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Is your group feeling the pinch?
Are you struggling to raise enough money to keep your community group going?
If so, why not visit the ‘Sustainable Funding Doctor’?

High Peak CVS is offering Sustainable Funding Surgeries for community groups and voluntary organisations.

Your first appointment will last up to 45 minutes and will help you:

review where you currently get your funding from;
consider the plans and aspirations you have for your group; and
explore all your future funding options.

A follow-up appointment can be made if necessary.

Bring a trustee or fellow committee member along with you!

14 July 2010, 10.00 am to 1.00 pm, Glossop
21 July 2010, 10.00 am to 1.00 pm, Whaley Bridge
8 September 2010, 10.00 am to 1.00 pm, Buxton
20 September 2010, 1.30 pm to 4.30 pm, Whaley Bridge

Surgery sessions are free, but must be booked in advance. For more information and to book, please contact Louise at High Peak CVS on 01663 736431 or email louise@highpeakcvs.org.uk

Biodiversity and Creativity Project Looking for Volunteers

People, Plants and the Peaks aims to get to know our local plants and insects through a combination of investigation, discdovery and creativity

Exploring the Peaks – visiting different habitats and getting to know some of the plants and animals that make our Peak District landscape so very special. Events will run through the summer and autumn, set in different venues across the Peaks

Volunteers are offered training and travel expenses and are invited to contribute to plans and workshop review sessions. Volunteers will work alongside experienced artists and environmentalists to Investigate, think, scribble, draw and print, add poems, stories, recipes and rumours inviting visitors to make their own book collection that will hold some of the secrets of the Peaks…..

For more information, contact Gordon at: Stone and Water, 51-d west Rd, Buxton.
stoneandwater@btinternet.com

Learning Disabilities Network Co-ordinators at Derbyshire Carers Association

Office-based: South Derbyshire post, Ripley; North Derbyshire post, Chesterfield
£16,159 - £18,748 pro rata -18 Hours (flexible) each post
12 month contract (may be extended subject to funding)

In this challenging and rewarding role, you’ll support the Learning Disabilities Partnership Board and help us make a real difference to the lives of Carers in the county. Supporting and empowering Carers of people with learning disabilities, you will ensure their voices are heard and recognised. To succeed, you’ll boast drive, talent and excellent communication skills.

For an application pack, visit www.derbyshirecarers.co.uk or email: nicolap@derbyshirecarers.co.uk

Closing date: 9 July 2010.
Interview date: 22/23 July 2010

Free Surplus Goods

Giving World Online (GWO) is a scheme set up to help community groups and charities access free surplus goods from businesses and organisations whilst at the same time helping reduce the amount of goods sent to landfill.

During the next three months GWO will be engaging with businesses in the East Midlands to encourage them to use GWO's free service to redirect their surplus goods on to charities and groups that could make use of them. The service is available to all charities and community groups, particularly smaller organisations that are often volunteer-led or operate on very limited funds.

Since the launch of Giving World Online in December 2008 more than £500,000 worth of quality goods have been redirected from landfill to UK charities. To register to receive free goods or list the items that you need visit the Giving World Online website.

Comic Relief UK Grants Programme Cycle 4 Now Open

Current programmes:

Mental Health
Domestic and Sexual Abuse
Refugee and Asylum Seeking Women
Sport for Change
Local Communities
Older People

The deadline for submitting applications is either 3 or 17 September 2010 – please check under particular programmes.

Further information: www.comicrelief.com/apply_for_a_grant/uk

Guardian Charity Awards

£6000 for groups with income between £5,000 and £1.5 million

Five smaller charities have the chance to win £6,000 and consultancy support in the Guardian Charity Awards 2010. The awards are open to UK social welfare charities which have an income of between £5,000 and £1.5 million.

The deadline is 16 July 2010. Further information: www.guardian.co.uk/charity-awards

Social Injustice Grants Programme

Charities, social enterprises and community groups can apply for the UK Grants Programme 2009 to 2012, administered by Comic Relief. The programme aims to tackle social injustice by helping people make lasting and positive changes in their lives and their communities.

The current grant on offer is between £25,000 and £40,000 and will help charities, social enterprises and community groups work with vulnerable young people between the ages of 11 and 25. For more information visit the One East Midlands website.

Lush Grants Available

Grants of up to £10,000 are available from the Lush Charity Pot, set up by the handmade cosmetic group Lush.

