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NCVO recruits its 6,000th member.... and from the North West

blackpoolcommunitynews — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:55:07 +0000

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations is the largest umbrella body in the country and celebrated that fact yesterday by releasing a press statement that the organisation had signed up its 6,000th member organisation. This milestone member was Shisha Ltd, a visual crafts and arts organisation based in Manchester.

Blackpool Groups wishing to benefit from the NCVO should have a closer look at what the organisation has got to offer. Act quickly and you could be member No. 6001perhaps!?

Developing the civil society agenda

Robin Simpson — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:26:19 +0000

On Thursday I was in London to meet Stuart Etherington, Chief Executive of NCVO. Stuart is working on developing NCVO's civil society agenda and is having a series of one-to-one meetings with organisations representing independent schools, co-operatives, housing associations, trade unions, universities etc. Having discussed the role of sports clubs in civil society with Tim Lamb from the Central Council for Physical Recreation, he was keen to have a similar conversation with me about voluntary arts groups. This fits well with VAN's own vision of "an empowered, participative, fulfilled and healthy civil society" and it was great to hear that Stuart sees the voluntary arts as a key component of civil society. It will be interesting to see how far NCVO can take the idea of a more collaborative approach to developing civil society in the period leading up to the next general election.

The Third Sector

Frank Hobson — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:45:12 +0000

Made contact recently with PrimeTimers an organisation that aims to bridge the gap between business and the 'third sector': charities, voluntary and community groups, and social enterprises - not-for-profit organisations generally. Established in 2001 the founders of PrimeTimers spotted a need to provide guidance to individuals with strong private sector backgrounds who wanted to move into, or give help to, the charity sector. They provide guidance, information and support to interested individuals about the sector and its opportunities. In turn they provide a range of services to the sector including interim managers, volunteers, trustees, and part-time or consultancy support.

The definition of third sector is somewhat confusing and not entirely consistent (but more consistent than that for Web 2.0 - see previous post). Obviously it includes those organisations, ranging from small groups of volunteers up to the big boys (sorry - and girls) such as Oxfam and Shelter, that spring readily to mind as charities. Social enterprises (a fairly recent coinage, I suspect) are harder to define but are organisations with a community purpose. There is a good definition on the Cabinet Office website (http://tinyurl.com/4h9c7r). NCVO, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, is another source of information on the sector.

When you move on to the wider not-for-profit sector life becomes even more confusing. As well as bodies such as museums and art galleries this includes companies limited by guarantee that operate in a fully commercial way but do not have shareholders and are committed to use surpluses for charitable purposes. Often, they are working in service sectors comprising both profit-making and not-for-profit organisations. A good example is the youth sector. Back in the mid-90s careers services (then run by local authorities) were put out to tender. Some stayed with local authorities, some went to fully commercial organisations and others to not-for-profit companies; a mix that then carried through into the Connexions partnerships. As with Connexions, many in this sector are spending or distributing government funds.

Overall, a secor with much going for it.

Leadership and governance support

Robin Simpson — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:12:03 +0000

On Thursday I was at Community Matters in London for a meeting about the new ‘Leadership & Governance’ National Support Service. This programme – funded by Capacitybuilders as one of the replacements for the old ChangeUp national Hubs – is a partnership between NCVO, acevo and the Community Sector Coalition. The meeting I attended was an opportunity for Coalition members to help to plan the parts of the programme which will be delivered by the CSC. The emphasis for the programme (as for the all the national support services) is to help ‘Support Providers’ (including local infrastructure organisations and national membership bodies such as voluntary arts umbrella organisations) to deliver capacity-building to local front-line organisations. In the case of the Leadership & Governance support service there will be a particular focus on small community groups – including voluntary arts groups. The old Governance Hub was very helpful to VAN and enabled us to deliver a programme of governance support to voluntary arts umbrella bodies. It looks like there should be even more potential to improve leadership and governance in local voluntary arts groups through the new national support service.

NCVO Board awayday

Robin Simpson — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 06:53:36 +0000

On Tuesday I was at Highgate House in Creaton, Northamptonshire for the annual NCVO Board awayday. There was much discussion of the Conservative Party green paper on the role of the third sector which had just been released and which includes several proposals that NCVO had been pushing for (changing the Office of the Third Sector to an Office for Civil Society, establishing a select committee for the sector etc). As well as the usual business, the Board meeting looked in detail at NCVO's environmental performance. You can see details of progress on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiHnvpY8WkA

The full value of the voluntary arts

Robin Simpson — Tue, 20 May 2008 15:47:00 +0000

I was in London again on Tuesday to meet Richard Piper and Jake Eliot from the Performance team at NCVO. We had a fascinating and wide-ranging discussion about performance, effectiveness and impact in the voluntary arts. Richard was keen to explore the application of NCVO’s ‘Full Value’ model (see www.performancehub.org.uk/fullvalue) in a voluntary arts context. We talked in detail about the forthcoming government seminar on excellence and the voluntary arts (on 4 June) and looked at examples and learning from the wider voluntary and community sector that might prove helpful to this debate.

