Caro Evans

In an era of unprecedented challenges and opportunities, UK charities stand at the forefront of social innovation and community support. To continue making a meaningful impact, we must embrace forward-thinking strategies and adapt to the evolving landscape. Here are three pivotal areas for driving success in the charitable sector: 1. Digital Transformation: Embracing digital tools can amplify our reach and efficiency. From leveraging social media for fundraising to utilizing data analytics for impactful decision-making, digital transformation is key. It’s about meeting our supporters where they are and creating seamless, engaging experiences. 2. Collaborative Partnerships: Building strong alliances with other charities, businesses, and government entities can unlock new resources and innovative solutions. By working together, we can tackle complex social issues more effectively and create a greater collective impact. 3. Sustainable Funding Models: Diversifying funding sources is crucial for long-term sustainability. Exploring social enterprises, impact investing, and innovative fundraising campaigns can provide the financial stability needed to support our missions. It’s about thinking beyond traditional grants and donations.

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Really enjoyed presenting to over 150 fundraisers with the fabulous Sarah Smith on being an undercover grantmaker, and what we've learnt from our experience. Here's some key takeaways we have if you're applying to trusts for funding, from our experience of being trustees of charitable trusts - Context matters. Leverage the key issues of the day and what's in the news to show you're relevant and can help the Trust tackle problems in the world - Your brand, your website, your charity accounts all form part of your application, whether you like it or not - Don't sweat the small stuff - typos are not as big a deal as you.think they are. More important is to be jargon free, and make it easy for the Trust to see what it is you do - Funders love to see collaboration. So if you're working with others, show it! - Grantmaking trustees don't have much time, so make your application easy to skim read. You're not just competing with other charities, you're competing with the Euros on the telly! Anything you'd add?

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Cranfield Trust mentoring is valued by over a hundred charity leaders every year, and supports them to reflect, challenge their perspectives, and develop their confidence. Emilia Ufir-Kaparaboina our Mentoring Co-ordinator, talks more about the value of mentoring in a new blog

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Popped over to Reset Connect today as part of #londonclimateweek. Some interesting meetings had and lots of takeaways. Exciting to learn more about ESG, where Action Against Hunger UK sit and how best to talk about our programmes that cover both the ‘E’ and the ‘S’ across the world. #climate #esg

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Key points from IVAR's new publication ‘Batten down the hatches’; 💡 Fierce competition for funds, especially between larger organisations and smaller grassroots groups. 💡 Charities are struggling to keep up with shifting funder priorities, feeling pressured to demonstrate innovation at the expense of proven long-term work. 💡 Grant application processes have become increasingly onerous and opaque, with lengthy applications, reporting requirements, and delays in decision-making. 💡 Charities are calling for more long-term and unrestricted funding to reduce the burden of constant applications and enable the delivery of well-evidenced, effective services. 💡 There's a need for more flexible and human practices in grant-making, including reduced reporting requirements, increased transparency in decision-making, and more feedback on unsuccessful applications.

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What’s the difference between #Coproduction and #Codesign? Great link below to an article by Andy Wright at The Consultation Institute (tCI) #CoproductionWeek

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*** 2024 GRANT FUNDING NOW OPEN *** Cornwall Women's Fund is now accepting applications for our 2024 grant funding! We aim to support community projects in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly supporting women’s mental health. For this round of funding projects with a focus on perinatal mental health will be given preferential consideration. In 2021, a team from Oxford University undertook in-depth research into the needs of women and girls across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. They considered existing research where it was available and interviewed charity and community leaders, and women from across the county to get a true picture of what really mattered to them and which areas it was difficult to find funding for. (Read the report here: https://bit.ly/3QLpgdv) One of the 4 key areas in their report “Understanding what matters to women and girls in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly” was women and girls mental health, identifying a particular lack of support for those accessing perinatal mental health services. Our Members have voted the area of Women and Girls Mental Health for our 2024 grant funding and we are now accepting applications. Grants range from £500 to a maximum of £1,000 Our grants are administered by Cornwall Community Foundation and you can find more information and details of how to apply here: https://lnkd.in/gY3Ryzy

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🗓 It's Youth Employment Week A big part of the work EveryYouth does to support young people who have experienced homelessness, is around education, employment and training. We've put together a couple of videos to explain how we do that in a bit more detail. You can check that out here 👇 👇👇 👇 #youthemploymentweek #youthemployment #charity #jobs #supportforyoungpeople

