Why? Because they’ve joined easyfundraising – the online funding platform that allows organisations to receive free funding every time their staff, volunteers, and the local community shop online.

easyfundraising is committed to helping local groups and communities access essential funding – they partner with over 7,000 online retailer who want to give back. It’s simple – when your community shop online, a proportion of what they’ve spent transforms into free funding your organisation can put to good use.

The next payment run is early 2023; what a great start to the year that would be if your organisation joined easyfundraising.

Make sure you’re a part of it. Find out how here: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/val/

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easyfundraising is spreading some Christmas cheer by giving away £5,000 in their Advent Calendar giveaway!

To join, sign your organisation up to easyfundraising. easyfundraising partners with over 7,000 brands so your organisation can earn free funding on all online purchases. By signing up, you can be a part of 25 days of advent fun and create an easy and accessible fundraising option your volunteers and the local community can get behind. Remember to spread the word loud and clear with as many people as possible. Every time they open the door, your organisation gets an entry into the big Christmas Day prize.

Plus, they could win daily £100 gift vouchers for brands like M&S, John Lewis, Argos, Boots, Very, and many more. Give your organisation the gift of easyfundraising this Christmas. Sign up here: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/val/

Reaching People brings together frontline delivery partners from the Voluntary and Community Sector in Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland.

Working together, they develop and provide high quality contract delivery, business and funding opportunities in fields that include health and well being, homelessness, advice and guidance, education and training, and community services.

See below the free training that is available:

• Trustees Programme – 6 sessions starting 18th January 2023
• LLL Coaching – CEO, Trustees and other leaders coaching sessions
• Community Connector Programme
• New to the Sector course – for new VCSE employees, volunteers looking for paid work
• Aspiring Leaders Programme – 8 sessions starting 26th January 2023

Meet the Funders is an event organised by VAL which gives people the opportunity to learn about current funding programmes, float their ideas past potential funders and how VAL can help you to succeed in your future bids.

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The event was held at the Arc Community Hub in Loughborough in two sessions 12.30pm and 3.30pm, with a total of 105 people attending.

The attendees represented 75 VCSE groups based in Leicestershire who discussed the projects that they required funding for with grants officers from:

• Charnwood Community Grants
• East Midlands Airport Community Fund
• Intelligent Energy Charitable Trust
• Leicestershire & Rutland Community Foundation
• North West Leicestershire District Council – Community Grants
• Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for LLR
• Severn Trent Community Fund
• SHIRE Community Grant – Leicestershire County Council
• The National Lottery Community Fund: Reaching Communities
• Waitrose – Give a Little Love.
• The VAL Sector Support team were also available to give advice and support to groups.

We have had very positive feedback from both the funders and groups that attended the event and will continue to build on this success.

Well done to Heather Jallands for coordinating the event and thanks to all who were on hand to support on the day!

Here is some of the feedback we received:

I thought the event went well and was well organised. The printed summary of each participating organisation was appreciated, as it enabled attendees to prioritise which potential funders were the most relevant for their particular charity and/or project.  For my charity, Leicestershire Search and Rescue, I am planning to follow up the event with a couple of grant applications.

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The introduction was useful as I thought I knew which people I wanted to see but on hearing your introduction realised that there were a couple more worth chatting to.  We are looking for major funding to turn our disused Methodist Church into a village hall and got a very positive feedback from Severn Trent and the lottery fund so thanks again.

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I found the event very useful. I met the funders I wanted to meet, and discussed my project

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It was good to meet other organisations looking for funding and chat to them whilst waiting. I have put my name/organisation down for support with funding applications we are almost ready to submit a National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) application.

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We really enjoyed the event. The little talk at the beginning was useful, helping me to decide which tables to approach, thus saving time. We received positive advice, help and support from several funders. Quite a bit of networking inevitably takes place at this type of event, which is always a positive extra.

A strong and effective ICB and in the long term wider Integrated Care System (ICS) will have a deep understanding of all the people and communities it serves. We want to create a genuine partnership arrangement with the voluntary and community sector, social enterprises, and individual communities, initially with NHS and overtime across all partners.

To help us to deliver this we are excited to announce the launch of the Voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) Alliance and we would like to invite you to join today.

Why join?

If you are a voluntary, charity, social enterprise organisation or support an individual community you can join the VCSE Alliance by clicking here.

Firstly, by creating a login on our website you will have access to our dedicated webspace where you will find a wide range of tools, opportunities and resources including;An online searchable VCSE Alliance Directory of contacts
Applications and opportunities hub

Skills and resources

Mechanism to feed community insight into the Insights, Behaviour and Research Hub.
To become a VCSE Alliance member you will need to add your organisation to the VCSE Alliance Directory so that others will be able to find you. Once you have added your organisation, you will also be invited to join our VCSE Alliance forum.

