Source: gratisography.com
If you can name two or more local charities, you’re part of only 10% of the public that can – that’s according to research carried out by TSB Bank as reported by Civil Society.
Can you name two or more local charities?
charities
Andrew Mullaney – a great connector
Bright and early on a Tuesday morning at the end of last month, Eileen and I met for coffee with Andrew Mullaney, who is Dudley’s first ever Business Connector, seconded from Lloyds Bank to Business in the Community’s Business Connectors programme.
The Business in the Community website says: “Business Connectors are talented individuals seconded from business, trained by Business in the Community and placed in communities of greatest need to build partnerships that tackle local issues.”
I think we’ve struck gold here in Dudley because Andrew is not only talented, and experienced in business, but also hugely passionate about Dudley and driven by a mission to make a sustainable, lasting difference in the work that he does.
In his first five weeks in his new role Andrew had already made an astonishing number of connections and was working incredibly energetically as a network weaver (see video below), actively creating connections between people and organisations who hadn’t previously known about each other, or worked together.
In the weeks since we met him, Andrew has been just brilliant at connecting us with helpful people and organisations, and has very kindly been promoting Dudley Volunteer Centre and Dudley CVS in all sorts of things he’s been involved in. If you want to use and grow your networks to make positive change in Dudley I’d recommend arranging to meet Andrew for a coffee. Some great connections are guaranteed!
You can connect with Andrew on twitter @dudleyconnector, by email andrew.mullaney@bitcconnect.org or give him a call on 07834945827.
For more on network weaving, check out June Holley’s work, and the video below.
How can we improve the diversity of trustee boards?
The Trustees’ Week website has lots of useful information about becoming a trustee, recruiting trustees and topics related to running a charity.
Amongst its posts is one piece about trustee facts and figures, which says:
- There are over 1,000,000 trustee positions in England and Wales;
- Estimates suggest that almost half of charities have at least one vacancy on their board;
- Just 0.5% of trustees in England and Wales are aged between 18 and 24, (compared with 12% of the population as a whole);
- The average age of trustees in England and Wales is 57, two thirds are aged 50 and over.
- 43.4% of trustees are female, and 56% are male. (Each trustee is counted only once, though some are trustees for more than one charity. The figure for female trustees should be treated as a minimum as only those whose titles are certainly female are included).
Spotlight on Dudley CVS Trustee, Alison Sayer.
Earlier this year, (July 2015) I had the pleasure of interviewing
Alison Sayer, Chief Executive Officer of Halas Homes in Halesowen (www.halashomes.co.uk), for an article in the Dudley CVS Echo newsletter. Alison has been a Dudley CVS Board member since 2013, bringing with her a particular expertise in Human Resources and seemingly boundless energy.
I asked Alison to tell more about Halas Homes, which is akin to lighting the blue touch paper on a firework. “Halas Homes has been caring for people with learning difficulties for over 50 years. Today, it is a 24/7 residential care home for up to 36 adults with learning difficulties,” replied Alison, adding, “the adjacent day centre is open to residents and non-residents and hosts a wide variety of daily activities to aid health and wellbeing. There are also five ‘supported living’ homes for people with a degree of independence,” and by the way, “Halas Homes won a top award last year, picking up the Creative Arts Award in the national 3rd Sector Care Awards 2014. The award was presented by TV personality and campaigner, Esther Rantzen.”
Coming from a background in hospitality, Alison refers to the residents and the people who use the day centre as ‘customers.’ “It’s really important to find out as much as possible about our customers so that we can design services and activities that provide the best possible outcomes for them,” she said.
While Alison is clearly passionate about the work of Halas Homes, she is not so keen to be in the spotlight, preferring instead to conduct a guided tour of the Halas Homes premises and let some of the residents, members of staff and volunteers do the talking.
In the kitchen, we met Ken, who has been a Halas Homes resident for 39 years. While drying dishes, Ken spoke about how much he had enjoyed installing bird boxes in Halesowen earlier this year as part of Halesowen in Bloom. In the day centre, volunteer Glynis Miles was leading an activity called Sing and Sign. The singing part was a boisterous rendition of “I never promised you a rose garden.” The signing part involved two teams of residents and visitors taking part in a highly animated and competitive version of charades.
Outside, the allotment site was awash with produce ready to be picked and prepared in the on-site kitchen. Also outside, Mark Stevens, an ‘invaluable’ Halas Homes volunteer for over four years, was busy cleaning one of the small mini-buses. “I started out as a volunteer here at Halas Homes, then I became a part-time employee, but I still do voluntary time as well because I like to help out in any way I can, such as running errands to pick up prescriptions. But most of all I enjoy helping with activities for our customers,” said Mark.
Alison also walked me the Coffee Cups Café in nearby Thornhill Road, where volunteer helper, Suzy Bury, had been preparing vegetable soup, something she was clearly very proud of. The café, which was acquired by Halas Homes in 2012, plays host to nearly 300 customers each week, providing home-made fayre at cost plus a small profit margin.
