News round-up 28 August

This week’s news:
Communitybuilders format announced - Professional Fundraising writes that the Communitybuilders format has been announced and that the Fund will open for applications on 7 September.
Wrestling fan comes Out fighting for charity - Feature story in the Times about Futurebuilders’ Chief Executive, Jonathan Lewis.
Strong early interest in Communitybuilders - Third Sector writes that about [...]

Preparing for a Futurebuilders application

Follow these guidelines to successfully prepare for a Futurebuilders application.

Making sense of Futurebuilders terminology

Sometimes we come across words that may not be in most people’s daily usage. Many of them are specialist financial terms and others may refer to a specific section of the third sector. To combat this information gap we are starting a series of articles aimed at making sense of many of the terms used in the sector.

Patricia Oparah from Lilly Hugz CIC at the Social Enterprise Investment Fund launch

Collaborative working to generate income

This publication is one of a series of models covering the different ways that third sector organisations can work together. It is aimed at chief executives, managers, trustees, financial managers and infrastructure organisations.

Procurement and contracting

This guide by the NVCO and the Finance Hub, explains what is meant by procurement and contracting. Focusing on contracting to deliver public services, it provides a starting point to help organisations understand and navigate the complex realm of rules, procedures and practices that constitute public sector procurement.
Download the guide from the NCVO website (PDF [...]

Financial management

This guide by the NVCO and the Finance Hub describes what is meant by ‘financial management’ and how voluntary and
community organisations can plan for, and move towards it. It outlines some sensible objectives, useful concepts and techniques for analysing situations, and guidance for actions and decisionmaking. It also highlights how all decision-making is dependent on [...]

Standard NHS contracts

A wide range of standard contracts to cover agreements between PCTs and providers for the delivery of NHS funded services.

No excuses. Embrace partnerships now

This report sets out the conclusions of the Third Sector Commissioning Task Force which was set up to promote a sound commercial relationship between commissioners of health and social care services and third sector as providers, and help remove barriers to entry for all potential providers of health and social care.

NHS commissioning - a perspective

In this article for Knowhow Nonprofit, Derek Miller, Director of Commissioning at a PCT outlines how third sector organisations can deliver services for the NHS. He discusses services contracting, the commissioning process, joint working, practice based commissioning and subcontracting opportunities.

Commissioning review spring 2009

This is the twelfth of Futurebuilders England’s quarterly Commissioning Reviews.
Financial crisis…economic downturn…recession. We have all heard these words and phrases repeated so often over the past few months that it’s hard not to get bogged down in the negatives. But there are many positive things happening as well, particularly in the third sector, which we [...]

We now offer a range of interest rates

Earlier this month we announced that we are moving from one fixed interest rate to a suite of interest rate options for new deals under our Social Enterprise Investment Fund and Futurebuilders loan funds.
We want to do our very best in these hard times to ensure third sector organisations that are not adequately served by [...]

Give your tender a winning chance

This guide from the Finance Hub helps you write a winning tender.

How to write a business plan

Guidance on how to write a good business plan. Futurebuilders needs to be sure that your organisation is ready to take on an investment by looking at your organisation’s business plan. It gives us information about your aims and objectives, financial status and type of work undertaken, helping us to understand why you need an investment.

Commissioning from the VCS

This easy to use guide has been developed by the NCVO to help commissioners encourage more participation by the third sector. It covers the principles of intelligent commissioning and then outlines, step by step, what is needed by commissioners in order to make the most out of the potential contribution of the third sector.

Communitybuilders confirms eligibility criteria & investment packages

Adventure Capital Fund today confirmed that the criteria and investment packages for the Communitybuilders Fund had been agreed with The Office of the Third Sector and Communities and Local Government.

Communitybuilders - a new programme for community organisations

We launched Stage 1 of the new Communitybuilders website this week. Communitybuilders is a £70 programme for multi-purpose, inclusive community-led organisations and provides loans, grants and business support to help them become more sustainable and resilient.
Multi-purpose, inclusive and community-led? What does that mean?
Well, through Communitybuilders we want to support community organisations that provide services to [...]

