Third Sector Guest Bloggers

With more than 20-years experience in the meetings, hospitality and travel industries, the number of quotations and negotiations I have been involved with for fundraising events, gala dinners, AGMs, awards ceremonies and networking receptions is too great to contemplate.

One question I continue to be asked daily and at a growing rate in these austere economic times is:  ‘How can I bring the cost of my event down?’ Read More »

When I took over a sinking ship in 2007 at AbilityNet, I’d never have imagined that five years later I would be reporting a surplus of £300,000 to the board. In those days, breaking even seemed a pipe dream.

It’s easy to be gloomy about charity prospects with alarmist headlines about mergers increasing by 150 per cent and closures totalling 1600 in the coalition’s first year. But sometimes merger is shorthand for collaboration and economy of scale, and last year some 6,400 new charities were created, which is an increase on the previous two years.  Read More »

For better or worse, the effect of the controversial Kony 2012 video, a short film created by the charity Invisible Children about Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony released last month, demonstrated the potential of film and the speed and effectiveness of social media for non-profit campaigns.

The people behind Invisible Children are filmmakers and controversy aside, its first 30-minute video has accrued over 100 million online views. Read More »

How do you solve a problem like VCS infrastructure?  Today’s politically acceptable answer – so say the Lottery and the Cabinet Office – is a demand-led model of support for frontline groups.

Of course, we need to make infrastructure earn its money. We also need to make it worthwhile to work in good infrastructure organisations. We need great staff, paid a fair wage, who know what they’re doing and how to do it. We need organisations that are strategically connected and that can support and help document local innovation. We need organisations that, as Angela White of Sefton CVS says, know the “people, priorities and patch”; organisations that earn credibility by being rooted in their sector. We need organisations that can do the basics and then some. Read More »

The Riots, Communities and Victims Panel Report which launched last month suggested that a perceived lack of support and opportunities for young people contributed to the outbreak of the riots last summer.

I believe that everyone in society has a responsibility to support young people and has a contribution to offer in providing opportunities for young people to realise their ambitions. Businesses are not exempt.

Young people have so much to offer our society and, indeed, our businesses. As digital natives, they hold the skills that will help our businesses grow. After all, 10 years ago, who would have predicted that future jobs would have included the social media strategist or the app developer?

As a business, the contribution to support young people needn’t be a daunting one. I am championing businesses to work in close collaboration with youth sector organisations, and imbed their support at the heart of their organisations.

At O2, we’ve been on our own journey. In 2009, stakeholder insight told us that we needed to make a difference with young people. As a powerful youthful brand, we felt we had more to offer, but we didn’t have the expertise to make our ambitions a reality. We therefore developed a partnership with the National Youth Agency and UK Youth, to enable young people to make a difference and develop important skills.  And so Think Big was born.

As we’ve seen first hand, there are many business benefits to be had through working with charities and voluntary organisations. The primary impact of course is the difference this makes to young people’s lives. But there are many business benefits too, such as staff motivation and development or a sense of giving something back to the local community – the benefits are tangible.

And I’d encourage other businesses to do the same. Last week I hosted a consultation to launch United Futures, a programme being led by Business in the Community, the National Children’s Bureau and UK Youth. The aim is to break down barriers between businesses and the youth sector and identify what support we can offer to help young people realise their potential. It’s about working together and using our collective clout for a common goal.

As a leading communications company in a digital world, we feel responsible for setting the agenda: to harness a digitally skilled workforce that is fit for the future. We’re just at the start of our journey, but by opening our doors to other businesses, the youth sector and young people, I genuinely believe we can build a lasting partnership that will make a difference.

Ronan Dunne is the chief executive of O2

There is nothing wrong with the principle of payment by results.

It’s only fair to reward providers for their success, and it is right to direct funding into those areas and services that are having a positive impact. If you look at the government’s new policy of referring those released from prison straight onto the Work Programme, potentially this is a positive step. Read More »

Amid the furore surrounding last week’s Budget announcement, one figure in particular seemed to miss the attention it deserved. According to its independent analysis, the Institute for Fiscal Studies highlighted that only six per cent of the planned cuts to non-investment public service spending have been made to date. Given the scale of the public backlash to some of the cuts that have been ushered in so far, this appears to be an astonishing figure. Read More »

Everyone is talking about the fact that the Charity Commission has had to withdraw its guidance on public benefit. It is getting knocked by people who, like me, have said for a long time its guidance was wrong. Read More »

At a time when councils, charities and other service providers have to make major cuts in the current austerity climate, increased community action could be a key part of maintaining services to the public. But how can communities first be engaged, and then mobilised, to get involved? The answer, it seems, could lie in focusing on the small acts that people are already carrying out and making it clear how every contribution adds up to a big difference. Read More »

As a volunteer street fundraiser of the ‘fancy dress and bucket’ variety, I have spent hundreds of hours collecting cash donations from the public. Within the volunteer fundraising community, there is a lot of collective wisdom about how to raise the most money. However, the evidence to support these ideas is based on overall impressions and recalled experiences. How can we know what really works?

My background is in science, where there is a saying: “The plural of anecdote is not anecdata,” meaning scientists pay more attention to direct measurements than to second-hand stories. Read More »