Trustee guide on sustainable funding
A new publication from NCVO aims to give clear guidance to trustees on financial sustainability of their charity, and for them to feel confident about developing a 'mixed economy of funding' - grants, contracts and donations but also income from trading goods and services. Download 'Sustainable funding: a guide for trustees'. T3SC are running a mini master class for Trustees on Sustainable funding on Thursday 1 March 2012, book your place.
Guide to voluntary sector quality standards
'Quality in the Voluntary Sector: a guide to not-for-profit sector quality awards' has been produced for the Accreditation Providers' Forum, following a benchmarking of their quality standards. Giving a brief description and a tick list of the coverage (and ISO 9001 validity) for each standard, it includes those from ACRE, Befriending Networks, Community Matters, Volunteering England, Helplines Association and others.
Trustees toolkit launched
A new toolkit for trustees has been produced by Manchester Community Central.
The toolkit provides information on becoming a trustee, recruiting trustees, self-appraisal and succession planning, along with case studies highlighting the experiences of three trustees.
Credit unions will be able to provide services to community groups
Parliament has approved changes to legislation which will allow credit unions to provide services to community groups, attract investment from local businesses and extend services to new groups, including housing association tenants and employees. Under the reforms to the Credit Unions Act 1979, credit unions will also be able to pay interest on savings, instead of a dividend, so people will more easily be able to compare rates. The rules came into force from 8 January 2012.
Community Matters new social value tool
YourValue! enables community groups big and small to assess their economic, social and environmental wellbeing by simply filling in their data. It acts as a management tool but at the same time generates an assessment of how much of an impact you are are making in all these areas.
Health and safety for low risk activities in the sector
In addition to the general 'Health and safety made simple' web pages from Health and Safety Executive mentioned last week, the HSE has created a new web section for voluntary organisations managing low risk activities. For a specific 'Checklist for managers of a village or community hall', visit the Health and Safety Executive website.
Monitoring and evaluation tools
A new guide 
'Next steps: Monitoring and evaluation on a shoestring' from Charities Evaluation Services is ‘for third sector organisations that need to be able to show the difference they make, and improve their performance’.
'Next steps: Monitoring and evaluation on a shoestring' from Charities Evaluation Services is ‘for third sector organisations that need to be able to show the difference they make, and improve their performance’.
A Charities Evaluation Services research report 'Outcome and Outcome Indicator Banks: Availability and Use' investigates toolkits, frameworks, indicator charts and other resources which are already available to help groups to identify and measure the outcomes of their work in a range of contexts.
'Outcome and Outcome Indicator Banks: Availability and Use' investigates toolkits, frameworks, indicator charts and other resources which are already available to help groups to identify and measure the outcomes of their work in a range of contexts. NCVO's Strategy and impact
There is a new web section on Impact - not just about assessing and communicating what impact your organisation has but planning, delivering and improving, too.
Addressing Needs - new web content 'offers pointers on understanding, evidencing and responding to beneficiary needs'.
