Useful information – w/c 28/09/26
September 28, 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: 28/09/26 – 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
Every Life Matters – Training
Every Life Matters offer a range of suicide prevention and mental health training, including Suicide Alertness, Safety Planning, Mental Health First Aid and Mental Health Awareness in the Workplace.
There are dates for sessions from now until December in this leaflet, online and around the county in-person: Cumbria Training 2026
Ethical and sustainable marketing with AI
Tuesday 29th September, Online. Join HdK for this free webinar.
With the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, it’s important to consider whether this new technology aligns with our organisational and personal ethics and goals.
This panel will bring together leaders from across the arts, culture, heritage and non-profit sectors to discuss the ethical considerations of marketing with AI, best practices for sustainability and practical tools and workflows.
Managing your charity’s finances
Wednesday 30th September, online. Managing your charity’s finances comes with plenty of responsibilities, and banking is an important part of making sure everything runs smoothly.
easyfundraising invite you to a free live webinar hosted by Unity Trust Bank, designed specifically for charities and voluntary organisations.
Ideal for Treasurers, finance teams and anyone responsible for your charity’s banking.
Choosing with confidence: Selecting the right systems and partners
Wednesday 30th September, Online. The foundation of a good selection process is a clear, structured set of requirements: a complete picture of what your organisation needs technology to do, gathered from across the business and prioritised before you speak to a single supplier.
Join Hart Square for this free online session which aims to provide a rounded view of what a good selection process looks like from both sides of the table.
DBS VCSE Eligibility workshop with National Outreach Advisor
Wednesday 30th September, online. This DBS Eligibility webinar will provide attendees the opportunity to meet the DBS National Advisor – Laura Gaskell and learn more about DBS eligibility criteria and how to apply them confidently in recruitment and workforce management.
How to make AI work for you with prompt engineering
Wednesday 30th September, online. A one-hour masterclass to supercharge your productivity with AI prompt engineering, covering platforms such as ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, and more. Attendees, for just £20 per person, will learn exactly how to craft effective prompts, boost their AI capabilities, and streamline operations and processes.
Most people now know how to ask AI a question but getting consistently useful and ethical outputs requires going a step further.
Attendees will learn how to craft effective generative and agentic AI prompts, boost their AI capabilities, and streamline operations and processes.
Understanding Governance: The Trustee Role
Thursday 1st – Friday 2nd October, online. Governance fundamentals for new and experienced trustees.
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.
Creating an interactive dashboard using Power BI
Tuesday 6th October, online. As brilliant as it is, sometimes Microsoft Excel can’t deliver everything you need when it comes to data analysis, visualisation and publication.
This is where Microsoft’s Power BI steps in, enabling you to take your data analysis to the next level creating and sharing powerful, interactive and secure dashboards which can be shared privately or published and embedded in your website.
In these 3 hours you’ll learn:
- To get to grips with Power BI’s basic building blocks
- Getting data from Microsoft Excel
- Creating & customising charts and visualisations
- Printing, sharing & publishing reports
Strategic Plans
Tuesday 6th October, online. Strategic plans are one of the key documents as an organisation starts to grow, especially in the current climate where organisations have to search wider for funding.
A good strategic plan helps keep an organisation grounded in its work and should help prevent mission drift.
Preventing Charity Fraud
Tuesday 6th October, 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.
DBS Annual Conference
Tuesday 6th & Wednesday 7th October, online.
Registration is now open for the Disclosure and Barring Service’s (DBS) annual conference – a FREE event bringing together the safeguarding community to share expertise and drive better protection outcomes. This two-day virtual conference will offer insights from leading safeguarding experts through keynote speeches, interactive workshops, panel discussions, fireside chats and live Q&A sessions.
Day one explores safeguarding, legislative change and partnership working, including mandatory reporting, safer recruitment, barring decision-making and the role of effective partnerships in protecting children and vulnerable adults.
Day two explores information sharing, digital transformation and public protection, with sessions covering safeguarding adults, the DBS Strategy, customer experience and the role of regulators in supporting safer recruitment and safeguarding.
Get Grants FREE Virtual Conference
Tuesday 6th & Wednesday 7th October, online. Join Get Grants for two days of expert fundraising advice, top tips, Q&As, networking, peer-support, and lots of chat!
The Conference is a celebration of fundraisers, with a programme designed around the topics you want to talk about.
Bringing together thousands of fundraisers from across the UK every year, this fun and heart-warming event with lots of practical advice is not your typical fundraising conference!
