As the government’s strategic partner for early years and childcare, 4Children provides a wealth of crucial information, advice and support to parents, families and practitioners working with young children; as well as support for older children and young people. To meet the needs of its various audiences, www.4Children.org.uk includes a range of new features, including a more sophisticated services overview, with a map plotting every 4Children day nursery, children’s centre, out of school club and youth activity in the country, searchable by postcode and service type, and leading to home pages for every service centre.
The new site also tailors its content according to who is using it, with specifically relevant content provided to practitioners, parents, local authorities, commissioners, media or 4Children members.
‘We know how important it is for people to have information at their fingertips about the wide range of activities, services and resources we offer to support children and families. Parents, for instance, will appreciate the ease with which they can find details of our services via the website,’ says Pauline Phillips, Acting Head of Publications at 4Children.
‘Chameleon has done an exceptional job in delivering a user-friendly online destination which I’m confident will contribute to an increase in the uptake of our services,’ says Ms Phillips.
The site was designed using 4Children’s own design concepts and developed by digital communications agency Chameleon.
]]>Norwood supports people with learning disabilities and children and families in need, by providing services such as supported living, residential care, employment services, social work, after school clubs and special education. The Charity’s new site will aim to raise awareness of Norwood’s brand and promote its services in order to encourage more people to use them. In addition, existing service users and supporters will be able to use the site as an information source and platform for donations.
As Norwood’s services are wide-ranging, Chameleon will undertake extensive information architecture work to ensure that the site meets the needs of Norwood’s multiple audience groups. As well as providing visitors with a more intuitive design that encourages them to engage, the site will be integrated with the Raiser’s Edge CRM platform, which will allow registered users to experience a site that is personalised for them. CRM integration will also mean that Norwood has a clearer view of exactly who its supporter base is.
Chameleon won the project this week after a pitching process involving five other agencies.
Charles Levin, Head of Marketing at Norwood, said, ‘We are excited to be working with the Chameleon team, who have a proven track record in this sector. We are looking forward to introducing a website which is far more dynamic and will deliver an enhanced user experience to all our audiences including the people we support and our donors.’
The new www.norwood.org.uk is due to launch later in 2012.
]]>Breakthrough is a charity that works to find the causes of breast cancer, improving detection, diagnosis, treatment and services. Its new site aims to break boundaries in design, providing the charity’s supporters with an innovative hub that clearly communicates what Breakthrough does, provides information on breast cancer, and inspires visitors to take action.
Chameleon will undertake an information architecture phase to ensure the site delivers the most effective user journeys possible for its audience groups. The site will also be developed with a scalable content management system that is integrated with Breakthrough’s CRM, allowing the charity to maximise communication and fundraising opportunities using supporter data.
‘The redevelopment of our website is a critical part of our new digital strategy and we are really excited about working with the team at Chameleon’ said David Barker, Director of Communications at Breakthrough Breast Cancer. ‘Their strong experience of delivering impressive results, their creative flair and their clear determination and passion to work with us to deliver a ground breaking new site was second to none’ he added.
Vicky Reeves, Managing Director of Chameleon, says ‘We’re thrilled that Breakthrough has chosen us to produce this site, and we’re looking forward to helping the organisation achieve its objectives.’
The new breakthrough.org.uk site is due to launch later this year.
Ends
For more information about Breakthrough Breast Cancer, visit www.breakthrough.org.uk or contact the press team on 0207 025 2432 / press@breakthrough.org.uk.
For more information about digital communications agency Chameleon, visit www.chameleon.eu or contact Kristina Kitchen on 020 7332 6362 / kristina.kitchen@chameleon.eu.
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The new, social media-style system, rake.io, has been developed by process four Limited and enables organisations to submit brief queries which are then answered by volunteer legal advisors.
LawWorks has run its Initial Electronic Advice project for several years, but the new site represents a real change and step up in how the project operates, which LawWorks hopes will enable them to assist more not-for-profit organisations with legal issues and resolve legal queries quicker than ever before.
