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The things from us… 1. Have your say in our future - consultation survey 2. IBM skills workshops for small charities - only £10 each 3. Civil Society Media magazine subscriptions 4. Group supports, the new and the old 5. Free online fundraising taster workshop in partnership with GlobalGiving.co.uk 6. Trustee week 31 October – 6 November 2011 7. Trustee Fair 2011 – bite-sized learning for less 8. Last few discounted places at the AIME conference 9. Available supporters seeking small charities to help 10. Used the Code of Good Governance? Your charity could win £1000! The things from sector and beyond… 1. Free charity learning units from the Open University 2. IMPACT Award scheme for health charities 3. New videos to help you with your Annual Returns 4. Community Activities Toolkit by Zurich Insurance 5. Free pension reform seminars in London from Buzzacott 6. Introduction to sustainable funding event in London 7. Free Exploring Sustainable Income event in Manchester 8. Affordable office space available in Brixton, London 9. Drive a large vechicle into London? Read this about LEZ The things from us… 1. Have your say in our future - consultation survey  We want to hear from you on how you’d like us to develop as a merged organisation; what you like, what you don’t and what would be most useful to assist you in your great work. We’ve put together a consultation survey to help you do this which you can find on this link; http://www.clicktools.com/dashboard/survey/response.jsp To show our gratitude for your time, for those that complete the survey, you can enter a raffle for a £30 Amazon voucher by submitting your details at the end. What would you buy; a couple of books, a top or even a new set of chopping boards? [Back to top]  2. IBM skills workshops for small charities - only £10 eachAs we mentioned last month, we are delivering a new series of skills workshops for small charities in partnership with IBM. The workshops will be held throughout September and October and will cost just £10 per delegate per workshop. They were a huge successes last year, with rave reviews from all those that attended. You’re encouraged to work on real projects and the support you get throughout the day from IBM staff is phenomenal. They aren’t just training sessions; they are proper hands on workshops. Workshops available are: 23/09/11 - SOUTH BANK - Technology Planning for Charities 23/09/11 - BEDFONT - Introduction to Project Management 26/09/11 - BEDFONT - Measuring Impact in Charities 26/09/11 - WARWICK - Technology Planning for Charities 30/09/11 - WARWICK - Introduction to Project Management 30/09/11 - SOUTH BANK - Introduction to Web Design For more information and to book visit the website www.smallcharities.org.uk/ibmworkshops/ [Back to top]  3. Civil Society Media magazine subscriptionsWe have teamed up with Civil Society Media to promote their magazines and website to our members. They produce Charity Finance, Governance and Fundraising magazine which publish news and information for charities of all shapes and sizes – no more so than small organisations. For more information and to take up a subscription visit our dedicated webpage: www.smallcharities.org.uk/civil-society-media [Back to top] .jpg "Click here to visit the Group Support page") 4. Group supports, the new and the oldSo it’s officially the end of the pilot series of the group supports and they’ve been great so thank you for everyone that took part. We’re taking a brief break to take stock of what we've learnt but hope to get some more up and running in the autumn, preferably outside London this time. Some of you have already been in touch interested but for anyone else regionally based, do drop Elise elise.austin@smallcharities.org.uk an email describing what focus area you’d like a group in, where you’d travel for one and if you could host a session. More details on how they work can be found on the website on the page below. www.smallcharities.org.uk/group-support/ [Back to top] 5. Free online fundraising taster workshop in partnership with GlobalGiving.co.uk  In partnership with GlobalGiving.co.uk we are hosting a free online fundraising taster workshop on Tuesday 4 October 2011 18.00 – 20.30 that’ll not only give you the opportunity to learn some of the fundamentals of online fundraising, but will also familiarise you with the GlobalGiving.co.uk fundraising platform which additionally offers a unique set of tools, training and support. We mentioned GlobalGiving.co.uk back in February and a number of members have raised their voluntary income as a result. Read more information on the link below or to book a place now contact Jenni Tomlin on jtomlin@globalgiving.co.uk www.smallcharities.org.uk/global-giving-workshop [Back to top] 