Tag Archive for: NCVO

The road ahead is bumpy, but we are here to help

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Kathryn Shepherdson header

For those unaware, on the 29th of February, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) launched its Road Ahead paper. A research piece which looks at the up-and-coming potential challenges facing the voluntary and community sectors in the coming year.

Depending on your organisation’s shape, size, and makeup, the challenges will be different. Here are a few I found interesting along with how Support Cambridgeshire can support your organisation this year:

Funding Uncertainty: Voluntary organisations often rely on public funding, grants, and donations. Economic fluctuations or changes in government priorities could lead to funding uncertainties, affecting the sustainability of organisations. We are already seeing that public donations are decreasing, and with more local authorities declaring bankruptcy, this is a worrying time. Groups need to look at income generation from a mixture of sources. With that, Support Cambridgeshire continues to offer the Support Cambridgeshire funding database, a free directory of funders. We also have a Funding alert email highlighting local and national funding pots the team thinks your group could be interested in, plus our countywide Funding Month in March, which allows you to listen to over 25 local and national funders talk about how to access their funding pots.

 

Increased Demand for Services: Economic and demographic changes are leading to an increase in demand for some services; we expect this to increase further. The uncertainty around political changes is not helping matters when thinking about the future and what groups can do now to support their clients and stay relevant. This has not helped with the national decrease in volunteers that the sector has seen over the past few years. While Support Cambridgeshire is unable to support you with the uncertainty, we are here to support you to be ready for whatever comes around the corner. This includes running regular training on strategy, finance, and much more. Don’t forget our on-demand training portal, where we keep adding training, which is open to anyone, at any time of the day. In addition, our Governance Month we are launching in November, is worth checking out, where we have a range of events looking at the governance of our sector. Regarding the volunteers, we have our Connecting Communities month in June, which looks at all things volunteer recruitment and retainment and don’t forget the Volunteer Cambs website.

 

Policy and Regulatory Changes: Changes in government policies, regulations, or compliance requirements could also impact local community groups in Cambridgeshire. This year, several laws are coming into place around HR, Procurement, Environment, and Campaigning. This is going to require groups to keep up to date with legislation and how they comply. Support Cambridgeshire knows it is important to inform the sector of the changes, making sure we highlight these changes in our news blogs and updates, which you’ll find on the front page of the Support Cambridgeshire website. You can also sign up to have these drop into your inbox. The other place to keep updated on these changes is through our network sessions, which run regularly throughout the year. We have several opportunities to hear what’s happening both locally and nationally.

2024 is going to be one of those years which has lots of change; however, repeatedly voluntary and community organisations have proven that they are up to the challenge. Support Cambridgeshire, however, wants to hear how you are doing, so don’t forget to get engaged in our annual State of the Sector survey, which allows us to see locally if these national trends are the same in Cambridgeshire.

 

This blog was aided by ChatGPT but all views are of the author.

Cost of Giving Crisis – a view from Cambridgeshire.

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“With costs climbing, funding falling and demand increasing, this is not just a cost of living crisis. For charities, this is a Cost of Giving Crisis.”

This is the introduction to the latest research from NCVO that highlights the issues facing charities and community organisations across the country[1].

Their headline results show that:

1. 85% of charities they spoke to in a recent survey said this winter will be as tough – or even tougher (54%) than it was last year.

2. If our sector doesn’t get the support it urgently needs, 1 in 5 charities could be forced to close until things improve, leaving people and communities at risk.

This is all driven by the perfect storm of costs climbing, funding falling and demand increasing.

The sad thing about this is that it does not come as a surprise to those of us here at Support Cambridgeshire. Across the county we have been seeing these trends for a while now and the findings are backed up by our most recent research[2] which was conducted over 8 months ago.

Even back in February of this year we were seeing a marked drop in optimism, with only 43% of groups believing the next year would be better than the last. (compared to 59% the previous year). We were also seeing 85% of groups reporting that a lack of funding would be a barrier to their ability to deliver.

On almost the same day that NCVO launched their campaign, we also saw the latest results from the Nottingham Trent University Barometer Survey[3]. The report entitled ‘A tale of two sectors’ shows that bigger organisations with an income over £100K are finding it easier to navigate the crisis than the smaller ones.  Those smaller organisations are faring less well financially and they also report that:

“The great volunteering decline nationally is hitting small charities hard – almost six in ten (59%) small charities report that recruiting volunteers is a major concern for them, compared to 15% of large charities.”

This mirrors our local research. We know that over 80% of Cambridgeshire registered charities have an income below £100K and that many are struggling. We also know that locally, after funding, the biggest barrier faced by charities is recruiting volunteers with 73% of organisations indicating this is an issue for them.

The barometer survey highlights real issues for the paid workforce, and whilst nationally this is growing quicker than in the private sector, we know locally many organisations are struggling to recruit. The research indicated that nationally 30% of charities were reporting increased levels of burn out and 25% were seeing higher sickness absence. This is not a surprise to us. We are seeing more groups reporting issues with recruiting staff, 54% saw this as an issue that was impacting on their work this year, up from 35% last year.

But we also had groups sharing feedback like:

“All staff are over stretched”.

“Feeling overstretched and undertrained for the job”.

“Staff [don’t have the] ability to work the hours we need”.

