Useful information – w/c 16/03/26
March 16, 2026
Events, training, charity news, surveys, research, feedback, reports, services and much more – in one handy place!
This page will be updated with new information as we receive it during the week. Please check back regularly. (Last update: 16/03/26 – items added on this date are marked as [NEW])
You’ll also find the latest Health and Wellbeing news, events and opportunities in the current post on our News page here.
You can view previous Useful Information posts here to catch up on our archive of information.
For useful resources, information, news and events, updates on our climate commitment, blog posts from colleagues about what they’re doing (in a work capacity and privately) to minimise environmental impact and more take a look at Cumbria CVS Green
If you’ve seen something you think we should be sharing, let us know! Email us: info@cumbriacvs.org.uk
Looking for funding information and news? Check out Focus on Funding here
Multicultural Cumbria Tea and Talk Welcome Space
Tuesdays in February & March, Whitehaven. Multicultural Cumbria would like to invite community groups to bring their participants and join a free Tea and Talk Welcome Space.
The members of Multicultural Cumbria will welcome you with a cuppa and cake! If your group would like to join one of the Tea and Talks (first Tuesday of every month, 12:30pm-14:30pm), please email hannah@multiculturalcumbria.org.uk
You can view a Tea & Talk flyer here and another flyer containing themes of the sessions over the coming months
Listening to the Land
Monthly sessions, March to November, Barrow. Playful Nature offers nature connection, music, singing, drumming, campfires, mindfulness and more…
The ‘Listening to the Land’ project offers an exciting opportunity to explore how tuning into nature can inspire creativity, and support wellbeing. This project is aimed at adults (18+) living in Furness and South Lakes.
Click on the thumbnail image to view a leaflet, or visit the Playful Nature website for more information
Village Halls Week 2026
16th-22nd March. The campaign aims to highlight the importance of village halls to the health and wellbeing of rural communities across England, Wales and Scotland.
You can register for campaign updates here
How to Recruit and Retain a Diverse Board
Tuesday 17th March, online. Join this online training course to better understand the importance of diversity and lived-experience on charity boards. Over the course of the morning you will learn about the common challenges involved in recruiting and retaining diverse board members and gain practical solutions for tackling these challenges.
This will be an interactive session with plenty of opportunities to discuss experiences and key topics with fellow charity delegates.
Webinar: Big impact, smaller budgets — Modern fundraising and engagement for charities
Wednesday 18th March, online. Join Microsoft partners, Mazik Global to see how a donor portal can connect directly to your CRM, automatically capturing donations and supporter data.
You’ll also explore real examples of charities starting small, achieving quick wins, and scaling over time, plus how to unify fundraising data, automate tasks like HMRC Gift Aid, and access real time insights without the cost of enterprise CRM systems.
Data Protection Training for Charities
Wednesday 18th March, online. It is important for every charity leader to ensure their organisation is fully compliant with the latest data protection regulations.
This half-day course will guide you through the key points to consider and what measures you should have in place. You will also learn how to avoid some common data protection pitfalls.
Risk Management for Trustees
Thursday 19th March, online. In an era of increasing concern regarding liabilities, litigation, regulatory compliance and reputational risk, charities are coming under greater scrutiny than ever. Boardroom competency in identifying, managing and mitigating risk is now a required skill and trustees must be able to scrutinise their executive and professional advisors’ management of risk, as well as being able to apply the same tools and techniques to their own decision making.
This course is a non-technical introduction to risk and risk management designed to enable trustees to understand and manage risk generally, but with a focus on risks related to governance, employment, assets, service users and third parties. By the end of the day, you will be better equipped to interact effectively with professional advisors and regulators, hold your executive to account, improve your own decision making and govern your organisation’s risk management activities.
Get Grants Showcase: Get Jobs
Monday 23rd March, online. Get Jobs is a FREE Jobs board for the Charity Sector, launched in 2025 by Get Grants. The idea behind Get Jobs is to help sector organisations who struggle to recruit due to often prohibitive costs of advertising vacancies.
Whether you are a Fundraiser, CEO or Marketing expert, Get Jobs brings you the latest opportunities in the third sector. Search through the listings to find your perfect job.
Recruiters can find out more at this free Showcase event
Excel: Beginner or Advanced
Excel is an incredibly useful tool to help you store, analyse and present your data. Even with basic skills there’s a lot you can do to help with your organisation’s monitoring and evaluation practice – but how do you get started?
➡️ Advanced: 23rd March, online. More information here
Workshop: Telling your story: everyday digital content and AI
24th March, online. Strong stories and consistent digital content are essential, but they don’t need to be time-consuming or complex.
