Development

Development Support/Funding Advice and Support

Here are some resources to help you when establishing a new group:

Constitution for small groups
Starting a group
Starting_up_a_voluntary_or_community_group_46
Legal Structures for Charitable Organisations

We also have a number of resources to support groups including:

Constitution for small groups
Are you fit to be funded?
Funding Tips
Funding Application Checklist
Funding Applications letters
Sources of Charity Funding covid-19
Inclusive Recruitment Toolkit
Equality-Policy

There is a dedicated page covering Safeguarding here, covering Adults and Children, and including templates.

We also have a page covering evaluation, reports and resources. This includes our useful Evaluation Toolkit – a simplified guide tailored to the unique needs of the VCSE sector in Cumbria, to help you with the practical implementation of monitoring and evaluation activities.

 

Caldicott Guardian

Caldicott Guardians help their organisations to ensure that confidential information about health and social care service users is used ethically, legally, and appropriately. If your organisation receives funding from Health or Local Authorities, you are likely to need to have one. Find out more about the roles and responsibilities of the Caldicott Guardian here

NHS England also have information on the role of the Caldicott Guardian here

 

Setting up a bank account for your new group

Nothing gives your new group credibility like having a bank account in its name. It says that you have arrived and are planning a future of doing more of what you do. Most importantly many funders and grant makers insist you have an account in the groups name in order to receive funds from them.

There are a number of options open to you – we have listed a few in the linked word document below along with a separate Financial Policy and procedures to help you manage it.

Setting up a bank account for a group
Financial Policy and Procedures Template for small groups

 

The delivery of our services will be in line with the advice below with support provided either by phone, email or other digital means. If you would like support with funding applications or with setting up a new group, please email cvsfunding@cumbriacvs.org.uk or call 01768 800350.

Group/organisation support & development

Cumbria CVS development team provides information and development support for charities, community groups and social enterprises. We work with groups/organisations to enhance and develop their confidence, leadership and skills to develop their capacity to provide services within the community. We’ve worked with many new and established organisations over the years so we have lots of experience in helping build strong, healthy foundations for their organisations.

We can help you too so contact us if you’d like help with:

  • setting up a new organisation
  • choosing the right legal structure, including CIO (charitable incorporated organisation), a charitable company
  • drafting a constitution or other governing document
  • funding and sustainability
  • writing a business plan
  • registering as a charity and help with charity law
  • roles and responsibilities of management committee members or trustees
  • running your organisation well
  • policies and procedures for staff and volunteers
  • working with other organisations from building links to developing partnerships and mergers
  • trading and generating income
  • getting ready for commissioning
  • issues around employing staff
  • monitoring and evaluating what you are doing

This isn’t everything we do. If you’re not sure whether we can help, please do contact us. Even if we can’t help, we’ll probably know someone who can.

Call us on 01768 800350

How we work
We provide our development service in one to one sessions, by phone and by email. We can also deliver help through training sessions, workshops and surgeries.

We work to build independent, strong, healthy organisations. We aim to help you recognise your own strengths and learn how to develop your own organisation.

Organisational Health Checks

All third sector organisations need to ensure that not only are they providing the quality of service that meets their client needs but that they have all the necessary processes in place to ensure that their organisation is in good shape for the future.

Completing a Health Check will help check that your organisation is operating in the optimum way, meeting all legal requirements, operating according to good practice and will help to identify any issues you may need to work on:

Cumbria CVS Development Officers can assist you in this process and provide support to ensure your organisation is in the best shape possible to face the future. Call 01768 800350

Factsheets

You can download factsheets to guide you through the following topics:

 

Additional information

We curate the best of content created by external organisations in our monthly Useful Information post. This includes useful information, guidance, and details of relevant events and training that can help you develop your organisation.

Find the latest Useful Information post in our News section here