The system can help with queries in many legal areas, such as:
‘A specialist in the field of fundraising was taken on by our organisation on a contract basis for one year. The specialist submitted invoices on a monthly basis. No tax or insurance has been deducted from monies paid. The contract has reached the end of the year, and the specialist is now claiming she is an employee. What are our legal obligations?’
‘Our membership database holds confidential information on our members. The database is accessible by relevant staff and trustees only, is password protected, and held on a computer which is also password protected. Is this sufficient under Data Protection legislation?’
With on-going cuts hitting the voluntary sector from all sides, LawWorks hopes this new initiative will ease some of the burden on not-for-profits, for whom legal guidance can be a unaffordable cost. Those interested can register to use the system at: www.lawworksiea.org.uk, where more information is also available.
Rake.io is also available for commercial use. If you would like to find out how your business can share knowledge and collaborate with external partners using rake's Q&A and social networking model, please contact Leigh Hunter - leigh@rake.io.
Leigh is an IT Consultant and Director at processfour Limited. processfour are a niche process improvement and technology consultancy working with public and private sector clients. processfour are based in London and operate throughout Europe. Clients include: Alstom, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Lloyds TSB, Ministry of Justice and Xchanging.
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Available in pdf and spreadsheet versions for repeat use, prices start at £60.00 (nb. also available at a reduced rate for ACIE members).
www.acie.org.uk
ACIE - promoting excellence in charity independent examining since 1999
Registered charity in England and Wales 1139609 and Scotland SC039066. Registered company limited by guarantee 7461134; registered in England at 4-6 Grimshaw Street, Burnley BB11 2AZ ]]>
The Qualification, which will be available to buy from September, pivots on a trained SEQ mentor in each setting who will work with learners to help them achieve bronze or silver level of the Qualification.
Every SEQ mentor receives a detailed handbook to work through with their group and a full day's training to skill them up for the process. Which is where the training providers come in.
Ideally organisations and charities working within the formal education, youth work, employment and social enterprise sectors, these training providers will be responsible for promoting and filling the SEQ training courses, and will be financially rewarded per person trained.
It's an opportunity for socially entrepreneurially-minded businesses to help develop a new generation of clued up social entrepreneurs while making a financial return at the same time.
On top of the positive social and financial impact, becoming a training provider brings additional benefits, including continued professional development with RIO's leading social enterprise thinkers, a route into the pioneering, global social enterprise movement and the connections and relationships it offers, and a chance to engage directly with the growing network of schools and youth groups eager to learn more about and get involved in social enterprise.
Says Paula Winzar, lead developer of SEQ: “We’re really excited about the potential recruiting these new training providers offers. It’s a chance for us to roll SEQ out on a wide scale so that more people have access to and can benefit from the Qualification, an opportunity to work with like-minded ethical organisations and charities, and a way of sharing the growth and development of SEQ so that other businesses benefit from the financial returns it will bring. It’s going to be great to find a set of high quality training providers to help us continue to build momentum and take SEQ forward.”
Currently seeking expressions of interest from organisations and charities keen to become SEQ training providers, RIO hopes that this recruitment drive will lead to the efficient, effective and scaleable delivery of a qualification which is set to change the way people learn about social enterprise.
A copy of the SEQ Training Provider Expression of Interest can be downloaded from the SEQ website – www.realideas.org/seq.
For more information on SEQ and training provider opportunities contact Jemima Taylor on jemima.taylor@realideas.org.
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We are just starting to make plans for how we can work most effectively together together. There won’t be any radical changes for a while and we’ll share our ideas when they are clearer.
We know that you value KnowHow as a resource, however we also know there are some things we can improve. This partnership will allow KnowHow to become even better.
Our commitment to sharing practical, acessible, approachable and relevant learning materials remains as does our openness to work with others. We’d like to thank everyone we’ve worked with over the past three years and look forward working with you again.
If you have any questions or comments, we'd love to hear them. Please add them to this page and one of the team will be on hand to respond. You can also read the press release which contains more detail.
Thanks for your continuing support,
Linden, Luke, Madeleine, Tom and Cristina.
