Tuesday, 20 February 2007

Non-competitive fundraising

This morning I met with Vanessa (Development and Training Officer) and Anne (Funding Advisor) to discuss a timetable etc for our second stage "bid" for BASIS funding from The Big Lottery.

We have got through the first "competitive" round in which our bid competed with other bids from our "sister" organisations. This is a particularly savage process; it is wasteful of resources and can be thoroughly destructive.

Anyway, we are now moving on to the "non-competetive" stage, when we need to reach planning and management standards set by The Big Lottery. This is a different type of pressure. We are pretty confident that our systems etc are all in place and things should run smoothly.

It is still a huge amount of work and we need to follow guidance and our BASIS grants officer has left and we need to identify a new point of contact to raise queries.

Website redesign

Our website has been slightly redesigned so the Home Page now shows both News items and forthcoming Events.

WBC Cabinet Meeting

In the evening, I gave a short presentation to Watford Borough Council's "cabinet" of senior councillors. They impressed me very much as people who were trying to "do their bit" to make their community a better place.

My presentation identified four areas where WCVS and WBC can work together:
- collaborating on the Local Strategic Plan and the Local Area Agreement;
- revamping the Compact and improving funding arrangements;
- improving Community Development;
- addressing Community Cohesion issues.

I was pleased to find that I was pushing at an open door and that WBC are keen to work collaboratively on these areas. We agreed to meet again shortly to agree Action points on each of the four areas I had identified.

This is very straightforward and is obvious mutual benefit. But throughout the country, and indeed within Hertfordshire, there are other local authorities in which relations with the local CVS are strained and unproductive. How hard can it be to talk?