So, an interview with Alison Sayer that was supposed to last one hour extended to over three hours and I enjoyed every minute of it. Never once did Alison say “I did” it was always, ”we did.”
Tom Keys; Dudley CVS Trustee
Dudley CVS Board Member, Tom Keys, is a busy man. To be more accurate, Tom Keys is a very, very busy man.
Despite approaching his 75th birthday on New Year’s Day next year, Tom’s diary is full of things-to-do; and most of those things-to-do are of a volunteering nature.
Tom’s current list of volunteering memberships runs to thirteen organisations spread across a wide variety of causes, including sports clubs, faith groups, health and wellbeing support groups and Neighbourhood Watch.
Tom Keys was born in Londonderry, Northern Ireland in 1941. As a youth he joined the local Boys Brigade, rising to Battalion Colour Sargent. He also served as a volunteer Special Constable, which proved to be the catalyst for some five decades of volunteering to follow. His claim to fame in Northern Ireland is that he was personally blessed by the Bishop of Derry.
Tom left Northern Ireland in 1960, but his soft Irish brogue has never left him. He came to live in Kingswinford, working at Birmingham Sound Reproducers (BSR), which at the time was the largest manufacturer of record turntables in the world. Tom developed a passion for winemaking and beer brewing and became a local authority on home brewing.
Tom Keys gathers Elderberries for another batch of home-made wine.
For four years he was President of the Midland Region of Amateur Winemakers Federation. Tom qualified as a Wine Judge in 1984 and appeared in a Channel 4 wine programme in 2012.
It was following a talk about the secrets of winemaking Tom gave to the Dudley branch of Parkinson’s UK in 1999, that he was invited to become its President; an invitation he accepted gladly, especially as his Mother was suffering from Parkinson’s disease. He is still President of the Dudley branch of Parkinson’s UK today.
From 1999 to the present day, Tom has devoted thousands of volunteer hours to all sorts of local groups and organisations, joining the Dudley CVS Board in 2008. When asked what qualities Tom brings to the Board, he said he likes to think he takes nothing at face value, questioning and probing where necessary, but always to “ensure Dudley CVS continues to go from strength to strength towards achieving its objectives.”
Tom served as a Justice of the Peace on the Dudley Bench for 9 years. Tom remains passionate about home-brewing and makes about 240 bottles of wine from local fruit and vegetables each year. His other passion is crown green bowling, a pastime he took up four years ago after giving up playing golf (Tom, is a former Captain of Wrottesley Golf Club 2006/7). Tom is currently Chairman of Stourbridge Sons of Rest, vice-captain of the Mary Stevens Bowling Club B Team.
A third passion of Tom’s is photography. For the last dozen years or so he has given fundraising photography and video presentations of places he has visited with his wife, Patricia. The next DVD show is 30th October at the Wesley Chapel, in Mount Pleasant at 6.00pm. For more information e-mail: tomkeys@blueyonder.co.uk.
Join us during Trustees Week
“Trustees are the people in charge of a charity. They play a vital role, volunteering their time and working together to make important decisions about the charity’s work. Trustees’ Week is an annual event to showcase the great work that trustees do and highlight opportunities for people from all walks of life to get involved and make a difference.”
From the Trustees’ Week website
Celebrating our work with people, communities and organisations
I’m really pleased to share the work I and my wonderful colleagues have done to support individuals, communities and organisations last year. The Dudley CVS Annual Report outlines how we’ve been connecting and inspiring people and organisations to achieve positive change and championing their work. It covers the year April 2014-March 2015.
‘Which legal structure?’ A question asked to us during Small Charity Week
As a small charity without limitations to the personal liability, and which is hoping to rent premises for the first time. Do we become a company limited by guarantee or a charitable incorporated organisation and why?
This was the question posed to us over Facebook by Dudley CIL (Centre for Inclusive Living) on Tuesday evening (on Small Charity Week’s Big Advice Day). I thought it might be worth providing some information here in case it’s useful for others in a similar position.
5 things I learned from being part of a successful crowdfunding campaign
It’s Day 5 of Small Charity Week 2015, and today is all about fundraising. I’ve offered to write about crowdfunding. There are no shortage of articles, blogs and even whole books about crowdfunding out there. Becky has shared some useful links on the last slide in this presentation. I’m not going to repeat what is already out there. I thought it might be useful to share what I learned from actually being involved in a crowdfunding campaign. A bit of background follows, feel free to skip to the learning points if you wish, and let me know what you think.
How it began
Back in autumn 2013 I went along to some informal pizza suppers and conversations in coffee shops in Birmingham which were open to anyone and shared widely on social media. The sessions were convened with a view to finding people who would contribute ideas and work together to build a community of innovators, creatives and entrepreneurs and create a home for them in Birmingham.