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KnowHow NonProfit, developed with funding from The Big Lottery Fund, has grown its reputation as a ‘go-to’ site for the voluntary sector through its user-led approach. Taking KnowHow NonProfit into NCVO will enable the principles of a web project that consolidates learning from across the sector to be explored further, ensuring that national online resources are rationalised and sustained. Together NCVO and KnowHow NonProfit have a wealth of collective expertise which will enable them to build on the legacy of existing services to provide online support for the whole of the voluntary and community sector.
Under the proposal KnowHow NonProfit’s staff will work closely with NCVO, transferring into the Communications and Information Team later this year. Close links with the Centre for Charity Effectiveness at Cass Business School will be maintained and developed.
Sir Stuart Etherington, Chief Executive of NCVO, said: “We have been working closely with KnowHow NonProfit for some time, so are delighted at the prospect of taking forward a shared vision to meet the sector’s online learning needs. This collaboration has huge potential and will bring together a wealth of experience and resources for helping civil society organisations to develop and flourish.”
Paul Palmer, Professor of Voluntary Sector Management at Cass Business School, said: “When the vision for a social media education service for the sector was developed at Cass in partnership with The Worshipful Company of Management Consultants, we were always clear that its long term success and longevity would be for that service to be owned by the voluntary sector community. We are therefore delighted that NCVO has agreed to be the home for KHNP.”
Edward Sankey, Third Warden of The Worshipful Company of Management Consultants, said: “Our partnership with the Cass Centre for Charity Effectiveness has produced a ground-breaking online resource, KnowHow NonProfit, with backing from the Big Lottery Fund. We are delighted that NCVO are taking this valuable project into their organisation for further development.”
Linden Muirhead, Director of KnowHow NonProfit confirmed: “Here at KnowHow NonProfit, we are really excited about the opportunities that transferring to NCVO offers. The merger highlights the synergy between the aims of the two parties and we are looking forward to continuing to help civil society to flourish under this new arrangement. Whilst we look to the future, we recognise the enormous part that the Cass Centre for Charity Effectiveness and the Management Consultants’ Company played in creating and nurturing KnowHow NonProfit.” (see also KnowHow's message to the community).
Please contact Chloe Stables in NCVO’s press office on 020 7520 2474 or email chloe.stables@ncvo-vol.org.uk. For calls outside office hours, please ring 07855 847 878.
The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) is the umbrella body for the voluntary sector in England, with sister councils in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. NCVO has over 8,400 members, ranging from large national bodies to community groups, volunteer centres, and development agencies working at a local level. With over 280,000 staff and over 13 million volunteers working for our members, we represent and support almost half the voluntary sector workforce.
The City Centre for Charity Effectiveness Trust was jointly founded by Cass Business School and The Worshipful Company of Management Consultants to provide funding for Cass Centre for Charity Effectiveness. The development of KnowHow NonProfit has been funded by BIG through The City Centre for Charity Effectiveness Trust Limited. KnowHow NonProfit provides cost-effective, digital learning opportunities for people working in small voluntary organisations or from traditionally ‘hard-to-reach’ groups who have received little or no training in the past. It has more than 17,000 registered users and receives an average of 50,000 visits a month. In particular, KnowHow NonProfit specialises in ‘social learning’ – providing new ways for people in the voluntary sector to share knowledge online and access e-learning.
Cass Business School, which is part of City University London, delivers innovative, relevant and forward-looking education, training, consultancy and research. Located in the heart of one of the world’s leading financial centres, Cass is the business school for the City of London.
Our MBA, specialist Masters and undergraduate degrees have a global reputation for excellence, and the School supports nearly 100 PhD students. Cass offers the widest portfolio of specialist Masters programmes in Europe and our Executive MBA is ranked tenth in the world by the Financial Times.
The Centre for Charity Effectiveness at Cass Business School is a broad research centre providing post graduate diplomas and MScs in voluntary sector management, research including the Charitable Giving and Philanthropy research centre and a substantial Consultancy and Talent Development practice delivering best practice support.
Cass is a place where students, academics, industry experts, business leaders and policy makers can enrich each other's thinking. For further information visit: www.cass.city.ac.uk.
