Useful information – w/c 17/11/25
November 17, 2025
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: 17/11/25 – 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
When Social Media Goes Wrong
Monday 17th November, online. What should you do if you are subjected to trolling online? When social media goes wrong, it can have serious consequences for your organisation and individuals.
In such situations, it is important to act swiftly and thoughtfully to address the issue and mitigate any potential damage. This session will cover damage limitation strategies.
Get Your Charity Featured in the Media
17th – 18th November, online. Get your Charity Featured in the Media is a practical workshop for people in marketing and communications roles in charities who want to gain positive media coverage for their cause — even without prior media experience or big budgets.
Over the course of the session, you’ll learn how to craft and share stories that grab journalists’ attention, how to pitch them effectively, and how to turn coverage into long-term impact for your organisation.
Spotlight: the annual Bates Wells charity conference
18th November, online. The charity sector has faced its share of challenges in recent years and continues to do so. Join us online for Bates Wells’ annual charity conference to explore how the sector is innovating, adapting, and finding opportunity in the current landscape.
From modernising leadership through to philanthropy, regulation and charity law, we will hear from a range of changemakers including the Rt Hon David Miliband, President and CEO of International Rescue Committee, and charity leaders from the Runnymede Trust, ActionAid, and The Children’s Society. Check out our full panel line-ups below, with more speakers to be added in the coming weeks.
Come away feeling inspired and ready to move forward with your big ideas about the future of the sector.
The Art of Being an Effective Chair
18-19th November, online. The role of the chair of the board or a committee is more demanding and can be more complex than most people realise.
This course will help you to chair well and to ensure that board governs effectively and that board committees add value to the governance process. Scenarios and case studies help develop skills in practical ways.
Charity Digital Academy: Writing a Successful Funding Application
19th November, online. This 3 hour course provides a beginner’s guide to how to write a successful funding application, using the National Lottery Community Fund’s Awards For All online application form as an example.
Finance for Trustees
20th November, online. How confident are you that you really understand your charity’s finances? It’s a complicated business, what with managing different types of funds and income, the accounting and reporting rules, as well as dealing with tax and VAT.
This course, lead by the team from leading accountancy firm BDO, will give you the tools to get to grips with how all that works in your own organisation, and includes time to chat with fellow trustees over the practicalities and challenges you face.
Find Your Brand Voice
Friday 21st November, online. This workshop brings together Brand Themes and Brand Traits – two simple principles that will help you develop a clear, distinctive and engaging brand voice across all your communication channels.
You’ll find out:
- How to establish the Brand Themes and Brand Traits for your organisation.
- How they can be used to ensure your key messages and unique qualities are expressed clearly, consistently, correctly and imaginatively across all platforms.
- How you can use Brand Themes and Brand Traits to assess the effectiveness of your communication materials.
- How they can help guide strategic decisions, align thinking and solve problems in every part of your organisation.
You’ll also specify three SMART action points that will help you integrate Brand Themes and Brand Traits into your everyday organisational practice.
Pride in North Cumbria AGM
Monday 24th November, Carlisle. We are looking for new trustees & committee members.
Come along & see what projects PiNC have been doing during the past year & our future plans. If you are interested & want more information, please email pinc-cumbria@hotmail.co.uk or 01228 267247. We would also be grateful if you can similarly contact us to confirm your attendance.
Click on the thumbnail image for more information.
Communicating effectively with your bank
Tuesday 25th November, online. Join NCVO and Charity Finance Group for a free webinar that will give you the tools, confidence, and know-how to deal with banking challenges head-on.
Learn how to raise concerns, navigate financial regulations, and escalate unresolved issues — all with real-world advice from a charity that’s been there.
Building Resilient Major Gifts: Strategy, Stability, and Sustainability
25th November, online. Join Fundraising Everywhere, for an in-depth panel discussion on major donor giving focused specifically for UK fundraising professionals navigating a rapidly changing landscape.
With inflation, funding cuts, and evolving donor expectations shaping today’s environment, this session will provide practical guidance on how to build a programme that can adapt, endure, and thrive.
16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence
25th November – 10th December. The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence is an annual international campaign that begins on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and runs until 10 December, Human Rights Day.
We’re pleased to share this year’s programme of Lunch and Learn sessions, accessible to all those across the Partnership. Full information on how to book a place for each session is included in the attached document.
[NEW] Sustainable digital marketing practices
Tuesday 25th November, Online. Sustainable digital marketing focuses on reducing the environmental, social and ethical impact of our campaigns.
Join HdK for this free webinar discussing how we can promote our organisations and cultural experiences, in a way that’s responsible.
Developing a Fundraising Strategy
25th and 26th November, 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.
We’ll show you how to analyse your current fundraising performance, explore future opportunities and challenges, and identify key fundraising audiences – then scope out and prioritise a range of different types of fundraising, identify key building blocks to put in place for long-term success, and accurately forecast the likely financial return.
Finally, we’ll explain how to get everyone in your organisation behind a shared fundraising vision and ensure they understand their role in successful fundraising.