How to master email marketing
Wednesday 7th October, online. Email marketing is one of the best ways to attract donors, raise funds, raise awareness, and highlight the impact of your charity. It is, in the simplest terms, an indispensable part of your marketing toolkit. There are 4.5 billion email users worldwide and research suggest two-thirds of marketers believe email provides the best ROI.
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.
The session explores barriers and boundaries that charities face. It shows you how to avoid email marketing traps such as spam filter, the various legal considerations and the best routes to compliance, the tedious tasks that are ripe for automation, how exactly you can start email automating, and more. Basically, in three hours, you’ll learn to be a whizz at email marketing.
Faith-Based Governance Training
Wednesday 7th – Thursday 8th October, online. Faith-Friendly Governance: Making good governance work for you.
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.
NIHR ARC North East and North Cumbria: Launching our next phase of work
Thursday 8th October, Newcastle. This event will bring together our key partners to celebrate the start of our new programme of work (2026 until 2031).
We will share details of our refreshed research themes, new priorities, and opportunities for collaboration across the region. There will also be opportunities for networking and conversation, and light refreshments will be available.
A full agenda will be shared ahead of the event.
Please complete this short form to register
Emergencies Partnership: LIVE
Thursday 8th October, Leeds. Bringing together partners from across the voluntary sector, local authorities, Local Resilience Forums, faith groups, government and community organisations, EP:LIVE is all about strengthening connections, sharing learning and exploring what effective community-led resilience looks like in practice. The programme covers trust, social cohesion, bridging divides, the next generation, harnessing volunteers and empowering action – with plenty of opportunities to build new relationships across the sector.
Practical uses of AI for your charity
Tuesday 13th October, online. Artificial intelligence (AI) offers huge potential for charities. AI can revolutionise the everyday. It provides significant benefits, saving you time, cutting costs, reducing human error, supercharging operations, streamlining processes, and so much more. But such benefits are more often talked about than realised. Charities face a problem: putting AI into practice.
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.
DBS VCSE Barring and the legal duty to refer workshop with National Outreach Advisor
Tuesday 13th October, online. Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) are delivering a free workshop on Barring for recruiters, employers and those who are dealing with safeguarding, welfare, disciplinary, HR staff etc.
Individual Giving Conference
Thursday 15th October, online. Join us at the Individual Giving Conference for the vital tools and insights you need to supercharge donor acquisition, boost retention, and gain clarity on the future of individual giving.
Individual giving is under pressure. Targets are up, budgets are tight, and the donors you worked hard to recruit aren’t staying as long as they used to. You already know what needs to change – but knowing and doing are two very different things when you’re stretched thin and pulled in every direction.
This is the conference that closes that gap.
An Introduction to Canva and Affinity for posters and flyers
Thursday 15th October, online. This session is an introduction to the online Canva graphics design program. It will cover the basics and have a few tips for experienced users.
Affinity is owned by Canva and is a more advanced graphic design desktop program. The session will contain a brief description of what Affinity is and how to download it for free.
Conscious AI Summit
Thursday 15th October, Online. How can charities build an ethical future? This FREE event focuses on helping charities to use AI ethically.
Together, explore how charities can champion fairness, inclusion and awareness while navigating the risks and challenges associated with AI. The event will examine the vital role the sector can play in shaping the future of a technology that is too powerful to be defined by a select few alone.
Through thought-provoking discussion and practical insight, attendees will be encouraged to adopt AI with intention, purpose and creativity, leaving with the confidence to harness its potential responsibly and effectively within their organisations.
Building financial resilience through investment when donations fall
Friday 16th October, Online. Voluntary donations are at historically low levels, public sector funding is under pressure, and charities should be looking to maximise cashflow from their investments without penalising future beneficiaries. Writing or reviewing your investment policy, in light of The Charity Investment Governance Principles, with consideration to maximising your returns and preserving your investments for the future is part of bridging this funding gap.
Join Evelyn Partners for this online session, which will also consider how charities that had previously invested for income might benefit from a total return investment approach.
Practical AI for small charities
Tuesday 20th October, online. Whether you are already using AI, are planning to or don’t yet know how your charity could use it, this short session will help trustees of small charities get to grips with;
- What tools you could use (focusing on the free!)
- What tasks you can – and can’t – use it for
- Advantages, risks and how you could manage those
- What skills your team needs and how you might develop those
Association of Volunteer Managers (AVM) Conference
Wednesday 21st and Thursday 22nd October, online. As the landscape of volunteering continues to shift, staying ahead of the curve is more important than ever and at this year’s conference, delegates will gain exclusive insights from leading industry voices and discover innovative best practices, alongside over 200 volunteer professionals.