The Worshipful Company of Management Consultants is a Livery Company of the City of London. The overall mission of the management consultancy profession is to help valuable change in business and in the wider community. Members of the Company come from a number of disciplines including strategy, IT, operations, management development, HR, change management.
Members are involved in providing pro-bono services to develop charities and their executives. The Company has a very close association with the Sir John Cass Business School. Through the CCCE Trust and pro bono individual work it helped found the Centre for Charity Effectiveness. More information can be provided by www.wcomc.org
The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out 46% of the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery. BIG is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since June 2004. The Fund was formally established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to good causes. As a result, over £26 billion has now been raised and more than 330,000 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment
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Bob Humphreys Finance and IS director at Oxfam and winner of the Top 100 Fundraising Charities category echoes these words:
"For any charity, the annual report and accounts are the primary medium for telling the charity's story, both in words and figures. Increasingly our stakeholders are looking on-line to see how we measure up. At Oxfam, our communications and finance people work hard to capture and distil in an accessible way, the impact of our many programmes on the communities we work with. I am proud that the panel have selected our accounts as having made such a positive impact on them."
We would like to congratulate the winners and runners up of the Charities Online Financial Reporting and Accounts Awards 2011. This memorable celebration took place on Thursday 30 June at Chartered Accountant’s Hall where various charities were honoured for demonstrating excellence and innovation in online financial reporting.
The winners and runners up of the awards are listed below in their subsequent categories.
Winners and runners up received prize money for their charity, a winners or runners seal up to display on their website in addition to free annual subscription to ICAEW’s Charity and Voluntary Sector Group.
Thank you to all charities that entered the Awards, find out more and register for next year’s awards.
]]>From today, any charity who signs up at Charity Checkout will receive an online account where they can manage their donations and set up custom payment pages for specific campaigns. Charity Checkout then pays out all the donations they receive in a single payment each month, with Gift Aid included. Furthermore, to get each charity started, Charity Checkout will also be giving away free advertising space on some of the UK’s most popular websites.
Launching Charity Checkout, its founder, Chester Mojay-Sinclare, said:
“Whether you raise £1,000 a year or £100,000 a year, Charity Checkout provides you with exactly the same service. It is now possible for custom payment pages to be set-up in seconds, so charities can run micro-fundraising campaigns on Twitter or Facebook. For small charities, this kind of low-cost, targeted campaigning will help them find committed donors they didn’t even know existed. I want to start a revolution; it is time small charities got their fair share of the action.”
According to the CAF 2009 Giving Report, 37% of all donors give by recurring methods and give an additional £14 when donated in this way.
One charity who has already signed up is Volunteer Reading Help. Fundraising Officer, Lewis Spiers, said:
“Charity Checkout is a great way for us to manage our committed donors and run online fundraising campaigns. Their software allows us to set-up an unlimited number of branded payment pages. It’s easy to use and there are no up-front fees.”
Steve McGregor, Director and Co-Founder of Kit4Troops, agrees. He said:
“Charity Checkout is great because it’s flexible enough to work with small charities and still reliable enough to meet our high standards. It is an important tool for Kit4Troops that allows us to reclaim Gift Aid and receive regular donations without any hassle. That means more money goes right back into providing mail to troops in the field.”
Find out more by visiting the Charity Checkout website.
See also their how to maxmise regular donations for small charities guide.
This year’s scheme will focus on communities who feel voiceless due to long-term illness, older age, or disability. It will support communities from the grass roots upwards, to run media projects addressing their own specific circumstances, enabling them to better access public and peer support services, and empowering them to have a voice and get it heard.
Media Trust’s Marketing and Communications Services Director, Gavin Sheppard, said: “The Community Voices scheme has already been a huge success, enabling us to support 48 disadvantaged and isolated communities and touching the lives of more than 60,000 people. We are extremely happy to be able to continue the scheme and help even more communities to get their voices heard, learn new skills and pass these on, creating a lasting legacy where the communities can teach and empower others in true big society style.”