The forum is hosted on the NHS futures platform where you can:ask or answer questions in the forum, or start a conversation
hear the latest health news, hot topics and updates from other vcs organisations Collaborate with other organisations on shared priorities Share events, opportunities, skills and resource

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Invitation to the formal launch of the VCSE Alliance

Finally, we would like to invite you to attend the VCSE Alliance’s formal launch,

Wednesday 23rd November 2022,
Hosted by the LLR ICB Chair, David Sissling
1pm – 4.30pm
NSPCC National Training Centre, 3 Gilmour Close, Beaumont Leys, Leicester LE4 1EZ.

At this meeting we will focus on primary care, and how we will work with you in the future to influence decision making.

Spaces are limited, so please book early by emailing llricb-llr.beinvolved@nhs.net or calling 07778 467672
We are really excited to work with you to tackle health inequalities, deliver health messages and focus on our priorities.  Join today!

Carried out by the independent researchers at Pro Bono Economics and Nottingham Trent University’s National VCSE Data and Insights Observatory, this survey is essential to understanding the challenges faced by organisations right now, and the scale of support that’s needed. NAVCA is part of the consortium of VCS organisations supporting the work.

The information you provide will help us communicate how the cost of living crisis is affecting our sector. The survey results will be delivered to government as it reviews which sectors will continue to get help with their energy bills in the new year.

The survey will take about 10 minutes to complete. It contains questions about your organisation’s finances, demand for services, staff and volunteers, as well as questions about energy costs. You might want to have your latest accounts and energy bill (if relevant) available. Please complete the survey by Monday 21st November.

The survey can be found here. Thank you for taking the time to complete it.

Tuesday 6 December 17.30-19.30

VAL runs Volunteering Network and Learn Events at different locations and is bringing this session to Coalville to reconnect with local volunteer involving organisations and consider how we can work together to support positive volunteering in the area. This session will also be an opportunity for local groups to talk to us about other areas of support that are needed.

The session is taking place at the Marlene Reid Centre – book a free place

 

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Recent Training

Recruiting and Managing Volunteers Training Session

VAL Volunteering Team delivered Recruiting and Managing Volunteers training on 25 October which 15 Volunteer Involving Organisations from across Leicestershire booked onto.

Two attendees, from CLASP and John Storer House were new in post, here is their feedback:

Feedback from the session

Extremely helpful session

Yes, I have taken some best practise points from today’s session

Very Helpful, Good presentation. Liked the activity/sharing exercises, would be interested to hear about more events gained ideas on supervision.

Community groups and parish councils can apply for up to 20 trees and up to 30 metres of hedging and we hope as many of you as possible will be able to join us and plant trees within your parishes and other community buildings  to both fight climate change and support wildlife.

The scheme launches on 26 September and you will need to be able to collect your trees on the weekend of 26/27 November. Full details can be found at Sign up for our scheme | Free tree scheme | Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council

We recommend you order your trees as soon as possible to avoid disappointment as we expect demand to be high.

The scheme is also open to all residents who live in the Borough (who can have a maximum of 2 trees and 30m  of hedging) and we would be grateful if you could spread the news of this scheme to all your staff, residents and other interested parties.

The Leicester Business Festival CiC (LBF CiC) has overarching responsibility for delivering the Business Festival and is keen that its impact can reach into local communities as well as local business. The Community Impact programme has been established to achieve this and will be managed by Embark CSR in collaboration with Voluntary Action LeicesterShire and Leicester City Council.

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What’s it all about?

The CIP encourages voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations to propose project ideas that will be of benefit to their local community or their service users.

Following the submission of an application form to Embark CSR, an evaluation panel will select four projects to form part of the programme for 2022/23. Bids will be for a value of up to £25,000, but unincorporated groups can’t go over 5k. The four winners will be announced at this year’s Leicester Giving Day Gala Evening on the 18th November. Once selected as part of the programme, the successful applicants will be supported to achieve the income target to deliver the project.

Embark CSR will work with the four projects and advocate on their behalf to local businesses, who will be invited to assist the projects financially. Embark will also help winners to submit funding applications to charitable Trusts and Foundations. The four projects will also go onto the City Mayor’s CrowdFund Leicester platform. The project that is able to raise the most income before the 2023 festival will win a prize of £2,000.

The programme is open to all voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations in Leicester and Leicestershire.