6. Trustee Week 31 October – 6 November 2011  Not far off now, the second annual Trustees week is shaping up to be another fantastic 7 day celebration of trusteeship. We are delighted to be an official partner again and particularly psyched about the special events we’ll be putting on, more of that to come soon… For now though, it’s a good time to think about how you might use the week to your advantage; be it launching a campaign for new board members, organising training for existing trustees or having a team-building / social for the board of trustees. For inspiration and to see what’s already planned, have a look at the website set up for the purpose; www.trusteesweek.org.uk [Back to top] 7. Trustee Fair 2011 – bite-sized learning for less  Together with the Directory of Social Change, we have organised this year’s Trustee Fair being held in London on Thursday 29 September 2011. Unlike a conference, a fair allows delegates to attend any number of sessions on a whole variety of topics e.g. Chairing Board Meetings, Risk Assessment, Effective Decision-Making, The Board’s Role in Fundraising etc, and what’s better is that you only pay for what you attend, allowing you to create a day of training specific to your needs. Sessions start from £25 and you can get more information and book on the Trustee Fair link below.www.trusteefair.org.uk/ [Back to top] 8. Last few discounted places at the AIME conference  AIME stands for Association of Interactive Media and Entertainment and they have a working group made up of lots of big and influential media companies and charities (including the Small Charities Coalition). Together we have come up with the second annual 'Empowering the Charitable Sector with Interactive Technologies' conference and members get a £10 discount on the already reasonable ticket price of £60. So if you like your interactive technologies and how they can better equip your charity, you should consider attending.More information on the AIME website http://aimelink.org/events/next_seminar.aspx [Back to top] 9. Available supporters seeking small charities to help  After being absent last month, the normal list of the professional skills of our available supporters is back this month and include some top experts. For those of you that know how it works go straight ahead and download the documents below. For those of you that don’t, it’s quite simple. The main way we help our members is through our skills sharing and mentoring service. We encourage staff from large organisations (mainly charities) to help our members by either working through a particular problem or by supporting longer term by mentoring. But sometimes there aren’t any small charities needing their skills, so we compile them into a download for all our members to see. Read the instructions on the download and get in touch if you think they can help your charity. Highlights this month include:
  [Back to top] 10. Used the Code of Good Governance? Your charity could win £1000! If you can demonstrate your boards use of the publication ‘Good Governance: a Code for the Voluntary and Community Sector’ (the Code) to improve your charity’s effectiveness and greater delivery of public benefit, then you could be within a chance of winning one of the following prizes (1st = £1000, 2nd = 2 places at NCVO’s 2012 Annual Conference, 3rd = a copy of the Good Trustee Guide (or similar)). More information is available via the following link http://p0.vresp.com/BRGTGJ [Back to top] The things from sector and beyond… 1. Free charity learning units from the Open University  The Open University has recently developed a new website, CharityWise which hosts ten specially tailored free learning units for charity managers and trustees such as "Managing to meet service users' needs" and "Building relationships with donors”. The site also has some interesting trustee case studies and other links to other handy resources. Linking into the main portal, there are endless free training courses which are targeted at different levels and have varying time commitments attached. So have a browse and find courses to boost your skills.www.open.ac.uk/blogs/CharityWise/ [Back to top]  2. IMPACT Award scheme for health charitiesGlaxoSmithKline funds this award which is aimed at recognising organisations supporting the improvement of people’s health. It is open to registered charities at least 3 years old and with an annual income between £10,000 - £1.5 million. Alongside monetary prizes of up to £25,000, there are other goodies. To see the full list and to access the application, visit this website: www.kingsfund.org.uk/current_projects/gsk_impact_awards/index.html [Back to top]  3. New videos to help you with your Annual Returns The Charity Commission has put together some video tutorials to assist you