A year in the life… Supporting small groups

Photo credit: Lotus Carroll / Source / CC BY-NC-SA

Photo credit: Lotus Carroll / Source / CC BY-NC-SA

It’s that time of year again when we start thinking about our annual report, a review of how, collectively, we have helped to build caring, vibrant and strong communities where everyone can achieve their potential. I enjoy taking a step back and looking at what small differences I may have made throughout the year, so I’m inviting you to take a glimpse of my personal snapshot of 2014-15 (April-March), supporting small community groups, voluntary organisations, charities and social enterprises.

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Missed opportunities? Demonstrating our worth online

Photo credit: mkhmarketing / Foter / CC BY

Photo credit: mkhmarketing / Foter / CC BY

A study published by Lloyds Bank has reported that more than half of charities lack ‘basic digital skills’, especially compared with small business. You can read the full report here.

The study particularly focuses on the lack of understanding about how a web presence can increase donations and other forms of finance, but it also chimes with one of Dudley CVS’s priorities for the forthcoming year and one of the key findings of our recent state of the sector survey –  voluntary and community organisations would like some support with telling their stories online.

Being able to demonstrate your impact online, at a time when organisations cannot solely rely on grant-funding alone to survive, might expose your organisation to new sponsors, supporters, crowd-funders, investors, donors, businesses looking to fulfil their corporate social responsibility principles. But the reasons may not be purely financial. Having a web presence can be empowering for your organisation and the people you support; you can run campaigns, dispel myths, inspire people, connect, share and learn.

But what do you think? What do you think about the report? What has an online presence allowed you to do more easily? What are the barriers to getting your organisation on the web? Is it resources, skills in tech and design or anything else? How could we all support each other to grasp new opportunities that the digital world might offer?

 

What we learned when we welcomed people to Brierley Hill Civic Hall

Civic open day summary

On Tuesday 3rd March, Dudley CVS welcomed the community into Brierley Hill Civic Hall to gather people’s visions for building it into a vibrant hub for a variety of activities and events.

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Celebrating Mayor’s Civic Awards winners

civic winners 2

I was delighted to see that some of the fabulous voluntary and community groups that we support had been recognised for their diverse achievements at this month’s Mayor’s Civic Awards.

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What we can achieve when we work together: celebrating International Women’s Day

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On Monday afternoon I had the lovely honour of celebrating International Women’s Day with Diyya, a group in Lye that supports women and their families by bringing them together, building their confidence and encouraging them to take advantage of opportunities to learn new things and develop their skills.

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Social Media Surgery dates for February and March 2015

You may have read recently about how a nationwide community of surgeons have supported people and groups to get started with social media at social media surgeries, including how social media surgeries have helped people across Dudley borough.

Now my colleagues Lorna and Melissa have announced dates for the next round of surgeries for Dudley and Stourbridge. So come along to one of the friendly and informal surgeries to find out how to get started on social media, all over a cuppa and cake! Maybe I’ll see you there!

Lorna Prescott's avatarDigital Dudley

Melissa Guest and I will be running Social Media Surgeries throughout 2015.

Social Media Surgeries are completely free advice sessions for community and voluntary groups, clubs and societies. Find out how to use how to use blogs, video clips, photo sharing sites, Facebook, Twitter or other free web tools to help your group. We can help you to use the web to communicate, campaign or collaborate easily and for free.

Upcoming dates and venues are:

Photo of Deepak and John at a cafe table with a laptop Deepak from Dudley Libraries giving his time and social media know-how to help John from Community Transport at a recent Dudley Social Media Surgery

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Completing your Awards for All application

Here’s a useful post from the Big Lottery Fund on the mistakes to avoid when completing your Awards for All application. As incomplete applications can’t be assessed, it’s really worthwhile doublechecking your application before submitting it, to avoid unnecessary delays to your project. Have a read and learn more below.

You can always get help with your Awards for All application from Dudley CVS and we have loads of experience with building good quality projects and applications. And remember, Dudley borough is currently under-subscribed to Awards for All (see our last post on this here: http://wp.me/p4qxlT-5m), so it might be a good time to get planning your application!

We’re busy planning our Awards for All event with staff from Big Lottery Fund and Dudley Council where you will be able to work on some of the most important questions on the application form. The event will be in April and we’ll post details very soon.

The National Lottery Community Fund's avatarThe National Lottery Community Fund Blog

When we announced our latest round of Awards for All grants this January, we took a look at some of the most common mistakes made when applying for our small grant funding, and how you can avoid them.Application-blog-image

It seems obvious, but you’d be amazed by the number of application forms we receive that are incomplete. If your application is not complete then it can’t be assessed. Make sure you thoroughly read through the application guidance first and ensure you answer all the questions in the form.

Again, it might sound simple but please double check that all of your personal information, such as names and addresses are spelled correctly.

The most common application mistakes we see are:

  • Contacts not being suitable; ensure your senior contact is able to be legally responsible for any grant we may offer.
  • The main and senior contact being the same person.
  • Home addresses, dates of birth and landlines not included…

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Dudley borough projects can get their hands on Awards for All funding

We’ve recently learned that Dudley projects are missing out on funding from Awards for All, a Big Lottery Fund programme that offers grants of between £300 and £10,000 for activities that run for 12 months or less.

You can learn more about Awards for All by watching this short video:

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Opportunities to increase public confidence in charities #matteroftrust

I’ve been following reaction to the recent publication of data by New Philanthropy Capital (NPC) and IPSOS Mori on public perceptions of and trust in charities.

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Our work gets recognised in high places!

Our work in partnership with the local authority to guide communities through the process of taking on, developing and managing buildings has been held up as an example to be replicated across the whole country in a national paper given to the CLG (Communities and Local Government) Select Committee earlier this week.

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