This workshop from Kudu Communications looks at how charities can create clear, human stories and engaging digital content that feels manageable and sustainable. The workshop would be of particular benefit for officers and managers.
Where Are Your Next Generation of Volunteers
Tuesday 24th March, online. Volunteer numbers have been falling since 2020. Considerable changes have occurred in how the public wants to volunteer. There has also been a rise in younger people wanting to give back to their communities, contribute to their environment, and make a difference in their neighbourhoods.
It is important for any group to start thinking about how it can adapt and remove the barriers so that younger people can get involved in volunteering. This session will offer you some practical ways to make volunteering for your organisation more appealing to younger people.
Tackling Low Pay in the Charity Sector – the Living Wage Funders scheme
Tuesday 24th March, Online. Want to find out more about how Funders can tackle low pay and build a stronger, more resilient workforce?
Low pay continues to challenge the charity sector, affecting staff wellbeing and organisational stability. The Living Wage Funders scheme offers funders a practical way to help address this, supporting grantees to offer fair wages and build a stronger, more resilient workforce.
In this session, you’ll learn how the scheme works, what accreditation involves, and the support available to help you embed Living Wage principles into your funding practice. You’ll hear from funders who are already using the scheme to improve outcomes for the organisations they support, and from Theatre Peckham about the impact of Living Wage funder support on the work that they do
Practical uses of AI for your charity
Tuesday 24th March, Online. This course aims, in just three hours, to boost your everyday use of AI.
The course takes a hands-on, practical approach, showing charities how to use AI to improve meetings, boost email marketing, smash data analytics, enhance workflow efficiency, and so much more.
How to master email marketing
Wednesday 25th March, online. This course aims, in just three hours, to boost your email marketing.
The course provides a hands-on approach, showing charities the basics of email marketing, the best platforms, strategies for effective list-building, the importance of segmentation, tips and tricks for crafting effective emails, the best way to write a subject line, the virtues of personalisation, and so much more.
How to use data to transform your charity
Thursday 26th March, online. Charities collect more data than ever, but most of it sits untouched, spread across disconnected tools and teams. The result is missed opportunities to understand supporters, personalise experiences, and demonstrate real impact to funders and stakeholders.
This webinar explores how charities can turn scattered data into a clear picture of supporter engagement. We will look at how bringing your website, communications, and campaigns into a single connected system gives you the insight to make better decisions, build deeper relationships with your community, and run more effective programmes.
Clinks State of the Sector survey
Tuesday 31st March, online. Clinks is launching its 2025 State of the Sector report which explores the challenges facing voluntary organisations working in the criminal justice system, alongside examples of good practice, future risks and opportunities, and recommendations for change. The event will include reflections from Clinks and NCVO and is a chance to hear more about the research and ask questions about what it means for the sector.
This may be particularly relevant for local infrastructure organisations who want to better understand the pressures and experiences of voluntary organisations working in criminal justice locally.
Read Clinks’ blog to understand more about their State of the Sector work
Developing a Fundraising Strategy
Tuesday 31st March and Wednesday 1st April, online.
This popular two day course will walk you through Lime Green Consulting’s tried-and-tested framework for developing a fundraising strategy, enabling you to evaluate and prioritise the most valuable fundraising activities for your organisation and make the best use of your limited resources.
Supercharge your use of social media
Tuesday 7th April, online. This course aims, in just three hours, to supercharge your use of social media. We’ll explore how you can pick the right platforms for your charity and how to know whether you should invest, or divest, in other platforms.
We’ll show you how to increase social media engagement, how to extend your reach, and how to ensure you target the most rewarding demographics.
Webinar: A guide to creating ethical AI-generated imagery
Thursday 9th April, online. Artificial intelligence (AI) images have become widespread across our sector. AI-generated imagery raises serious concerns around ethics, responsibility, duty of care, and representation. As part of their Conscious AI campaign, Charity Digital are joining forces with The Saltways, an ethical filmmaking company, to show you how to use AI images ethically.
Emma Bracegirdle, founder of The Saltways, will lead the webinar and explore the current situation across the sector, examine how charities are using AI, and look at some easy, best practice advice for charities. She’ll explore how AI-generation actually works, looking at the processes at play, and cover the core risks charities face.
Emergency First Aid at Work
Thursday 9th April, Barrow. Where a workplace first aid risk assessment identifies a need for an Emergency First Aider in the Workplace, this one-day qualification meets the requirements of the Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981 and the Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1982.
- The learner will attain knowledge to deal with a range of workplace first aid situations
- Meets employer’s legal obligations
- Compliant with Resuscitation Council (UK) Guidelines
- 3 year qualification
More information is available in this leaflet. Please contact rachael@wearepeoplefirst.co.uk to book.