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Stewardship and Supporter journeys - Important but no substitute for Communications When I moved over from the dark side of high street legal practice to legacy fundraising, one of the first things I was introduced too, back in the early 2000's, was the donor pyramid. Supporters start off with the odd gift or bit of fundraising, go on to be a committed giver, and it's our job to convert them to legacy pledgers. Thankfully, we've moved on since then. We understand many pledgers don't support the charity during their lifetime, and don't want to. Prosperity modelling doesn't necessarily work, the £1m+ gifts I have secured are from those who live in modest houses with modest lifestyles. Many of the millionaires I have met have left gifts, but they have been modest. It's not a guarantee, but legacy fundraising is looking outside the box. I see so many jobs speaking about creating supporter journeys, mapping the route where a donor goes, and which communications should be sent to them. But those that are flying are those who treat a legacy prospect as a person- who speak with them and understand their motivations, their interest, their life, and why the charity matters to them. They must be treated as major donors. Everybody deserves the time to tell their story, and to consider including a gift. And everyone should be treated with their own merit, irrespective of their capacity to give. We must not shy away from be-spoking a journey through putting people into data sets and hoping for the best result on analytical results. And treat every donor as though they were your Grandparent. If you do, you'll have had a career like mine where you've enjoyed every second of speaking to some remarkable people, often with heart breaking stories. One supporter I spoke to recently has lost two of her three children, and will turn 100 next month, largely alone. She will get personalised greetings from World Cancer Research Fund - none of the wider staff team hesitated in posing for bespoke birthday card for her - because these are the people, sometimes lonely and isolated, sometimes fraught with personal grief, but who show forethought, generosity and care, who together make a difference for future generations by supporting charities fighting hard in this strange and sometimes difficult world we live in.

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Have you/your family member experienced Home Care in Warrington? We want to hear YOUR experiences of accessing and using home care. Your feedback is invaluable, and can create a better change for Warrington https://lnkd.in/eucQFTp6

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Had a recent major milestone with #VCSE developments in Bristol, North Somerset & South Gloucestershire – sharing the highlights for now… My role as VCSE Lead is to develop the strategic approach to VCSE integration into Healthier Together, our integrated care system. I started in this brand-new role 7 months ago – it’s busy and exciting and brilliantly complex! Lots of discussions and collaboration with many partners led to a VCSE Developments & Integration paper co-authored with Fiona Mackintosh that went to the ICB Board recently. I am delighted and proud that the following proposals were wholeheartedly approved and these are some of the practical implications: 1. new principle: ‘invest in VCSE activities as a positive action to address systemic and health inequalities’. This will mean: investments through our new VCSE Brokerage Framework (more very soon); taking risks and doing things differently. 2. new principle: ‘design for smaller’ to enable micro and hyper-local VCSE activities. This will mean: we have to make processes and practices that lead to micro investments that are doable for most of the VCSE sector. 3. new principle: ‘grant first’ to enable appropriate investment in micro and hyper-local VCSE activities. This will mean: familiarity with grants (compared to lack of familiarity and barriers associated with contracts and procurement) will encourage innovative VCSE- and community-led proposals. 4. co-design and collaborate to develop a new Healthier Together VCSE Integration Strategy. This will help us to build on our great work to date and frame our collective plan for the next few years. I believe these new approaches are ground-breaking and they will consolidate our collaboration and enhance our ICS’s work to address health and systemic inequalities. Lots of work to be done to implement these new approaches across our ICS partners, including two acute trusts North Bristol NHS Trust University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, the community provider Sirona care & health, the mental health provider Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, three local authorities South Gloucestershire Council North Somerset Council Bristol City Council, the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire ICB and 8,000 #VCSE organisations… gonna be busy!!! #innovation #systemchange #people #communities #VCSE #partnership

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There is no Green Agenda I missed this rousing blog from Fraser Stewart last year - thanks to Association of Charitable Foundations for bringing it to my attention. Includes the phrase: "...the idea that “net zero” will automatically make all of us worse off or must inevitably penalise the working classes might just be the most arse-achingly infuriating myth we tell ourselves today." #Economy #Climate #JustTransition #Sustainability #NetZero #ElectionYear https://lnkd.in/eFu6waja

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About to develop a heritage project? Considering working with a consultant to secure NLHF funding? The last blog in our #CraigmyleNLHFweek series shares a client perspective and is well worth a read.