Both days of this online event will feature:
- An inspiring keynote
- a selection of interactive workshops
- a thought-provoking panel discussion.
More information about the conference can be found on AVM’s website
How to manage charity finances – CPD Accredited
Tuesday 27th October, online. Finance can feel daunting, with the confusing terminology and frustrating processes. Charities of all shapes and sizes find themselves struggling with finances, which can cause myriad problems: lack of transparency, absent accountability, reduced efficiency, inaccurate reporting, and so on.
This course aims, in just three hours, to help you make sense of your finances. It provides a simple, straightforward, plain-English introduction, covering budgeting, reporting, governance, sustainability, futureproofing, and so much more. In two back-to-back sessions, each lasting approximately 80 minutes, the course offers key insights into the essential elements of charity finance.
The Art of Being an Effective Chair
Wednesday 28th – Thursday 29th October, 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.
Excel essentials – level up your skills
Tuesday 3rd November, online. 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?
Join this practical session to navigate the Excel ribbon and create, format, sort and filter your spreadsheets. We’ll introduce basic auto and manual formulae and why you should be using Tables. We’ll also cover splitting and joining columns and inserting basic charts.
Best Practice Reporting
Tuesday 3rd November, online. In the current economic climate where fundraising from funders and the public alike is a tough ask, it is important that you sell your charity in the best possible light. We all know that funders will look at your statutory accounts and therefore they need to reflect well on your organisation to provide key messages in a way that encourages them to fund you.
Our half day online course will give the tips on best practice reporting in the sector and show you how to think about your Trustees report differently. It is much more than a compliance document and an opportunity to ‘tell your story’ in an engaging way.
Social Media Training for Charities
Wednesday 4th & Wednesday 18th November, online. Learn how to use social media more strategically.
This practical two-part online training course is designed to help charities make better use of social media by focusing on what really matters: understanding performance, reaching the right audiences and creating content that supports organisational goals.
Across two interactive half-day sessions, participants will gain a clear understanding of how social media platforms work today, how to measure success using meaningful data and how to turn insights into more effective strategies.
Introduction to Google Analytics 4
Tuesday 10th November, 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.
Google Ad Grants for beginners
Tuesday 17th November, Online. This 2-hour course is specifically for nonprofit staff who have been awarded the $10,000/month Google Ad Grant, but do not know the basics for setting up their first campaign.
What will be covered:
- What is a Google Ad Grant?
- How to structure your charity’s account
- Google Ads & Keywords
- Setting up a conversion with Google Analytics
- Google Ad Grants compliance and maintenance
Fit for Funding
Tuesday 17th November, 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.
Making the most of M365 apps – tips and tricks
Wednesday 18th November, online. Microsoft 365 offers huge possibilities. It helps charities with email, file storage, and provides plenty of productivity applications that can streamlines your charity. Registered charities in the UK are eligible for discounted licenses and this session aims to help you make the most of your M365 subscription.
This three-hour session shows you how to master 365 apps. The first section will cover an overview of the apps available. It will explore web vs desktop applications, the joys of Copilot, the best way to use Microsoft Forms, and the secrets of Sway. The second section is dedicated to Teams, exploring meeting and channel management, file storage, whiteboards and polls, and so much more.
Supercharge your use of social media
Tuesday 24th November, online. The landscape of social media is growing increasingly complex. Legacy platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and X seem to constantly change their offerings and shift functionality. New platforms arrive every week, perpetually touted as the next big thing, perhaps even commanding time and resources, then fade into irrelevance. It can prove difficult to navigate the social landscape, to find the platforms that suit your organisation, to identify the best demographics, to maximise return on investment.
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.
Understanding Governance: The Trustee Role
Wednesday 25th – Thursday 26th November, online. Governance fundamentals for new and experienced trustees.
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.
Advanced Excel – tips and tricks
Tuesday 1st December, online. Join this 3 hour session to find out how to optimise your spreadsheets so they can do what they’re meant to be doing – saving you time, facilitating effective service delivery and enabling you and your team to get insight into the bigger picture.
This hands-on workshop will guide you through demos and practical exercises using a sample spreadsheet. Key features covered include:
- Smarter formulas that save you time
- Conditional formatting, data validation, and other techniques to keep your data tidy
- Using Pivot Tables to summarise and rearrange data
- Connect, clean & organise data from different sources using Power Query
Safeguarding for Trustees and Community Buildings
Tuesday 1st December, online. This session will look at the legislation, and what trustees need to know and do.
It will also look at how best to apply it in a community building setting where you may be hiring space but have little direct interaction with the vulnerable people attending the activities.
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.