New flexible interest rates

0% for 2 years
2% for 5 years
2% over base rate

Daniela Barone-Soares talks about third sector sustainability

John Turner from Healthy Hearts at the launch of the Social Enterprise Investment Fund

Pecan - transforming the lives of unemployed people

Affected by the recession?

Get £30,000 - £500,000
interest-free for 5 years

National Third Sector Consortium wins Future Jobs Fund contract

We are delighted to announce that the Secretary of State has awarded the DWP Future Jobs Fund contract to 3SC, the trading name for the newly formed Third Sector Consortia Management LLP of which we, along with Eastside, are founding members.

Pam Clarke talks about Alderbury Pre-school’s new building that was funded by Futurebuilders

Trinity Winchester CEO Michelle Gardner explains the benefits of its new building that was made possible by Futurebuilders

Trevor Lynn from Mow & Grow on social enterprise and expansion

Toby Eccles, Development Director at Social Finance, talks about third sector public service delivery

Kevin Curley, Chief Executive of NAVCA, talks about charity sustainability

Third sector organisations talk about issues they have with bidding for public service contracts.

What is the Futurebuilders Funders Forum?

Case study: Peacemaker

Case study: Total Healthcare

Successful procurement and negotiation in the third sector

The Finance Hub provides a range of briefings around tendering and public service delivery for the third sector on its website.

Public service delivery for VCO’s – NCVO

This guide, by the NCVO, helps organisations when confronted with the complex realm of rules, procedures and practices that constitute the public sector procurement process.

Public service delivery – Know How Nonprofit

Know How Nonprofit have a wealth of information for third sector organisations wanting to get involved in public service delivery.

Introductory Pack on and Finance - Guide to Procurement and Contracting

This guide explains what is meant by procurement and contracting. It focuses on contracting to deliver public services and provides a starting point to help you understand and navigate the complex realm of rules, procedures and practices that constitute public sector procurement.

How to survive commissioning

Presentations from a NAVCA event on commissioning.

Charities and Public Service Delivery – An introduction and overview

This introduction to public service delivery by the Charity Commission is primarily aimed at smaller charities and those charities considering delivering public services for the first time but it is also useful to charities that are already delivering public services.

Personalisation: challenges and opportunities

In an article for Know How Nonprofit, Richard Gutch discusses the challenges and opportunities created by increasing personalisation of public service contracts.

Think Smart, Think Voluntary Sector

This is a publication, aimed at commissioners, which shows the value for money that the third sector can offer in the delivery of public sector contracts and explores some of the issues that can make it difficult for it to compete successfully for public sector contracts.

Improving Financial Relationships with the Third Sector: Guidance to Funders and Purchasers

This guidance is intended to help government departments, non-departmental public bodies and other funding bodies themselves distributing public money to the third sector.

A better return: setting the foundations for intelligent commissioning to achieve value for money

Based on research by the New Economics Foundation, the National Programme for Third Sector Commissioning has published this report on how spending on public services can be directed to achieve the best return for communities, the environment and the public purse.

Public service delivery action plan

In 2006 the Office of the Third Sector set out an action plan to enable an increase in public service delivery by the third sector.

Model of collaborative working - Joint working for public service delivery

This is one of a series of models covering the different ways that voluntary or community organisations can work together. It is aimed at chief executives, managers and trustees of organisations considering or undertaking public service delivery jointly with other voluntary organisations.

Consortia delivery of public services

This guide by the NCVO explores different aspects of three models of consortia delivery of public services by voluntary and community organisations.

Our first steps towards using social media

After several months of hard work by us and our digital agency, Substrakt and with help from Nick Booth at Podnosh, I’m pleased to launch the updated and improved Futurebuilders website. You’ll find lots of small changes around which will hopefully result in an improved user experience, but the centerpiece of our relaunch is this [...]

Tendering for public service contracts

Third sector organisations play a significant role in delivering public services. Grants are becoming less common and bidding for public service contracts is becoming increasingly competitive, so it is imperative that third sector organisations understand how to tender effectively for these contracts.

Where to find public sector contracts

Help with where to find public sector contracts.