Practical support bulletin: March 2024
Amy Walton, small charity support manager, shares resources, events, support and information on the big issues affecting small charities.
We recently launched The Road Ahead 2024. This report compiles our analysis of the challenges and opportunities you’ll be facing over the next 12 months.
Our sector has a tough year ahead, but we know small charities will continue to be agile and resilient to support their communities. Below you can find information, events and training to help you do just that.
Small Charity Week 2024
Planning is now underway for Small Charity Week 2024, which will be held from 24 to 28 June. We’re on a mission to celebrate small charities and help them make an even bigger impact in their communities.
Thanks to all who shared and completed our recent Small Charity Week survey – we received a whopping 508 responses! We’ve heard loud and clear what you’d like to see during the week, including practical support you would find most valuable from NCVO and our partners.
Keep an eye on the Small Charity Week website and follow Small Charity Week on Instagram for updates.
Involving volunteers events and resources
Volunteers’ Week 2024
Volunteers’ Week will take place from 3 to 9 June. This year is the 40th anniversary of Volunteers’ Week. New and updated resources will be available on the website from 26 March.
Sign up for Volunteers' Week email updates
The Big Help Out 2024
The Big Help Out is a national campaign designed to inspire volunteering. This year it’s taking place across the weekend of 7 to 9 June, to mark the end of Volunteers' Week.
Join us for a free Big Help Out webinar on 3 April. Learn about this year’s plans, including how the campaign can support volunteer recruitment and engagement in your organisation.
The Vision for Volunteering
The Vision for Volunteering is a 10 year movement designed to create a better future for volunteering.
Watch the video below to find out more.
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Check out these free Vision for Volunteering resources.
Measuring the impact of your work with volunteers
Impact measurement involves lots of moving parts and can sometimes be difficult to quantify.
Ripple effect mapping is a useful technique. It captures the ‘ripples’ of impact that are hard to measure by traditional methods. It’s interactive, adaptable and, best of all, really easy to do!
Download a free ripple effect mapping resource pack
Capturing volunteer stories
Storytelling is an important tool. It brings the lived experience of volunteers, service users and communities to life. It allows their voices to be heard in service design, delivery and evaluation.
Community reporting uses digital tools to support people to tell their own stories.
Download free community reporting resources
Volunteering help and guidance
Our guidance on involving volunteers has been updated to reflect insights from our Time Well Spent 2023: Volunteering among the global majority research.
Take a look at our refreshed guidance on:
Opportunities to share your views
Charity Investment Governance Principles
We’re working with other membership bodies to develop a set of Charity Investment Governance Principles. The principles will support trustees to make good decisions about charity investments.
We want to make sure the principles are clear and accessible to organisations of all sizes, including smaller charities. To register your interest in the consultation please complete this short online survey.
We’ll select participants from the survey respondents. Participants will be asked to spend around two hours reading and commenting on the Principles. A remuneration of £100 is available for each participant’s charity.
Martyn’s Law consultation
The terrorism (protection of premises) bill, also known as Martyn’s Law, is intended to protect the public from terrorism in public venues with a capacity of over 100.
The bill will require people who are responsible for certain locations to consider the threat from terrorism. It will also require them to take steps to reduce the threat.
There will be two tiers of requirements:
- ‘enhanced’ for venues with a capacity of above 800
- ‘standard’ for venues between 100 and 799.
The government has launched a public consultation on the standard tier. If your organisation owns or operates spaces in this tier, respond to the consultation.
The deadline to respond is 18 March.
Support for small charities
Find trustees with Trustees Unlimited
Are you looking for your next trustee, but unsure how to access talent as a small charity?
Trustees Unlimited offers NCVO members with income under £1m a complimentary listing on their website. Showcase your board vacancies to their skilled pool of candidates and help drive impactful governance.
Social media policy template
Social media is an important tool for engaging your audience. But how confident are you that your policy covers what it needs to?
Atkinson HR Consulting has created a policy template to give you peace of mind.
Download the social media policy template (docx, 2.6MB)
NCVO members can also access our social media policy guide.
Trusted Standard accreditation
Trusted Standard helps charities improve the quality of their work and communicate that quality through accreditation.
The Trusted Standard team will guide you through a self-assessment process to identify what you do well and where you could develop. NCVO members can get a 10% discount on both online self-assessments and accreditation assessments.
Book a chat now to get started
Free data support
Pro Bono Economics can provide a volunteer economist to help with ad hoc data requests. This could include:
- data analysis or visualisation
- spreadsheet tasks or short pieces of research
- analysis via their Data First Aid service.
Find out more and request data support
Digital tool guides
Browse a library of step-by-step digital guides on Shared Digital Guides.
The guides have been created by charities, for charities. They include advice on using digital tools to run your services and operations.
Fundraise with GivingLottery
GivingLottery offers a great way to raise regular unrestricted funds.
With 26 supporters, your organisation can raise £1,000 annually. The top-performing cause has 221 supporters and will raise £9,000 this year. By playing for just £1 a week, your supporters could win £25,000.
