Useful information – w/c 26/05/25
May 27, 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: 27/05/25 – 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? Check out the latest edition of Focus on Funding here
Training and Events
How to audit your website and identify areas for improvement
Tuesday, 27th May, online. This free webinar from HdK will explore the topic of auditing a website, with guidance on how to do it effectively and improve your digital presence as a result.
Throughout the webinar, we will be welcoming questions from participants to ensure you are able to get the best possible information for you and your organisation.
Charity Digital Academy: How to master strategic planning
28th May – 4th June 2025, online. Master your long term planning with this two part course
Our course, in two three-hour sessions, inspires charities to embrace long-term planning. The course will allow you to think strategically, understand the importance of charity governance, develop an in-depth strategic plan, understand the tensions that arise between operational and strategic priorities, keep your strategic plan on track, and so much more.
Getting to work on Modern Slavery in Cumbria
Thursday 29 May, Penrith. Our keynote is from Causeway who provide a range of services which support survivors of modern slavery to recover from trauma, be protected from further harm, and develop safe and fulfilling lives.
They receive referrals from the Salvation Army, who are the government contract holders for adult victims of modern slavery in England & Wales.
Webinar: Robust cyber security on a shoestring
29th May 2025, online. A free webinar, in partnership with cyber security software providers Avast, exploring how charities can meet the cyber security challenges of 2025 without breaking the bank.
Charity Digital Academy: Practical uses of AI for your charity
3rd June, 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.
Webinar: AI for charities – what leaders need to know
5th June, online. Artificial Intelligence is transforming the charity sector, helping organisations do more with less. Join our webinar to learn how AI can streamline operations, boost efficiency, and provide valuable insights for better decision-making.
Attendees can expect to learn:
- How AI can simplify day-to-day operations
- The real-world applications of AI in the charity sector
- How to identify areas within your organisation that could benefit from AI
Whether you’re curious about AI’s potential for your organisation or ready to get started, this session will demystify AI and provide clear, practical takeaways.
How to use Canva for Social Media
Monday 9 June, online. Canva is the great free-to-use online graphic design tool which you can use to create great graphics as well as presentations and videos amongst other things.
This is an introductory session about Canva with a few tips about using it for social media.
[NEW] Free introduction to coaching and development
Tuesday 11 June, online. If you’re supporting other people’s development, this free upcoming webinar explores how we build strong foundations for coaching and development that actually sticks. Simon Hill – a former fundraiser and partnerships lead – has worked with social purpose leaders to create a practical toolkit for coaching that’s sustainable, effective, and shaped by your values.
What’s in it for you?
- Real-world tools you can adapt to fit what you already do
- Ways to support colleagues without piling on more work
- Space to reflect on how coaching can strengthen your purpose
Sign up here Open to anyone supporting others in a local infrastructure or VCSE context.
Reimagining Service Delivery Summit
12 June, online. A free online event for charity professionals to unlock new perspectives on service delivery and help maximise value to service users.
Whether you’re a charity leader or a volunteer, working in service delivery, fundraising, or marketing, this event will have something for you. Sessions will help you re-evaluate the relationship between charities and their service users, consider how digital can help charity services go further, and make more room for hope and optimism in service delivery for meaningful change.
Find out more and register here
Introduction to Improving Quality
Thurs 12th June 2025, online. Improving Quality is a clear, simple system, and focuses on the key issues that make a difference for charities.
IQ can either be used for self-assessment or accreditation, and has international recognition: a number of organisations in the UK and the Republic of Ireland are already accredited to it.
[NEW] Carers Health and Wellbeing information event
Friday 13th June, Barrow. This event is for unpaid Carers, their families, and anyone else to come along and see the free support that is available from the many wonderful organisations in our community.
There will be café style seating in the hall for FREE tea, coffee, refreshments and pie and peas (until they run out!).
Click here to view a flyer with more information
Introduction to Engaging with Businesses: Five Things I Wish I’d Known
Tuesday 17 June, online. A basic introduction to engaging and connecting with your local business community.
This session is aimed at small charities and voluntary groups, whether they are at the beginning of their journey in engaging with businesses or wish to develop stronger contacts.
Crafting your perfect team: Strategies for requirements gathering and partner selection
3rd July, online. Join Hart Square for this webinar, where we’ll cover how to effectively gather your business and technical requirements to ensure your project is well defined and set up for success from the start.
We’ll share proven techniques for identifying, capturing, and documenting your requirements and how best to align stakeholders, prioritise needs, and avoid the common pitfalls at this stage of a project.
Reserves – What They Are and How to Calculate Them
Tuesday 8 July, 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.