[NEW] How to attract corporate supporters with video content
Thursday 27th November, Online. Join The Saltways team in this 1 hour workshop for charities to learn how to build meaningful partnerships through strategic video content.
A free guide is included and an opportunity to ask questions.
[NEW] The Autumn Budget: What are the implications for charities for 2026 and beyond?
Thursday 27th November, online. The Autumn Budget sets the tone for the economic and policy environment that charities will face over the coming years. Join the next Rathbones Charity Expert Series webinar where we will explore what the Chancellor’s announcement means for the sector – looking not only at the immediate impact but also at the financial and operational implications for 2026 and beyond.
Featuring Vicki Butler, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at Charities Aid Foundation, Rebecca Young, Chief Policy Analyst at NCVO, and hosted by Andrew Maxwell, Senior Investment Director, Charities, at Rathbones, this webinar will give trustees the opportunity to hear informed perspectives, ask questions, and take away ideas to help strengthen their organisations’ financial resilience for the future.
Managing Volunteers – The Nuts and Bolts
Tuesday 2nd December, online. Volunteers are a hugely important supplementary resource for charities. However, they must be supported and protected, and their contribution recognised.
This session summarises briefly the key elements and headline information your organisation must have in place to achieve this.
How to excel as a charity trustee
9th December, online. Trustees are the backbone of every charity. But excelling as a trustee can often feel difficult, with so many demands and often little support.
In just three hours, this course aims to give trustees the tools and confidence to excel. We will explore the responsibilities of trustees, the expectations of them, and the core skills trustees need. It will help to clear up misconceptions about responsibilities and the time commitment typically involved. We offer guidance as to how to attain any skills you might not possess.
The course is perfect for trustees and people interested in becoming trustees. The course provides a safe space to ask questions of the presenter and explore how you can improve.
How to master email marketing
10th December, 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.
Anti Racist Cumbria ‘Community Conversation’ Workshop: Difficult Conversations
11th December, Barrow. Why is it we find it difficult to talk about racism?
If we don’t have the conversations, how can we take the opportunities to challenge for change? These workshops support us to reframe what might seem like a ‘difficult conversation’ and resourcing ourselves to recognise it as a ‘Courageous one.’
Get in touch to register or for more information: niall@antiracistcumbria.org or 07979 551999
Flyer for the event series here
Anti Racist Cumbria ‘Community Conversation’ Workshop: Courageous Conversations
12th December, Barrow. Why is it we find it difficult to talk about racism?
If we don’t have the conversations, how can we take the opportunities to challenge for change? These workshops support us to reframe what might seem like a ‘difficult conversation’ and resourcing ourselves to recognise it as a ‘Courageous one.’
Get in touch to register or for more information: niall@antiracistcumbria.org or 07979 551999
Flyer for the event series here
Practical uses of AI for your charity
16th December, 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.
Introduction to Google Analytics 4
13th January 2026, online. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a powerful tool that can supercharge your charity. It provides an accurate and insight-rich understanding of your supporters and donors.
It provides a complete view of user journeys and enables you to make effective data-driven decisions. And, perhaps most importantly, it can drastically improve your marketing and fundraising.
This course aims, in just three hours, to help you get to grips with GA4. It explores recent changes to the platform, how to ensure you have the best data, the metric that you must know, and a general run-through of the interface, dipping into ‘realtime’ reports.
Faith-Based Governance Training
13th January 2026, online. Good governance is often seen as a burden – but it can be one of a charity’s greatest assets.
This faith-friendly course helps senior leaders and trustees understand what good governance really looks like and how to make it work in a faith context. It explores how to clarify roles, strengthen decision-making, and build confidence around risk. Scenarios and case studies help participants develop skills in practical, relevant ways.
Understanding Governance Stage 1: The Trustee Role
15th–16th January 2026, online. If you are new to the role of being a charity trustee, this course will provide the perfect introduction, while experienced trustees will also benefit from a refresher of their responsibilities and comprehensive updates on evolving elements of the trustee role.
Brand Reputation Training for Charities
20th January 2026, online. In today’s fast-moving digital landscape, a charity’s reputation is one of its most valuable assets.
Trust, public perception, and the ability to raise funds or deliver services can be significantly impacted by how well a charity manages its brand. From copyright and trade marks to online abuse and data breaches, reputation management is essential. This practical, expert-led training will help you understand the legal and strategic tools needed to safeguard your charity’s identity and uphold public trust.
Data Protection Training for Charities
27th January 2026, 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.
Finance for Trustees
29th January 2026, online. How confident are you that you really understand your charity’s finances?
It’s a complicated business, what with managing different types of funds and income, the accounting and reporting rules, as well as dealing with tax and VAT. This course, lead by the team from leading accountancy firm BDO, will give you the tools to get to grips with how all that works in your own organisation, and includes time to chat with fellow trustees over the practicalities and challenges you face.
Protecting your Legacy Income
3rd February 2026, online. Managing your charity’s legacy income can be a lengthy and complex process.
From the various tax considerations (Inheritance, Capital Gains), to dealing with contested legacies and all of the adminstration in between, there are many factors that can delay legacy income reaching your charity.
