New report is released looking at the Faith sector in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough

/by

After receiving funding from the Integrated Care System (ICS), Support Cambridgeshire, led by Hunts Forum, has conducted research into the faith community’s role within Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. It looks at how big they are, what they are doing within our communities, and how we, as infrastructure bodies, can support them.  

This work was bid for, and ‘Expert Evaluated’ and ‘Gethyn William’s non-profit Development‘ both received funding for this two-phase research project. 

Phase one involved compiling the primary research, contacting organisations, and compiling a database, which was then used in phase two to make contact and listen to what the faith sector had to say.  

This was the first time the faith sector in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough was approached to look at a bird’s eye view of how it works and what it is doing. Therefore, not all faith organisations took part, and it is acknowledged that this is only the first part of an ongoing conversation with the sector.  

The ‘Faith, Hope and the Charity Sector report‘, which you can find below, looked at the faith sector in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, how they wanted to engage and collaborate with stakeholders, and some insights learned along the way.  

The report is interesting as it aims to establish how the statutory, voluntary, and faith sectors can, where appropriate, work closer and align the activities they already offer and want to offer. Following this work, further discussions are being held to develop more research around the non-Christian-based/ world faiths in our communities.  

If you are interested in being involved in this research, please get in touch with us, and we will put you in contact with those carrying out this work; email info@supportcambridgeshire.org.uk  

Read the full report here

Funding Month 2024 – reflections of a successful event

/by

This year, we hosted our second annual Funding Month, organised by Support Cambridgeshire and partners. Throughout the month, we held various online webinars open to groups across Cambridgeshire. Just like last year, we collaborated with several other CVSs across the UK to bring in national funders who shared about available funding opportunities. Additionally, we organised local events over two days, which were well attended.

In addition to events where funders discussed funding opportunities, we conducted two sold-out workshops on writing practical funding applications. While sign-ups for events started slow, there was an increased interest closer to the event dates. In total, 213 individuals from Cambridgeshire signed up for 21 events. Feedback from attendees of both national and local funder talks was positive, with most agreeing that they gained valuable insights for their organisations. Attendees of local events also noted an increase in their knowledge about funders.

Lastly, the feedback for our “Tips for Successful Grants” webinars was overwhelmingly positive, with 41% finding them extremely useful, 54% very useful, and the remaining 4% somewhat useful, accompanied by plenty of positive comments.

At Support Cambridgeshire, we strive to offer engaging events. If you want to provide feedback on our events, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We aim to make our events as useful as possible for groups across the county.

Governance Month 2023 Feedback

/by

In November 2023, Support Cambridgeshire partners delivered a range of events that fall under the Governance theme, which was an adaption of the previous year’s events, which looked explicitly at trusteeship. All events were well received, and a write-up of ‘Reserves: what are they good for?’ by Ben Jowitt from CAF can be found HERE with slides and recordings.

Below, you can see the feedback received from those who attended.

An infographic showing the feedback from the Governance event for 2023

Impact Report – June to August 2023

/by

Please find the impact report for the period of 1st June to 31st August 2023 below. This information can be emailed, please contact info@supportcambridgeshire.org.uk 

How the Funding Alert led to a new role supporting children and family’s in Oxmoor

/by

Huntingdon Community Action Partnership Receives Funding

Through the Support Cambridgeshire Funding alert this community group were made aware of funding that had become available from a national funder in their area.

The deadline for applications was really tight, giving the group less than 2 weeks to apply for the initial Expression of Interest, the group worked with Hunts Forum, whose development worker helped them put together an initial application in the short timeline.

As a result the group received a £10,000 grant to develop a local group supporting health and well-being through arts and crafts whilst also using those skills to influence community activities, for example, creating art in public spaces and family activity trails.

Hunts Forum was able to help the group identify a project that would fit in with existing work and also meet the funding criteria, this involved speaking to group leaders and participants and helping structure the outline of the bid.

However, knowing about the opportunity through the Support Cambridgeshire Funding Alert was key to the success, as most groups do not have the time to research funding and deadlines, this is invaluable to unlocking many opportunities across the county.

