Funding: By George! Now we’re talking

The conference, at Creech St Michael Village Hall, had two main topics: 

• New research by The Evaluation Trust on practice in the provision of funding advice free at the point of delivery to the voluntary and community sector, and
• Next steps for the Region’s new networks of Funding Advisers (FANs).

Read more on these below.

The conference also heard presentations from Paula Howley of RISE on Social Enterprise, and from David Ellis of Ruralnet UK on linking funding advisers online.

Funding Advice for the Voluntary and Community Sectors: what difference does it make?

The research, at its final draft stage at the date of the conference, summarises the learning from five case studies in rural and urban parts of the region: three highlight good practice, and two consider initiatives to plug gaps in support.  The research demonstrates clearly the value of good quality funding advice linked to capacity building, but found only a few examples of the long-term investment needed to support this.  The final report will be added to the website soon.  For now, use the links below to read the findings of the report, the presentation to the conference by the researchers and to join in the debate:

Download the research Findings

Download the presentation by Sarah del Tufo and Lesley Frazer

Action Plan for George and the Funding Advice Networks

In the last session of the day, delegates offered their suggestions on the direction they wished the Funding Advice Networks and George to take over then next year.  The George steering group will now use the result of this workshop to inform an action plan.  More input on how funding advisers would like their networks to develop  will be very welcome:

Download feedback from the workshop here

We would appreciate your thoughts and ideas on both these topics.  To contribute to this debate please visit our forum page.  You can only see the forums if you are logged in to the site (the forum button will then appear towards the bottom of the left hand side button bar).  You can join our site for free please follow the register button, found towards the top of the left hand side button bar.  Thank you for you time and we look forward to hearing your opinions.