Browsing: Resources
New public sector contracting opportunities 2 December
The latest funding and finance opportunities available.
Rt Hon Liam Byrne MP: What Government can do to help social enterprise in public service delivery
Making it Personal - A social market revolution
After six months of engaging with a wide range of stakeholders (including third sector organisations, Government departments, researchers and private sector organisations) this is the interim reportof the Commission on Personalisation.
New public sector contracting opportunities 23 November
Looking for contracting opportunities to deliver your services? See a list of opportunities with deadlines for expressions of interest in the next couple of months.
Investment in the Acumen Trust
I just heard that the Acumen Community Enterprise Development Trust has been offered a Futurebuilders investment of £350,000. It consists of two loans of £262,500 and a grant of £87,500.
Tender opportunity - handypersons service in Sutton
Just found out about this tender opportunity:
The London Borough of Sutton is looking for a social enterprise to develop and provide a handypersons service for older people and people over the age of 18 who are particularly vurnerable within Sutton.
The contract is expected to commence on 1 April 2010 and will be for a maximum [...]
New public sector contracting opportunities 09 November
This week’s public sector contracting opportunities with appraoching deadlines.
Visiting Shape Arts with Christian Stannard
Last week I went with one of our investment officers, Christian Stannard, to visit Shape Arts, which is applying for a loan from the Modernisation Fund.
Shape Arts is a charity working to improve access to the arts for disabled people. It does this through four delivery aims:
More disabled people employed in the creative industries
[...]
Investment in The Media Bus
We have just offered an investment of £344,573 to The Media Bus. £297,527 of it will be a loan and £47,046 will be a grant.
The Media Bus is a social enterprise in Poole that was set up by White Lantern Film as a solution to the growing demand for educational projects and digital media training [...]
Angela Smith, minister for the third sector at Good Deals 09
This morning, I listened to Angela Smith MP, minister for the third sector, speak at Good Deals UK - the national social investment conference.
She pointed out that social enterprises contributed £8.5 billion to the UK economy in 2005, and added that ‘we need to unlock the power of the third sector’ in order to ‘create [...]
New public sector contracting opportunities 20 October
Check out this week’s contracting opportunities with approaching deadlines.
Public service delivery through social enterprise
I spent this morning at the Public Service Delivery Through Social Enterprise event held at RIBA in central London. A good mix of people from social enterprises, commissioners and public sector staff.
First up is Eilis Lawlor from the New Economics Foundation who talks about its approach to social return on investment. Her main point is [...]
Martin Atkinson from Treehouse talks about the Futurebuilders investment
Futurebuilders at the opening of the National Centre for Autism Education
Hannah Grant, The Social Investment Business’ Website Assistant went to the opening of the new Centre for Autism Education. We had provided £5.2 million for this new centre to Treehouse, the national autism charity.
At the opening Hannah spoke to Treehouse’s Finance Director, Martin Atkinson, and a parent, Virginia Bovell OBE.
This what they had to say.
New public sector contracting opportunities 12 October
Looking for contracting opportunities to deliver your services? Check out this week’s list of opportunities with approaching deadlines.
New public sector contracting opportunities 6 October
Some of the latest public sector contracting opportunities with approaching deadlines.
TreeHouse officially open inspiring new building
Yesterday I had the privilege of attending the official opening of the Pears National Centre for Autism Education.
New report from the NCVO - The state and the voluntary sector
I was reading the NVCO’s new report The State and the Voluntary Sector - Recent trends in government funding and public service delivery this morning and there are some really interesting stats in there.
The third sector’s total income in 2006/07 was £33.2 billion, more than three times that of the car manufacturing industry. Just under [...]
The sector needs a big financial player to bring transforming ideas to life
I started working in the sector almost exactly two years ago. In the very first week, I was struck by the passion and inventiveness of the people I met, and by the amazing effect of their work on the people that they help. In my first week, I visited three organisations across the country - [...]
New public sector contracting opportunities 28 September
Some of the latest public sector contracting opportunities with approaching deadlines.
Social enterprise glossary
Glossary of terms related to social enterprise from Merseyside Social Enterprise Network.
View the glossary
In the spotlight: Can the third sector deliver on large scale?
Eastside Consulting, Futurebuilders and The Social Investment Business have spent the summer developing 3SC, a new consortium for the third sector that will bid for large public sector contracts in education, healthcare and welfare.
3SC is now legally established and more importantly has bid and won a large contract as part of DWP’s Future Jobs Fund [...]
New public sector contracting opportunities 21 September
Some of the latest public sector contracting opportunities with approaching deadlines.
New public sector contracting opportunities 14 September
The latest public sector contracting opportunities.
Model cash flow forecast
A model cash flow forecast to download and use.
Phil Hope on the Social Enterprise Investment Fund
Birtenshaw’s David Reid explains the impact of social investment for the disabled children it supports
New public sector contracting opportunities 7 September
Starting today we will be doing a regular blog post about the latest public sector contracting opportunities that we hear about and contracting opportunities with approaching deadlines.
If you come across any contracting opportunities or have a contract that you are tendering for, please let us know by emailing [email protected] or leave a comment on this [...]
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 - 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 [...]
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