with the online filing of your Annual Returns. Ok so not a hugely exciting watch but they are a useful step-by-step guide through the online form and they have especially tailored 3 different videos to correspond with different income brackets (£10,000, £10-25,000, £25-500,000) to make them as relevant as possible. Something to bookmark for when your documents are due perhaps? www.charity-commission.gov.uk/rss/news/pr_ar11.aspx [Back to top] 4. Community Activities Toolkit by Zurich Insurance You’ll find all the required health & safety, insurance and risk information for your community activities on this website. The interactive tool first takes you through a set of questions to determine the type of event you are organising and then creates you personalised “pack” with all the necessary legal, insurance and risk information. Fairly detailed but at least you know what you’re getting is stuff you need to know about! To visit the website and see it in action, follow this link www.communitytoolkit.co.uk/aboutthiswebsite.htm [Back to top]  5. Free pension reform seminars in London from BuzzacottYou may be aware that the reforms introduced in the Pension Act 2008 will start to be rolled in from 2012. For the first time in the UK all employers will have to enrol all eligible employees into a workplace pension scheme. Additionally, all employers will be required to pay into a pension scheme on behalf of employees. Failure to comply will result in considerable fines. Buzzacott have summarised these reforms in an Insight where they have also suggested some steps that employers can take in order to reduce the costs of these reforms. They are also running a series of free seminars in the Autumn to help employers prepare for the reforms. To find out more and book a place follow the relevant links below: Preparing for Workplace Pension Reform - charities, Thursday 13 October 3pm - 5.30pm Preparing for Workplace Pension Reform - all organisations, Friday 21 October 8.30am - 10.30am Preparing for Workplace Pension Reform - all organisations, Tuesday 1 November 5.30pm - 7.30pm Depending on demand, they may also run further seminars so let them know if you are interested in attending one but cannot make the specific dates listed. In the meantime, they are happy to meet individually with employers to give assistance on these reforms so get in touch via enquiries@buzzacott.co.uk [Back to top]  6. Introduction to sustainable funding event in London On 20 September, 2-5pm NCVO is running "Introduction to sustainable funding" in London for £35. The afternoon training will include an introduction to the area, an overview of fundraising streams and finish with an analysis of where your organisation is and how to make it sustainable. For full details and to book visit this page; www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/training-events/funding-finance/introduction-sustainable-funding [Back to top]  7. Free Exploring Sustainable Income event in ManchesterOn 18 October, 9:30am - 4:30pm Thameside Third Sector Coalition (T3SC) is hosting a day of exploring sustainable income strategy and all it entails. It promises to be a practical training and over the day you will develop an action plan to take away and implement. It is aimed at managers and trustees with some experience in the area already and the course is run by NCVO. It is free for charities with an income below £100,000, £30 for voluntary organisations over this income. To find out more and download a booking form from the training pages www.t3sc.org or contact Dawn Acton on 0161 339 4985 dawn.acton@t3sc.org [Back to top] 8. Affordable office space available in Brixton, London Small charity member Lambeth Accord have fully accessible and affordable office accommodation (spaces suitable for 2-20 people) with good transport links and blue badge parking available now at their premises Lambeth Accord in Brixton, London. Download the flyer or for more information contact adrian@lambethaccord.org.uk or 020 7274 2299. [Back to top] 9. London's Low Emission Zone is changing in 2012 A heads up from Transport for London; in 2012 there are scheduled changes to the London low Emission Zone (LEZ) which will effect larger vehicles - including community transport vehicles. In short, if your charity drives large vehicles that don't already meet the LEZ standards into London, it's essential you read the information on the link below. www.tfl.gov.uk/lezlondon [Back to top]
So that is your lot for this month. Keep an eye on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/smallcharities) and Twitter account (www.twitter.com/sccoalition) for the things we're talking about and doing during the month. Otherwise have yourselves a lovely September - but you'll undoubtedly hear from us before the next bulletin! |