VCFSE News and Information
[NEW] Carer Support Furness newsletter
Carer Support Furness’ Spring newsletter is out with details of support and services available, Volunteers’ Week event and more.
Click here to view the newsletter
[NEW] Step forward and missed opportunities – experts react to Charities SORP consultation
Charity professionals and experts have reacted to a public consultation on the next version of the charities accounting and reporting framework.
In March, proposals to update the Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) were issued to reflect changes introduced by the Financial Reporting Council to FRS 102, the financial reporting standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland.
In a recent webinar exploring the key changes in the exposure draft SORP, and hosted by Civil Society, Fiona Condron, national head of charities at BDO, said there was a missed opportunity “to lighten the load for the very small charities”.
[NEW] Regulator updates trustee recruitment guidance to help charities ‘broaden reach’
The Charity Commission has updated its guidance for charities recruiting trustees, with an expanded section on inducting new recruits.
Its revised CC30 guidance focuses on steps that charities can take to connect with a broader range of candidates, and to remove barriers that may deter potential trustees from applying.
The guidance advises charities to consider a skills audit to test what they require from trustees and to distinguish between what is required and what can be learnt in the role.
[NEW] How to make your volunteering programme more inclusive
In 2024, 5.6 million people volunteered in the UK, but this was 1.5 million fewer than in 2023, according to the 2025 UK Giving Report.
To stop volunteering numbers falling further in 2025, charities must remove barriers and put inclusion at the heart of their programmes. With women stepping back at nearly twice the rate of men, it is vital to meet the needs of all volunteers. To support charities in this, volunteer management experts Rosterfy have developed a practical white paper, Inclusive volunteering: How technology and data strengthen diversity.
The white paper explores:
- Key diversity metrics your charity should track
- How to identify and remove organisational barriers
- How volunteer management software can simplify your approach to inclusion
[NEW] Identifying and supporting persons who are vulnerable in an emergency
The Cabinet Office has published new guidance replacing previous guidance on Identifying people who are vulnerable in a crisis (2008). The guidance is accompanied by a summary note, which explains, at-a-glance, what has changed from the 2008 document.
The guidance supports Local Resilience Forums in England to develop plans for identifying and supporting individuals who may be vulnerable in an emergency.
The guidance provides a common approach and principles for identifying and building relationships with agencies and organisations responsible for supporting vulnerable persons, so that the potential scale and mechanism of support to a response can be agreed before an emergency. Other organisations may benefit from familiarity with the approach in this guidance if they are involved in planning or providing for the needs of vulnerable persons.
[NEW] DBS produce new video explaining the online ‘request a Basic DBS check’ service
The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) has launched a new video for organisations, aiming to raise awareness of the online ‘request a Basic DBS check’ service, and the many benefits it provides.
The video explains the benefits of including Basic checks in the recruitment process, as well as the many advantages of using the online Basic DBS check service to facilitate these checks within organisations.
The short video explains:
- what Basic checks are, and what information they show
- the benefits of using Basic checks in the recruitment process
- the benefits of using the online Basic check application route
Surveys, Research, Feedback and Reports
[NEW] Charitable funders urged to start measuring wellbeing to assess impact
A new report from sector think tank PBE has recommended that charitable funders should start to measure wellbeing in order to understand “the true value” of social impact programmes that they fund.
Published earlier this month, the report says that wellbeing measurement has increasingly become a “simple and pragmatic way” to capture what matters most to many voluntary sector organisations and funders.
As a signifier of impact, it says that wellbeing data has become more useful since the Office for National Statistics started to measure the UK population’s overall life satisfaction and mental health through a standardised set of questions in 2011.
[NEW] UK legacy income grows to £4.5bn as probate backlog clears, report shows
Legacy income for charities in the UK increased to £4.5bn last year despite “a challenging external environment”, according to a new report.
Smee & Ford and Legacy Futures published their inaugural Legacy Giving Report 2025 recently, which shows that overall legacy income grew by 9.2% in 2024, compared to a 1.3% rise to £4.1bn reported in 2023.
One of the key drivers behind last year’s record growth was a 15% rise in the number of charitable bequests, mostly due to the unwinding of the probate backlog at HM Courts & Tribunals Service, the report says.
[NEW] State of the Sector Research
Are you running a not-for-private profit group or organisation?
Do you know someone who is? We want to celebrate and need your help!
You may be running a community group, arts and culture group, social club, sports club, charity, faith organisation, social enterprise, co-operative, community benefit society, working men’s club, housing association, trade union, or some other organisation that is benefitting local people. This survey has been created to understand the work you do and celebrate the positive contributions you are making here in Lancashire and Cumbria.
As a thank you for completing the survey, your group will be entered into a £500 prize draw.
Complete the survey here or click on the thumbnail image for more information
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.