Launch of State of the Sector report 2023

/by

Support Cambridgeshire, the partnership between Cambridge CVS and Hunts Forum of Voluntary Organisations, has repeated their annual survey to find out about the State of the voluntary sector in Cambridgeshire, and this year we have also worked with a data scientist to analyse what national data from the Charity Commission and 360 Giving tells us about local charities.

We know that local charities and community groups have continued to deliver vital support and services through the pandemic and now through the cost of living crisis. Still, this survey points to the toll this is taking on staff and volunteers. Fewer organisations were optimistic that this year would be better than 2022 compared to 12 months ago. Groups are struggling to find the funds and volunteers they need to meet the demands put on them. Across the county, the amount of money going into the sector and the number of groups available to offer support is uneven.

We can not take our local charities and community groups for granted. The work they do is still #NeverMoreNeeded. We know that many people rely on or benefit from their work.  The partners in Support Cambridgeshire will continue to offer all the help and advice they can to enable our local voluntary sector to thrive and prosper. Still, we need others to join in this effort, or we will see more groups closing and more services disappearing.

Click the banner to be taken to the full state of the sector 2023 report

 

This year we have worked with David Kane of Kane Data to analyse some of the available data from national datasets, thanks to some funding from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICS, through the VCSE Health Allience. The report is based on an analysis of data from the Charity Commission for England and Wales, supplemented with additional data including:

  • Geographic data, including postcode lookups, from the Office for National Statistics
  • Population data from Office for National Statistics
  • Inflation data (using the RPIX measure) from Office for National Statistics
  • Charity Classification from charityclassification.org.uk
  • Data from grantmakers was published using the 360Giving Data Standard.

We worked to exclude those charities that were mistakenly connected with the county and charities that mainly worked nationally or internationally but are based in the county. We also excluded independent schools and university colleges.

This report helps us understand the numbers and sizes of charities and how they are spread across the county. It also gives us an indication of the grants that come into the sector from those grant funders that publish their data on the 360m giving platform.

Click here to read the National Dataset Report CLICK HERE

Connecting Communities Feedback 2023

/by

 

If you wish to have this as a PDF please CLICK HERE & CLICK HERE , you will also find more information about these events including the slides HERE. Connecting Communities is a Support Cambridgeshire event, for any questions relating to this please email info@huntsforum.org.uk

 

 

 

 

 

Impact of our Funding Portal

/by

Support Cambridgeshire is proud to host the Support4Communtites funding portal on our site; it’s free to use and houses many local and larger grants and foundations. Try it today HERE

We were recently sent the below case study of how one organisation was about to access £1,4000 from the Cultivate Fund and funding also from the Evelyn Fund to support their work using the portal.

Sew Positive was awarded Cultivate Cambs funding to roll out a wider programme of Social Prescribing using creative sewing to people aged over 65 who are facing social isolation. This funding was in addition to funding for a Pilot Study funded by The Evelyn Trust’s new Mental Health Fund. We also applied to the Evelyn Trust through the portal, so it’s helped our charity build on smaller funding success. The searchable portal is a vital tool to spotting upcoming funding opportunities and deadlines for a small charity, thank you!

Milissa, CEO and Founder of Sew Positive

We love hearing from groups who have had successes using our portal, so please drop us an email if you want to share your stories – info@supportcambridgeshire.org.uk 

Support Cambridgeshire Impact Report: December – February 2023

/by

Below you can see an infographic highlighting the impact of the Support Cambridgeshire partnership between 1st December 2022 and 28 February 2023

To view the document click here

If you wish for this information, not in infographic form, please get in touch with info@supportcambridgeshire.org.uk

Funing Week – A great success

/by

Between the 14th and 16th of March, Support Cambridgeshire hosted the first Funding Week in partnership with Communities Matters.

The event took place over three days. On Tuesday and Wednesday, there were several national funders discussing their funds. The event ended on Thursday with a Cambridgeshire centre day with speakers who fund Cambridgeshire groups. This included the districts and more local and significant funders such as Cambridgeshire Community Foundation.

The event received much positive feedback, so we are excited to announce we will hold it again next year.

Below you can see a snapshot of the feedback received. Or you can CLICK HERE to download the infographic.

 

Help us improve our website