. They also discussed volunteering as a route to employment in the third sector, and the need for good liaison with the London Skills and Employment Board.
Click here to see Sharon's presentation
Click here to Janet's presentation
June 2009
Tim Wilson of Charities Evaluation Services (CES) presented a research report recently published, Demonstrating the Difference, which had looked at infrastructure organisations’ own experience of understanding and publicising the impact of their work – ie going beyond outputs and into outcomes. It can be particularly hard for funders to assess the value of work they supported – not least because real impact may take longer that the duration of a typical grant. But infrastructure organisations themselves often try to dodge the question of impact since it is always tricky to attribute the sources of improvement in the organisations they support. CES will be offering support to second tier agencies on developing their own theory of change and the work of the new NCVO project on the value of infrastructure is eagerly awaited.
Big Lottery Fund’s senior researcher Steve Browning shared the brief for a series of research projects on BIG’s capacity-building. A review, for example, of the generic capacity-building needs of single identity organisations was out to tender and a piece of work under way aimed to understand the effectiveness of externally contracted support and development provision. Like many funders, BIG found all too often that outcome assessment was not included from the start in organisation’s work plans and that appropriate benchmarks were not built in to evaluation.
The group had an update from Rahel Geffen about the work of London Voluntary Service Council’s PEACe service, offering employment advice to voluntary and community groups, and about a specific project it had stimulated providing help (including in different languages) to Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups. The increasing complexity of employment law meant that the project was ever more essential, but PEACe was also putting effort into building skills in local agencies, especially CVS so that advice was more accessible and better employment practice (especially in drafting contracts, defining jobs, etc) could be fostered.
Jill Walsh – a member of the group – ran through some Capacitybuilders' current commitments, especially how the new Modernisation Fund and Resilience Fund were rolling out. She also outlined some of the current research commissioned by Capacitybuilders and the new Improving Support website and magazine, on both of which other funders’ feedback would be welcome. In view, especially of the level of interest in collaboration and merger in the sector, she hoped that case studies would rapidly be available from the “modernisation” work.
March 09
Two main topics were covered at the March 2009. One was a process for reviewing funded groups used by LB Lewisham and found to be of great interest to the group – Sandra Jones shared a lot of information not only about what is monitored but also about the staff time and skills involved. A second discussion looked at recent news from Capacitybuilders about grants awarded and allowed group members to respond to up-to-date information on funding and provide some feedback.
Click here to download Sandra's presentation
December 08
Sioned Churchill spoke on the City Parochial Foundation funded 'Building Our Futures' research project on the human resource needs of Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations and how they could be met. Louise Woodford, LDA, spoke on their Pathfinders work in East and West London, looking at ways to address poverty and worklessness.
Download a copy of Sioned's presentation and the paper"The Compact and DPOs".
October 08
A meeting on 1 October involved an absorbing discussion based on presentations about projects which offers ICT support to voluntary and community organisations – and how funders can make a significant difference to the capacity of the VCS by supporting work which offers expert but user-friendly help to the many groups that struggle with computer use.
June 08
Ian Redding, London Councils’ spoke on their new approach to commissioning second tier work, Elizabeth Balgobin, London Voluntary Service Council reviewed The London Infrastructure Development Plan 2008.
The Voluntary Sector Infrastructure Development Group joint meeting on quality standards and the Good Practice in Grantmaking Group. Sam Matthews, Director of Services at Charities Evaluation Services spoke on the whole range of different performance measurement systems, and Andrea Allez, Performance Improvement Manager, National Association for Voluntary and Community Action spoke on NAVCA’s Quality Award. |