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With a new brand, a new addition to the team, and the launch of our four new philanthropy Funds, it was time to create a shiny new philanthropy brochure - and I love it! If you/your organisation are looking to understand how to involve the ocean in your #ESG strategy, or are looking to support #biodiversity 🐠 #bluecarbon 🌊 #oceanpollution ☠ projects, or promote #oceanliteracy 🌍 and #education 🗺 please do take a look and get in touch. Ocean research is the first step in understanding the best course of action in protecting and restoring our planet and climate, and educating the next generation of ocean scientists and engineers is key to everything that we do at NOC. Let me know what you think 😍 #oceanscience #ocean #oceanaction #climatechange #philanthropy #partnerships #corporatepartnerships #values #goals #NOC https://lnkd.in/eEpmfpNa

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Only a few days left to apply for the role of Philanthropy Manager here at Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity To tell you a little bit more about us: We offer flexible working, with 2-3 days in the office (we are right opposite Russell Square tube station – so easy to reach). The Philanthropy team have a team day in the office every Monday, which I feel sets me up nicely for the week. We are a big team so it is nearly always someone’s birthday, anniversary, surprise wedding – you can usually find us in the kitchen about 3pm eating lots of cake (all dietary requirements catered for). We offer 30 days annual leave, plus bank holidays. With the option to buy or sell holiday each year. This helps a huge amount if you are parent like me and have the juggle of school holidays to contend with. The charity offers a great pension scheme, I am getting on a bit now and have lots of pensions, but none have ever been as great as the one here. The charity’s auto-enrolment contribution is above the statutory minimum with an employee contribution of 3% of basic salary, and a charity contribution of 5%. If you then choose to increase your contribution to 5%, the charity will contribute 10%. The charity offers a Health Cash Plan which enables you to take advantage of health-related benefits via the scheme. The scheme is there to help access health services such as virtual doctors, second opinions, skin worries, eye care and dental care. In fact, they even offer prescription sunglasses, which I am off to purchase this week. We care about our mental health greatly – in our team you will spend a lot of time in the hospital itself, as we are so close by. This is both incredible, but hard at times. We want to ensure all our employees can have access to support if they need it. I recently did some bereavement training, which not only helped me professionally, but also helped my own mental health as I had been working on fundraising for a particular brain tumour research project, which was challenging to hear about at times. There is so much more that the charity offers, but these are just a few of the things I have used in my time here. Also don’t forget those lovely NHS discounts! So, if you think our charity might be for you, do apply and I am also very happy to answer any questions. #Philanthropy #Hiring #Fundraising

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If you represent a charity, good cause or non-profit organisation we have a few different ways in which we can help you to raise funds through recycling depending on how you interact with your supporters. https://lnkd.in/epessNW4 #charity #fundraising

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Why do inequalities exist in maternity care? The NHS recognised disparities in maternity outcomes when setting up a national Taskforce in 2022 to investigate the topic. Our latest research in Haringey, prompted by high stillbirth rates in the borough, explored the experience of maternity services for seldom heard groups. We found: 🗣 Communication: people with English as a 2nd language were less like to receive info, and sometimes struggled to access info in their 1st language 🤷‍♀️ Choice: understanding of cultural needs wasn't always consistent, and respondents didn't always feel able to raise concerns. People felt less happy about post-natal care in particular 👩‍⚕️ Support: only half reported having a named midwife. We recommended one midwife through pregnancy and birth Our recommendations aim to improve people's access to and experience of maternity services in the borough https://lnkd.in/eXPK5bqk #maternity #healthinequalities #haringey #healthwatch

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This is timely! An excellent guide for trustees who are considering borrowing, perhaps for the first time. It can be very worrying, ensuring that you comply with charity regulation and do the best by your beneficiaries. The guide will walk you through the process. (Declaration of interest - I used to work for Charity Bank, so I know they are good peeps).

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Great opportunity to make a difference on #ClimateAction in Scotland with this new role with SCVO (Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations) working with the brilliant Beth Mukushi on Growing Climate Confidence in Scotland's third sector. Climate Development Officer, 3 days/wk, blended working with a base in Glasgow, Edinburgh or Inverness. Job purpose: - Promote and raise awareness: Using the Growing Climate Confidence brand to reach organisations to encourage action on the climate crisis and help them relate this to their organisational mission. - Support organisations to develop and implement net-zero action plans, signposting to specialist sources of support and funding opportunities. - Develop shared insights: Share the real time aggregate data generated through the net zero scorecard, along with other research, with the Funders’ Forum and net zero working group to inform wider funding and support decisions. #Vacancy #Scotland #Charities #ClimateChange https://lnkd.in/eWcAk6Z5

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