The four successful community applicants will be invited to attend the Leicester Business Festival Gala Evening on the evening of the 18th November.

This is an innovative approach to project development and fundraising, and the proposed target outcome is not guaranteed. However, Embark CSR and LBF CiC believe they have the contacts and resources to support applicants to achieve the proposed financial target.

Who can apply?

The following types of organisation can apply to the CIP:

• Registered charities
• Unincorporated associations / community organisations
• Companies limited by guarantee that are not for profit
• Community Interest Companies

Individuals or ‘for profit’ businesses are not eligible.

What types of bids are we looking for?

LBF CiC is keen to ensure that all projects submitted can provide support and assistance to those most in need, or can create a positive solution to address an issue of local concern.

We do not want to be prescriptive about the types of projects that could be submitted, this will be down to individual applicants, but some examples of projects are:

• Help for children and young people in difficult circumstances
• Help for vulnerable adults facing social isolation
• Help for adults who might be facing some sort of crisis
• Help to clean up a grot spot that can benefit members of the local community
• An environmental regeneration project
• Help for organisations caring for animals
• Purchase of equipment or minor modifications to buildings to improve access or to create new activities

Applications should also be able to demonstrate which local community or community of interest they are aiming to serve.

However, all projects will be asked to demonstrate they will be capable of meeting their aims and objectives with a sum of no more than £25,000.

Projects can start once the target income is raised.

If you require help or assistance with your application, please contact Chris Shaw or Stacey Wragg at Embark CSR initially via email info@embarkcsr.co.uk 

Criteria for Assessment

The following criteria will be used by the programme evaluation panel to assess the applications:

1.  Does the application meet a clearly identified community need?
2. Will there be a clear benefit arising from the project for members of a local community or a community of interest?
3. Are project outcomes clear? NB: an outcome is a change or series of changes brought about by a defined action.
4. Are the arrangements for delivery feasible and manageable?
5. Is the proposed timetable realistic?
6. Does the applicant propose an effective means of measuring project outcomes?
7. Is the budget well-articulated and does it represent value for money?
8. Is the project likely to attract support from the business community and other funding sources?

The Sentencing Academy. is a research and engagement charitable incorporated organisation dedicated to developing expert and public understanding of sentencing in England and Wales. It encourages the Government to implement effective sentencing practices and informs public debate about sentencing, acting as a bridge between those with expert knowledge of sentencing, the public, and policy makers.

Over the past year we have organised a number of events to broaden the understanding of sentencing with the general public and our key stakeholders. Our next event will be taking place on Thursday 20 October at De Montfort University, Leicester. Contemporary Issues In Sentencing is an event which provide information on specific issues relating to sentencing, which I believe that either your staff or your service users may find interesting, and would be more than welcome to attend

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/contemporary-issues-in-sentencing-tickets-404855893877

All third-sector organisations in our region have the chance to enter easyfundraising’s £1,000 giveaway, where one organisation will win £500 and five runners up £100! To enter, register with easyfundraising, or if you already are registered, raise three donations by between 1st and 31 October 2022. In these financially difficult times, alternative fundraising options like this are vital to keeping our services thriving and our members happy. 

easyfundraising partners with over 7,000 brands, so when someone shops online, your organisation receives a share of their purchase for free. It’s the brands way of giving back to local groups and communities and a way for your organisation to create a free, unrestricted funding stream. In these financially difficult times, alternative fundraising options like this are vital to keeping our services thriving and our members happy. Sign up and enter the competition here: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/val/

easyfundraising is committed to helping our sector flourish, especially as we go through challenging times. Their approach to fundraising is simple; they turn everyday online purchases into free, unrestricted funding we can use to support ourselves and the wider community.

They and over 7,000 brands want to give back to local groups and communities, so when someone shops at one of the brands, easyfundraising shares a percentage of what they’ve spent with your organisation for free. For example, if a volunteer did their food shop at Sainsbury’s, their first home delivery shop would generate £6 for your organisation. After that, every weekly shop would generate £2. So in a year, your organisation would receive £108 – for free.

There are huge benefits of joining easyfundraising;

• It provides a continuous, free, and unrestricted funding source for all third-sector organisations.
• An easy and inclusive way for people to give without it coming directly out of their pockets.
• It requires little time and effort to manage so you can carry on with what’s really important.

We don’t want our organisations to miss out. Be sure to enter the giveaway by 23:59 on 31 October 2022 and start making use of this fantastic fundraising option. Particularly as we head into the busiest shopping period of the year – it’s a great way to top up your funds.

https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/val/