Community Voices aims to showcase various ways of utilising digital media to make a difference, whether communities are brand new to digital or already have experience but require additional support. Communities who face isolation or disadvantage due to disability, older-age or long-term illness can apply for funding, training and expertise from digital professionals alongside collaborative support at a local level.
Community Voices is funded by Nominet Trust and delivered by Media Trust. Applications for support can be made online or by email, post, telephone or in person. The closing date for applications is Midday on Monday 13 June.
To apply for the scheme, or for further information visit the Community Voices site or call the Community Voices team at Media Trust on 020 7871 5656.
]]>We're putting together an Impact Report to show the difference the site has made. As part of this we're running a short survey to gather some comments and examples.
Please could you spare a minute by filling in the survey to tell us how we've helped you?
Also, if you're on twitter, could you help spread the word by sending out this tweet?
Has @knowhownonprof helped you? Please take their very short survey to help demonstrate their impact - http://svy.mk/KHimpact
Thank you
]]>The new KnowHow NonProfit ‘StudyZone’ has been born out of research into the barriers facing voluntary sector organisations in receiving training. The first eight online video sessions released today are on topics requested by those who participated in the initial platform research.
The platform works like this: KnowHow NonProfit receives training requests from the voluntary sector, then sources leading voluntary sector subject experts, working with them to create digestible, online video training sessions. The technology and templates used in the StudyZone mean that KnowHow can create 20-30 minute training sessions very quickly and for low cost, remaining responsive to users' needs.
Speaking on the eve of the launch, Head of Content at KnowHow NonProfit, Luke Chaput said:
“The launch of the StudyZone creates a space where people working in the voluntary sector can take control of their own learning and development. It’s a truly user-led, democratic platform. People can request the training they need and we will use our network of experts and volunteer trainers to deliver on the most pressing topics. We recognise these are tough times for voluntary sector organisations and training budgets are tight. This why we have listened to what our users have told us and created this responsive, innovative, low-cost learning platform. We hope these training videos will open up voluntary sector training to a wider audience”.
In addition to offering fast and affordable training from experts, the sessions offer downloadable materials, discussion forums and exercises. The first video in every session is free.
The initial training sessions available from today are:
To celebrate the launch of the platform, one entire training session is provided for free: ‘How to write a winning funding bid’, delivered by leading management consultants, PA Consulting.
Every other session is available for under £10 and can be accessed anywhere, anytime. All you need is a computer and internet connection.
Three key findings from research conducted last November into the training needs of the voluntary sector helped inform the creation of the new StudyZone.
You can find out more about the ‘StudyZone’ by visiting http://www.knowhownonprofit.org/studyzone
Find out more about how you can become an expert contributor and deliver a KnowHow training course.
]]>The white paper, which outlined plans to devolve responsibility away from local bureaucracy, is intended to give schools more decision making power. It cites Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) research which has shown that countries giving the most autonomy to their headteachers are the ones that do best. However, headteachers nationwide are concerned that this 'new freedom' will give rise to a school improvement market dominated by private for-profit enterprises, expensive consultants and large commercially minded organisations all seeking schools' budgets to satisfy share holders.
To ward against this possible eventuality, a cluster of primary schools in Devon has formed a Community Interest Company to run an ethical marketplace called Heads’ Space (www.headsspace.org), where school leaders can find social enterprises, community organisations, charities and other schools that provide the services they are looking for without draining money out of the system.
Says Jonathan
Clitheroe, lead developer for the Real Ideas Organisation (RIO) Schools Service
which is supporting the Devon cluster in setting up Heads’ Space: "Due to
time, experience and role allocation, procurement isn't something that schools
are currently particularly skilled at so making decisions on who provides your
school improvement and innovation can be difficult. Heads’ Space will make it
easier for schools to access honest, thorough information about providers and
their ethics to make sure that they not only get the best value, most effective
solution for their school, but that they can also choose to buy from
organisations who are committed to making a real difference, rather than solely
making a profit."
For more information on RIO's Schools Service, the ethical marketplace or how RIO is working with headteachers to make the most of school reform, contact Justine Adams on justine.adams@realideas.org or 07710710076.
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