These findings are echoed in our day-to-day work supporting local groups. Staff at all levels, especially those that are running small organisations, are feeling stretched and burnt out, and we are seeing higher levels of turnover than ever before.

What can we do?

Support Cambridgeshire fully supports NCVO in their campaign to raise the issues facing the sector at a national level. But this is not enough. We need to be raising this locally. We will be making sure that local councillors and those across all the local statutory sectors are aware of what they will lose if there is not sufficient support for local organisations.

  1. We need to see more co-ordinated support for the sector.
  2. We need to see longer term funding to ensure the sector can plan and remain sustainable.
  3. We need there to be an understanding of what is lost every time a group closes or is unable to take on more clients.

The sector is no longer simply nice to have, it is an essential part of the safety net that individuals and communities rely on, and if the sector is unable to offer that support, more people will fall though the net and increase the demands they make on statutory and health services that are also at capacity.

Support Cambridgeshire partners are here to help.

Both Hunts Forum and CCVS are there for all groups across the county. Here is a taste of how we can help.

Help with Funding.

We can offer advice on how to diversify your income. We can help with funding applications by acting as a critical friend. You can visit Support Cambridgeshire 4 Community to find both local and national funders. https://funding.idoxopen4community.co.uk/supportcambs

Help with volunteering.

Volunteer Cambs – visit the new website developed to help recruit and manage volunteers. https://www.volunteercambs.org.uk/

We can help you to improve how you manage and recruit volunteers through training, one to one support and networks.

General help and support.

Have a look at our extensive training offer https://supportcambridgeshire.org.uk/training/whats-on/

Come along to one of our network events to get hints and tips and learn from other organisations. https://supportcambridgeshire.org.uk/relationships/

Individual support and advice. Contact us and we can help with issues and problems, even if we don’t know the answer we probably know who best to ask to get the help you need. info@supportcambridgeshire.org.uk

Sign up for our newsletter to keep up with all the latest news. https://supportcambridgeshire.org.uk/about/subscribe/

[1] Read more on the NCVO website https://www.ncvo.org.uk/get-involved/cost-of-giving-crisis/

[2] Read more and see the reports on our website https://supportcambridgeshire.org.uk/news/state-sector-survey/

[3] The VCSE Barometer is developed and delivered by NTU’s VCSE Data and Insights National Observatory in partnership with Pro Bono Economics.  It is supported by the major UK national VCSE infrastructure organisations and membership bodies.https://www.ntu.ac.uk/research/groups-and-centres/projects/vcse-data-and-insights-national-observatory/vcse-barometer-survey

NCVO’s statement regarding the closure of The FSI

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On the 15th March 2023 The FSI, a trusted organisation which has supported many charities and not-for-profits over the years, announced it would be closing. This comes only a year after The Small Charities Coalition closed its doors.

Many may know The FSI for the Small Charities Week campaign, which runs annually in June. NCVO highlight in their article that ‘We were already working to deliver the Small Charity Week campaign with The FSI this year and are actively talking to our civil society group partners about this.’

Support Cambridgeshire shares the sadness that another infrastructure organisation folds, just as the voluntary and community sector needs all the support it can get.

Click HERE to read the full article.

How charities have adapted to face the challenges of covid-19

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NCVO (National Council for Voluntary Organisations) have just completed a nine-month study on how charities have adapted to face the challenges of covid-19.  The Time Well Spent report reveals how the volunteer experience has fundamentally changed and what this means for the future of volunteering.

The Time Well Spent is an NCVO research programme focusing on the volunteer experience. It aims to provide rich, practical insight that will inform debate within the sector and strengthen the impact of volunteering.

It is the fourth in a series of Time Well Spent thematic reports focusing on the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the volunteering experience.

What did they learn?

  • As volunteering opportunities became scarcer, the overall number of people volunteering fell.
  • The number of people volunteering has fallen, and organisations are still struggling to recruit the volunteers they need.
  • I.T. has become integral to keeping people connected but has created a digital divide.
  • Empathy, a sense of duty and guilt became some of the most significant motivating factors.
  • Burnout, health concerns, and changing priorities have caused many volunteers to step back.

For details on the full report, click here

#YouMadeItHappen

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We all know that volunteers are the life-blood of many community organisations, and that without their dedication activities and projects would simply not be delivered.

So lets all join in with NCVO’s latest campaign – YouMadeItHappen.

This is an opportunity for voluntary sector organisations across Cambridgeshire to say a big thank you to their supporters and to show them the difference their time and money has made, and its all happening soon.

NCVO are asking every charity to use the hashtag #YouMadeItHappen on social media on Friday 11 October 2019.

Here’s some guidance from NCVO about the day:

  • Join others across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram all day on 11 October 2019 by thinking of the messages you want to highlight and using the hashtag #YouMadeItHappen.
  • The key is to make sure your supporters see you saying thank you. Get everyone to notice the hashtag and see the amazing organisations they and their friends and family are supporting, as well as the huge range of work charities do.
  • Focus on providing stories and statistics that illustrate the difference your supporters make. This is not about raising money or getting more volunteers signing up, it is about simply saying ‘thank you’ to those who have already donated their time and money, as well as showing them exactly what that time and money is achieving for your mission.