Grants of a few hundred pounds to a maximum of £10,000 are available for small grassroots charities, community groups and non-violent direct action groups working in the areas of the environment, conservation, animal protection and human rights.

In the past, nearly all its grants have gone to small organisations with a turnover of less than £250,000 per year. The company is particularly keen to support projects that create change and aim to get to the route of the problem. They also prefer to fund project costs rather than core costs, but will occasionally fund salaries.

Applications can be submitted at any time. For more information visit the Lush website.

Improve Your Volunteering Skills

Would you like to improve your volunteering skills? Would £1000 help you in your goal? If so you may be interested in applying for a bursary from the Torch Trophy Trust. The trust is a charitable organisation, whose main aim is to encourage voluntary work in sport and other related outdoor activities within local communities. The bursaries provide financial support for volunteers wanting to improve their skills through training but who do not have the funds to do so. For more information and to apply for a bursary visit the Torch Trophy Trust website.

Timetable Update for Equality Act

There has been speculation over whether the implementation of the Equality Act, which was passed by parliament in the run up to the election, would be delayed following the withdrawal of the online timetable by the Government Equality Office, and as the new government hadn't committed to the previously published schedule. The official site – www.equalities.gov.uk/equality_bill.aspx – now says "the Government Equalities Office continues to work on the basis of the previously announced timetable, which envisaged commencement of the Act's core provisions in October 2010" but gives the proviso that the government is currently considering how the different provisions will be commenced. From Out-law.com, www.out-law.com/page-11164

Vetting and Barring Scheme Changes Clarification

Information circulated last week on the Vetting and Barring Scheme may not have been right when it said that mandatory registration of new employees was still (currently) due to go ahead later this year. While it remains the case that there has only been a definitive statement on the voluntary registration previously due to start 26 July, the 'halt' does appear to apply here too. For further information as it becomes available go to www.isa-gov.org.uk

Zero Rate VAT on New Buildings for Charitable Use

HM Revenue and Customs has issued a Brief to remind charities that the 'charitable buildings' VAT concession (ESC 3.29) is withdrawn from 1 July 2010, www.hmrc.gov.uk/briefs/vat/brief2610.htm It has also published 'Calculating qualifying use for a charitable or a communal residential building' (VAT Information Sheet 13/10) giving guidance on the new VAT position on such buildings, and aims to help with determining whether a building is intended to be used 95 per cent for a qualifying purpose. Download (pdf, 45KB).

Improving Sector Access to Capital and Investment

The first of a series of papers for consultation from the Funding Commission (managed by NCVO), 'Capitalisation and Social Investment' sets out its findings and emerging recommendations on giving organisations better access to capital, to help them build capacity, develop services or cope with unexpected events.

The four recommendations, in outline, cover developing financial literacy programmes for voluntary organisations, surveying current trust and foundation grant making practices and how these could help, HM Treasury to establish a Task Force to assess the feasibility of attracting new private capital into investment and Government to help develop the market place.

Comments are invited - www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/fundingcommission

Funding Cuts: Recording and Coping

Chief executives body ACEVO has set up a new Cutswatch website at www.cutswatch.org.uk "to provide guidance and support to third sector organisations through public spending cuts". It will provide news, case studies and other information on how to cope with cuts, and is open to further suggestions on what to include.

NCVO has also got a Coping With Cuts web section at www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/advice-support/coping-with-cuts with links to various resources, news, analysis and also its 'Crowdsourcing the Cuts' feature, which asks for your information on central and local government funding cuts, for this financial year (also see www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/cuts).

Meanwhile, The Guardian newspaper has created a Cutswatch web section at www.guardian.co.uk/society/series/cutswatch with an online form to submit information about public service cuts in your area, to inform their coverage. They are also interested in stories on new and innovative ways to provide services as a result of the cuts.

The Commission for the Compact has issued a reminder on its guidance for local authorities on managing budgetary revisions.

Help with Responding to Negative Coverage

Third Sector magazine reports that The Impact Coalition, which promotes transparency among charities, has set up a media response unit to deal with negative media coverage of charities. Charities will be able to refer journalists to this unit, which will respond on the charity's behalf. News item at www.thirdsector.co.uk/news/1011509/ Impact Coalition website at www.impactcoalition.org.uk

Voluntary Sector Minister to Chair Sector Committee

Alun Michael MP, the first minister responsible for the voluntary sector in the last government and former First Minister for Wales, has been elected chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Community and Voluntary Sector. From Third Sector, www.thirdsector.co.uk/news/1011318/

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