A group of around 15 people emerged as being committed to taking things forward, and we met over a period of months to develop our thinking. 12 months later we were ready to start planning a crowdfunding campaign to help our vision turn in to reality. By this time a few more people had joined the team, crucially some amazing film makers, a designer and one of Birmingham’s best photographers. We aimed to raise £50,000 from our networks, by far the highest target to date for a Kickstarter project in Birmingham.
Kickstarter
Some of our Kickstarter Rewards
We re-grouped just after New Year’s Day and put in a final, monumental effort, reaching out as far as we could in our networks, following up any likely leads, and still remembering to have fun together. (Fun included some guerrilla gardening style placing of plants around Digbeth, where we wanted to make our home.) Thanks to the relentless positivity and effort of the whole team we hit our £50,000 target a matter of days later, leaving us 2 days to try and hit a stretch target of £65,000. Which we did, with minutes to spare! We had successfully engaged a community of 586 backers, all of whom have an interest in everything we’ve been doing since, many of whom are now signed up members of our Impact Hub community and amazing space.
What I learned
I learned a huge amount being part of this Kickstarter campaign, and below I’ve attempted to draw out 5 of the most important things I learned.
1. You need to invest in your networks if you are going to ask them to invest in you
It took years of investment in relationships, countless conversations and coffees and 3 mind-blowing TEDx events in Birmingham to create a network and team strong enough to do something this audacious. If I was looking to raising just £5,000 through crowdfunding I would spend at least a year building genuine face to face and online relationships. That means saying ‘yes’ to all sorts of conversations and invitations, and thinking hard about how well your existing relationships are being maintained.
Kickstarter campaign plant propaganda!
A strong, well networked and ridiculously optimistic team was crucial. Our team used a WhatsApp group to constantly encourage, celebrate, scream with excitement, be silly and talk tactics. Without that willingness to communicate at all hours of day and night and be hugely supportive of each other I don’t think we’d have achieved what we did.
3. Our secret sauce: diversity
A really diverse range of skills and experience was our secret sauce. A huge amount of credit is due to Immy Kaur, who convened this diverse team, spotted gaps and knew who to lure in at the right times!
4. Know your talents and step up
You have to step up. When things are this big and bonkers you can’t wait for someone to ask, or give you instruction. You have to know your strengths and talents and use them. For example Verity developed a wonderful photography project which got picked up by the Birmingham Post.
5. Amanda Palmer’s book helped me to really understand what we were doing
I think it is really worth reading Amanda Palmer’s book The Art of Asking. You can get a flavour of what she has achieved in her TED Talk, however the book will give you much more of a sense of what it means to fall in to your crowd and ask them to catch you. In order to ‘crowd fund’ you need to make sure you have a crowd, and they are ready to catch you. Which takes me back to learning point 1 above.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this, let me know if anything surprised you, resonated for you or just doesn’t feel relevant to you.
If you are embarking on crowd building and crowd funding I wish you the very best of luck!
And if you’re interested in Impact Hub Birmingham, the community and collaborative workshop I’m part of, please do let me know, I’d love to introduce you. You can get me on twitter: @dosticen, call, text or WhatsApp on 07501 722255 or good old email: lorna@dudleycvs.org.uk
Voice and influence – a post for #smallcharityweek Policy Day
Ten years ago my work in Dudley was focused on ways that community groups, faith groups and voluntary organisations could influence decision making about local services in the borough. There were all sorts of partnerships of leaders, policy makers and managers creating strategies and plans in relation to regeneration, learning, health, community safety, housing, the environment, heritage and more. It was very difficult to know if our sector was exercising any influence on decisions and plans being made, and what impact we were having.
So we embarked on what was to become a seven year journey with community development specialists changes, contributing to the development and local use of an influence framework for groups and networks. It is called Voice, and it can help small charities to think through ways to increase their influence. (The Voice framework led to three other influence frameworks being developed – see changes website for more about these.)
We had lots and lots of conversations with people involved in networks in Dudley borough comprising community groups, small charities and faith groups, as well as larger charities.
We discovered a number of ways that they influence.
- Which of these have you tried?
- Can you see advantages and disadvantages depending on your overall goal?
- What works for your group or organisation?
By working with people from a range local groups and organisations in Dudley borough, we also figured out a useful way for people to what their capacity to influence is, and what steps they can take to increase it. These steps form a crucial part of the Voice framework.
Do these steps reflect things you have thought about?
Do any of them give you ideas about new things you could try?
Have a go!
There is much more to the Voice framework, and there are a number of people who work and volunteer in Dudley borough who have been trained to work with groups using Voice. I use thinking and activities from Voice in my work all the time because it is so useful. If you would like Dudley CVS to run sessions on influence using Voice please do get in touch.
Further reading
You can read more about Voice in this Handy Guide.
There was a lovely short article about influence and Voice published in NCVO’s magazine.
For anyone with a taste for something more academic, there was an essay on Voice published in the Community Development Journal in 2008.
Dudley CVS blog 