January 3, 2025

Gareth Cavanagh, our Development Officer for Allerdale, is back with an update on his first 10 months and all that has been achieved, and what support is available in the coming months:

Happy New Year! Can you believe it’s 2025 already? It feels like only a moment since we were saying this last year.

My first 10 months at CVS provided a really interesting introduction to Development Officer work as well as lots of opportunities to grow and develop new skills.

In 2024, the Supporting Allerdale project helped local Third Sector organisations bring in more than £14,800 in charity funding. We hope to increase this total as we continue to support local community organisations with their funding applications.

We have supported two organisations to register as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation with more applications set to be completed in the coming months.

Organisations also received our support in 2024 to recruit much needed volunteers or tighten-up on their policies and procedures.

2024 brought lots of opportunities to work alongside brilliant colleagues at Cumbria CVS and link-in with their projects. Cumbria CVS’ Annual General Meeting in November was an opportunity to reflect on how much positive work is being done in the organisation, and the Third Sector as a whole. I am looking forward to more of these collaborations in 2025.

It is great to be starting a new year in-post with a lot of new skills, knowledge and new clients to work with.

Although the Supporting Allerdale project ends in March, there is a lot to look forward to between now and then.

We will be continuing to facilitate free training sessions for the community organisations we support which will cover: safeguarding, bid writing and project evaluation.

The Supporting Allerdale project will also be continuing to provide support to local community organisations with governance matters, finding funding opportunities, recruiting volunteers and putting the right policies in place.

If you are involved with a Third Sector organisation which could benefit from our support or want to know more about our upcoming training opportunities, email: Gareth.cavanagh@cumbriacvs.org.uk or call 07356 148808.