Award in Safeguarding for Work, Education and Life Level 1
From Monday 13th April, for 10 weeks, in Kendal. This level 1 course aims to give you an improved knowledge of the meaning of safeguarding in the workplace, education and in life in general. You will learn about different forms of abuse and learn ways that you can recognise if abuse may be taking place. You will find out about the safeguarding issues caused by modern technology and learn about discrimination and victimisation. Finally you will learn what to do if your have safeguarding concerns and the importance of disclosing information to professionals.
This is an ideal introductory course for anyone working or volunteering with children or vulnerable adults or who would like to improve their understanding of safeguarding in general.
Find out more and book here – if you experience any issues trying to sign up, please email helen.edmonds@westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk
Forces Wellbeing Collective Cumbria Roadshow
Wednesday 15th April, Kendal. Join us for an informative and interactive day exchanging knowledge, ideas and best practice amongst cross-sector partners supporting the Armed Forces community!
Registration is free, and open to any professional or volunteer from public, private and VCSE sector organisations delivering services across Cumbria.
Refreshments and lunch provided. Agenda and further details to be announced. This event is organised by One Vision Uniformed Services (OVUS).
Find out more and register here
Master AI with prompt engineering
Wednesday 15th April, online. AI is rapidly transforming how charities work and those who can prompt effectively get the greatest benefits. Join us for a one hour, hands on masterclass designed to boost your productivity with tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, and more.
For just £20 per person, you’ll learn how to write better prompts, speed up day to day tasks, and streamline your operations.
Led by Jonathan Ashton, author of a 750 page guide to prompt engineering for charities, this practical session will walk you through real examples, prompting techniques, and useful AI applications for the sector. You’ll learn best practice prompting, where different AI models work best, how to prompt safely and ethically, and how to build your skills as AI evolves.
SEO Training for Charities
Thursday 16th April, online. Do you want to boost your organisation’s visibility online but you’re not sure where to start?
This practical, jargon-free course is designed to help you understand how search engines work, how to identify your key users and how to create people-first content that drives traffic. This interative session will also explore the role of PR and AI in search, and you’ll leave with a personalised plan of action to take back to your charity.
CRFM 2nd birthday party
Saturday April 18th, Carlise. Saxman, Boy George and Tina Turner tributes on stage from 8pm until late.
Each name on the guest list allows themselves and five guests in.
Feel free to circulate to anyone else in the Council, NHS, or working within the VCFSE. Click on the thumbnail image to view a flyer for the event with more details.
Click here to complete a form for tickets
Reserves: What They Are and How to Calculate Them
Tuesday 21st April, online. Reserves are a critical element when building small charity resilience. However, they are often, for very valid reasons, miscalculated.
The session will look at Why we hold reserves, how to calculate reserves, what a good reserves policy looks like and how to report on reserves.
Your Voice, Your Story: Intro to Community Podcasting courses
Each course runs for 6 weeks: – Tuesday 21st April – Tuesday 2nd June (no session Tuesday 26th May) or Thursday 23rd April – Thursday 4th June (no session Thursday 28th May).
Have a story to tell or voices in your community you’d love to share with the world? This course is all about helping beginners and community groups start their very own podcast. You don’t need to be a tech expert — we’ll show you everything step by step.
This CPD course uses a blended learning approach, which means you’ll get practical tasks to complete at the end of each session. Step by step, you’ll be working on your own podcast as you learn, building both your skills and confidence along the way. By the end, you’ll be ready not only to produce, share, and promote your own podcast, but also to guide a group through the process in the future. Click on the links below to see examples of podcasts we have produced with communities.
This course is perfect for youth and community workers, or anyone interested in creating podcasts for positive impact in a community setting.
Find out more and book your place here
Suicide Prevention Conference
Thursday 23rd April, Rheged, Penrith. This year’s theme, “Take action. Prevent suicide.”, focuses on the practical steps we can all take to save lives and support those affected by suicide across Cumbria.
This full-day event brings together inspirational speakers, interactive workshops, and hands-on training to equip individuals, organisations, and community groups with the skills and confidence to help create a Suicide Safer Cumbria.
Whether you work in a school, a workplace, health or public services, the third or faith sectors, a sports club, or are attending as an individual – join us in our mission.
[NEW] Comms Practice Studio: Messaging Makeover
Thursday 30th April, online. If you’re looking for hands on support, peer feedback and space to think, join CharityComms in the Comms Practice Studio to give your messaging a makeover.
You’ll leave with clearer messaging, practical tools you can use straight away, and renewed confidence in how you communicate your charity’s work.