Led by the legacy protection team at VWV, this course has been designed to give clear and practical legal advice for breaking down these obstacles as well as tools for recognising legacy risks early on in the process.
Preventing Charity Fraud
5th February 2026, online. Combining 25 years’ expertise as a charity lawyer and governance trainer with frontline experience from various voluntary leadership sector roles, Claris D’cruz will lead this half-day training course to help your charity prevent and deal with fraud or suspected fraud.
This training is relevant to charity trustees, CEOs, finance directors, finance managers, charity advisors and anyone with responsibility for dealing with fraud in their charity.
Throughout the morning we will explore the types of fraud and financial crime to be aware of, the controls and procedures to prevent fraud and how to handle a fraudulent incident.
The Art of Being an Effective Chair
12th–13th February 2026, online. The role of the chair of the board or a committee is more demanding and can be more complex than most people realise.
This course will help you to chair well and to ensure that board governs effectively and that board committees add value to the governance process. Scenarios and case studies help develop skills in practical ways.
Contract Training for Charities – Managing Contracts with Confidence
26th February 2026, online. For a charity entering into a contract with any other party, there are a number of key factors to consider.
In this half-day session Ed Rimmell, partner at VWV, will share his expertise on managing charity contracts effectively to ensure risks are mitigated, all parties fully understand what has been agreed and what to do if a dispute arises. Ed will also guide you through some common and important contract clauses which are often poorly understood.
[NEW] The best Christmas fundraising ideas
Ho ho ho, it’s the season for fundraising!
As everyone in the charity sector knows, the festive period is peak time for fundraising. The season of giving means that donors are usually feeling more generous and inclined to donate.
And so, as it’s never too early to start planning for your Christmas campaigns, here are ten fundraising ideas for Christmas so you can hit the ground running.
[NEW] Government urged to streamline gift aid and modernise philanthropy advice
An advisory group has recommended that the government simplify gift aid and legacy giving, modernise wealth advice on philanthropy and activate corporate purpose and giving in order to unlock more money for the charity sector.
The final report from the Social Impact Investment Advisory Group (SIIAG), published last week, includes several recommendations on how the government can better collaborate with civil society to grow the impact economy and unlock an estimated £106bn in assets.
As part of these recommendations, it notes that although gift aid provides £1.6bn annually to the charity sector, around £560m goes unclaimed due to “complexity and lack of awareness”.
[NEW] Charity leaders urged to confront biases when cutting jobs amid wave of redundancies
Charity leaders must be open and transparent about redundancy proposals and should pause to consider how systemic oppression may be affecting their judgement, campaign group #CharitySoWhite has said.
The messages came in a collection of articles issued by the group reflecting on how a recent wave of restructures and redundancy processes across the sector risks “defaulting to white supremacist notions of whose work is most valuable and worthy of retaining”.
In recent weeks, Sense has reported making 50 jobs redundant, the National Trust has confirmed 500 roles have been axed and the NSPCC has said it will lose 235 posts.
[NEW] Everything you need to know about holiday and leave
Charity Digital round up some of the different types of employment leave and explain what staff may be entitled to.
[NEW] The Charity Digital Trustee Hub
The Hub brings together a rich collection of articles, podcasts, webinars, and videos created specifically for board members, aspiring board members, and anyone interested in the role.
You’ll find incredible resources such as our Digital Trustee Toolkit, insightful videos exploring the impact of trustees, thought-provoking articles on governance, and access to Trustee events.
[NEW] Charities against hate – How to respond to racism
The UK is experiencing an unacceptable wave of racist, xenophobic and sectarian hate, with intimidation and harassment on the rise. This is also directly affecting charities and voluntary organisations, targeting the people charities serve, charity leaders, staff, and trustees.
DSC have published a free to download guide to help charities navigate the current climate. This resource aims to provide practical actions that charities can take to ensure their own safety and continued operation, to help them re-evaluate their strategic planning, and to join in solidarity with others to push back against racism and bigotry.
[NEW] Charities invited to share feedback on use of Charity Investment Governance Principles
Charity leaders are invited to share feedback on how they are using the Charity Investment Governance Principles (CIGPs).
Launched in January, the CIGPs were developed by sector experts and umbrella bodies to reflect the outcomes of the Butler-Sloss case and complement the Charity Commission’s CC14 guidance and Charity Governance Code.
The seven principles – purpose of investments; leadership; integrity; decision-making, risk and control; effectiveness; equity, diversity and inclusion; and openness and accountability – aim to give charity leaders greater clarity and confidence when making investment-related decisions.
[NEW] The English Indices of Deprivation 2025 now available
The English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (IoD 2025) have now been published online by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).
The English indices of deprivation measure relative deprivation in small areas in England called lower-layer super output areas. The index of multiple deprivation is the most widely used of these indices and is a critical tool for understanding inequalities across local areas in England. Updating the indices ensures the continued accuracy and relevance of data used by policymakers, local authorities, and community organisations.
The Indices are freely available to access from www.gov.uk, and the online Local Deprivation Explorer allows users to look up deprivation data for their area, explore comparisons across England using an interactive map, and download data, with the option to download deprivation data for specific post-codes.
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.
