KnowHow NonProfit to transfer to NCVO - Press release

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), City University London and The Centre for Charity Effectiveness Trust Ltd today announced plans to transfer KnowHow NonProfit, which currently resides within City University, into NCVO later this year.

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).

For more information

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.

Notes to editors

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