Keeping an eye on Olympic funding

Robin Simpson — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:04:36 +0000

At my regular meeting with our informal voluntary cultural sector alliance partners Heritage Link and the Central Council for Physical Recreation, we were joined by Pete Moorey from NCVO who worked with us on our joint campaign over the diversion of Lottery funds to the 2012 Olympics. We talked about the latest select committee reports on the funding of the Olympics and agreed to write a joint letter to the Secretary of State, Andy Burnham, to remind the Government of the commitments that it made to us at the beginning of the year. We also discussed the Cultural Olympiad, the draft Heritage Protection Bill, the development of a European voluntary sector ‘compact’ and much more.

Improving your productivity through technology – Opportunities for the voluntary and community sector

Colin Harrison — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:20:08 +0000

10 June 2008 10:30 - 16:15

Microsoft Office - Cardinal Place
Auditorium 1 & 2
100 Victoria Street
London SW1E 5JL

NCVO and Microsoft UK are hosting an interactive conference combining case studies, workshops and keynote speakers to explore the potential of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) for small and medium sized charities.

Understanding that complexity, resources and finances can hold technology development back, Microsoft and NCVO aim to introduce you to ways of accessing the latest technology through the help of a special donations scheme, enabling your organisation to achieve more. The conference will include case studies from charitable organisations that demonstrate how they are already reaping the benefits from using the latest technology. The event will close with an informative session on ICT funding and how you can access technology donations through Microsoft UK.

This full day event is free of charge to all charity employees on a first come first served basis.

Online registration will be open from 23rd April 2008 at http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032376570&Culture=en-GB

The civil society agenda

Robin Simpson — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 17:05:16 +0000

I was in London on Wednesday to attend my first full NCVO Executive meeting since being elected to the Executive in February. Among many other topics, we had a very interesting discussion about NCVO’s plans to develop the ‘civil society agenda’ – looking at how voluntary organisations, community groups, universities, trade unions, housing associations etc. can work together to develop a strong and healthy civil society. This echoes the mission statement the Voluntary Arts Network adopted many years ago and I will, of course, be working hard to ensure that arts organisations are an integral part of the developing agenda. Two key issues came out of our discussion: firstly the need to see ‘civil society’ as a space in which to work together rather than a ‘sector’; and secondly the need to identify specific causes and issues that will motivate all parts of civil society to work together.

Presentation to NCVO's Publishers' Forum

drugeducationforum — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:22:05 +0000

As you might remember I was asked to come and talk about this blog to the NCVO's Publishers' Forum last week.

I'm not sure how helpful this presentation will be without me talking to it, but I'm an oversharer by nature:

[slideshare id=310961&doc=presentation-to-ncvo-120579213291139-4&w=425]

My basic theme was about how we came to blog, why we do it, how we get and try and keep you reading, and how it helps me understand the field better.

In my talk I spoke about two publications that I didn't have time to put into the slides.

Don't Make Me Think, which points out that people understand and use the web differently so you need to try to give them the access point they want rather than the one you expect them to use.

I also recommended The Secret Underground Guide to Social Media for Organisations by Colin McKay. I've read this a couple of times now and it's packed with good advice about how to get social media use up and running in organisations that might initially be reluctant to enjoy the bracing possibility of reader feedback.

If this is of interest, you should also take a look at Anne Welsh's presentation. Anne worked at Drugscope until recently and she reflects on how they have used blogs.

Finding the Time for Web 2.0

annewelsh — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:18:39 +0000

Presentation for the NCVO Publishers' Forum.

Links to sites mentioned in the presentation here.

[slideshare id=313408&doc=finding-the-time-for-web-20-1205921522381102-3&w=425]

A civil society?

wilks — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 14:18:08 +0000

88% of us think that there is a social divide in the UK, only 5% think this gap will narrow in the next five years, and only 23% would be prepared to get involved to bridge the gap. [from a recent public poll by NCVO]

NCVO's Publishers Forum Conference 2008 - make web 2.0 work for you

drugeducationforum — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:22:07 +0000

I've been asked to present at the NCVO's Publishers Forum Conference in March where I'll be talking about the basics of blogging: benefits, practicalities and pitfalls.

I'll be exploring:

the benefits of blogging for your organisation, including community building, encouraging multiple views and perspectives, real time updates, as well as strategic uses such as campaigning and marketing. This workshop also looks at the practicalities of running a blog and the pitfalls to avoid.

So if you've got any perspectives (from an audience point of view) that you think I should share with the workshop then do let me know.

I'd also like to thank Anne for saying such nice things about this blog on hers.