Thursday 14th July 2011 10.00 – 16.00
A one-day workshop for voluntary and community groups (cost £30 including lunch)
This workshop is designed for voluntary sector organisations to help the move from Voluntary Sector grant-funding to social enterprise trading, from spending time applying for grants to selling products or services. We will explore the questions that arise for not-for-profit bodies developing social enterprise activities. What have we got that we can sell? Where are our markets? What new ways of thinking, knowledge skills, systems and structure are needed?
A difficult future
The days when grants were given to voluntary bodies to support their objectives are long gone, replaced by grants where funders specified the outputs but also monitored the input costs. Now the sector is faced with the disappearance of much of this grant-funding and has to investigate other ways of generating income for sustainability.
Increasing opportunities
On the other hand, there is the promise of an expanded role for voluntary and community organisations, and an increase in commercial opportunities, to bid for contracts to deliver services which were formerly delivered by local authorities, the Health Service, etc. The move to personal budgets for care services means that instead of applying to a grant by filling in a form that is decided on by Council staff, service providers will now be selling their service face-to-face to customers, in competition with others.
London Rebuilding Society
London Rebuilding Society has been advising, supporting and lending to the Third Sector for nearly ten years, and its staff have decades of experience of co-operative and mutual business development. Its consultancy services have been set up to provide the necessary support for strategic and financial planning that will be vital for the survival and growth of the Third Sector.
Summary agenda
Introduction; What are the problems? What are the opportunities?; Voluntary body or Social Enterprise: what’s the difference?; What changes do we need to make: scaling up, mergers, partnerships, competition; Charity accounting and enterprise accounting: an overview of problems.
Places are limited. To apply, please contact us.