How to Make Your Social Media More Engaging
Thurs 30th April, online. Do you get the most engagement from your Facebook, Instagram or X (Twitter) posts? Why do some posts get more clicks than others?
How to increase engagement.
Getting to Work on Modern Slavery in Cumbria
Thursday 7th May, Workington. A Modern Slavery network building event for frontline workers in Cumbria. Keynote presentation from Streetlight UK.
To confirm your place email jo@churchestogehercumbria.org.uk
Click on the thumbnail image view the flyer for the event.
Digital Fundraising Summit 2026
Thursday 14th May, online. Back for its eighth year, Charity Digital’s Digital Fundraising Summit returns with a full day of action-packed insights from experts across the charity and tech sectors. The event featuring a dynamic programme of informative webinars.
The theme this year, Building Fundraising Resilience, reflects the need for fundraisers to adapt and thrive in continually changing conditions. They will be exploring how to prepare for the unpredictable, how to strengthen supporter relationships, and how to diversify income with speed and confidence.
Supporter Experience Conference 2026
Thursday 21st May, online. Join Fundraising Everywhere for a half-day conference dedicated to helping you smash your supporter experience strategies and raise more money with your supporters.
Join fundraisers from across the sector for a day dedicated to helping charities build stronger, more meaningful supporter relationships. Hear from expert speakers, explore fresh ideas, and discover practical strategies to improve supporter journeys, strengthen engagement, and boost long term loyalty.
Impact Reporting for Charities
Tuesday 16th June, online. Funders want proof of the difference your organisation makes. They want to understand your charity’s impact across services and locations, and what the benefit is of the services they have agreed to fund.
Amongst other things this session looks at ‘what is impact and how do you measure it’, ‘what does impact look like’ and how do you engage with your stakeholders to maximise impact.
[NEW] BBC Radio Cumbria Make a Difference Awards – Nominations open now!
Nominations are open right now for the 2026 BBC Radio Cumbria Make a Difference Awards, and the nomination window closes at 5pm on March 31st.
The awards are our annual chance to celebrate the individuals and groups across the county who go out of their way to help others, and there are eight categories: Animal, Active, Community Group, Environmental, Great Neighbour, Fundraiser, Volunteer and Young Hero.
You can make your nominations here
[NEW] Sector experts appointed to new Civil Society Covenant oversight body
The government has announced the membership of an expert group to oversee implementation of its Civil Society Covenant, which it says will bring the voluntary sector “into the heart of decision making”.
The new Civil Society Council will be chaired by National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) chief Kate Lee and will meet quarterly in Downing Street, a 10 March statement from Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office said.
Matt Hyde, Lloyds Bank Foundation CEO, Gemma Peters, Macmillan Cancer Support chief and Saeed Atcha, who heads Youth Leads UK, are among 12 other appointees.
[NEW] Most people would not consider being a charity trustee, research finds
The majority of members of the public would not consider becoming a charity trustee, according to research published last week.
The survey of 1,000 nationally representative UK adults, by market research agency nfpResearch, found only 6% would definitely consider being a trustee. Meanwhile 53% said they would definitely (30%) or probably (24%) not.
Those attitudes appeared by influenced by low understanding of what charity trustees do, with only around a third (35%) of respondents correctly identifying them as unpaid volunteers and fewer than one in five (19%) believing that they know a trustee.
[NEW] Charity mergers spike as private schools consolidate, research finds
Charity mergers have increased to record levels, mainly due to the consolidation of the independent schools’ sector, according to new research.
Published last week, the latest Good Merger Index recorded the highest number of mergers in England and Wales in its 12-year history.
Consultancy Eastside People found that there were 94 mergers involving 183 charities between May 2024 and April 2025, a 49% increase on the previous year and a 96% rise on 2022-23.
[NEW] Why charities are feeling more optimistic about 2026
The past year has been challenging for charities, with geopolitical uncertainty, rising costs, and shrinking reserves putting real pressure on the sector. However, there is encouraging news. The Enthuse Charity Pulse Report 2026 shows positive momentum: 77% of charities report stable or growing income, 45% have seen an increase, and 64% feel optimistic about fundraising in 2026.
Events are a major driver of this optimism, alongside renewed confidence in corporate partnerships and individual giving. The year ahead may still be tough, but there are clear opportunities for charities ready to embrace them.
Now is the perfect time to seize these opportunities and push your organisation’s fundraising momentum even further.
Disclaimer
The information above is provided in good faith. Whilst every care is taken to ensure that it is correct, Cumbria CVS cannot accept liability for any omissions or inaccuracies and does not take responsibility for the quality for any services or products mentioned.
