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Useful Sector Resources

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Where to start?

There is a huge amount of free or low cost advice, resources, training and consultancy available to charities, social enterprises and not-for-profits. Below are links to a few we find useful and relevant.

Cost of living:

  • - information from across the sector about the cost of living crisis
  • - cost of living knowledge hub
  • - information, guidance and available training and events on the cost of living crisis
  • - resources for communities to take action on energy from setting up a community energy project to making community-wide energy savings

Mental health and wellbeing:

  • provides a wellbeing toolkit and directory of experts, organisations, products and services to support people working in the migration sector.
  • * is a mental health and wellbeing service that prioritises the lived experiences of the Black community to heal from racial trauma, racial bias, racism and discrimination, operating as a digital platform for collective healing.
  • - a round up of some of the best wellbeing resources for charities. Charity Digital has also produced its own
  • create vital spaces and resources for healing and learning.
  • guide to supporting mental health at work, including a helpful checklist for employers.
  • has collated resources from across the sector into 'toolkits' to support a broad range of workplace wellbeing topics
  • - training and resources for supporting wellbeing in the workplace
  • - useful links and guidance on supporting the mental health and wellbeing of your team
  • - guide to assist with creating a wellbeing policy for your workplace
  • - resources and training for supporting wellbeing in the workplace

HR and governance:

  • * - supports Chairs of charities and non-profit organisations to lead their boards effectively
  • Charity Commission have launched a
  • - Guidance, tools and tips to help you recruit trustees and diversify your board from Reach Volunteering
  • * - develops future leaders in the social sector
  • - a free interactive tool designed by to support sector leaders and individual organisations to identify areas of strength and areas for improvement.
  • * - matches charities up with pro bono business expertise from management consultants
  • – provide leadership training through both public courses and in-house consultancy.
  • from Cranfield Trust for charities and social enterprises based in England and Wales
  • * - free tailored strategic planning support for charities and social enterprises from senior business people
  • - practically applys anti-oppressive ideas to how social change organisations and workplaces organise internally. It offers alternatives to off-the-shelf HR policies and processes, which tend to replicate the very oppressions that our organisations strive to challenge.
  • * - provides a free service for charities, recruiting skilled volunteers and trustees
  • - guide to legal structuring for social justice initiatives. This free resource helps changemakers to navigate the legal complexities of setting up non-profit organisations in the UK.
  • - a list of free trustee recruitment resources including sample adverts, job descriptions, interview questions and induction packs.

Safeguarding:

There are several resources which may be helpful to learn more about safeguarding:

  • Charity Commission strategy for safeguarding:
  • - provides free advice and training on sector specific safeguarding issues, both online and face to face
  • - provide free checklists and resources for safeguarding children, including a
  • - learning, resources and tips for safeguarding children and young people from the *
  • - provide a comprehensive collection of free safeguarding resources
  • The statutory guidance for all agencies and organisations for safeguarding children:

Evaluation, impact and learning:

  • - offer a free suite of resources on how to evaluate youth organisations
  • * - provide free resources and training to help the cultural sector develop skills in research, evaluation and reflective practice.
  • - a community of organisations committed to working together to progress thinking and practice around impact measurement in youth work and services for young people.
  • - resource by the Arts Council that brings together and provides easy access to data on children and young people at a local authority, regional and national level.
  • - a great tool produced by the * for getting to grips with evidence and evaluation. Designed for evaluators in the arts but relevant for all sectors.
  • – carry out independent impact and programme assessments for charities, funders and other not-for-profit organisations.
  • - provides practical support and access to impact and evaluation resources and tools.
  • for social investment.
  • * (Institute for Voluntary Action Research) - works to understand, support and strengthen the voluntary sector using action research
  • - a set of tools and resources for measuring social impact designed to help museums find the right approach for their participants and organisation.
  • * - free tools and guidance on evaluation, learning and impact measurement
  • - a think tank and consultant to the charity sector, with lots of
  • - a comprehensive guide produced by relevant to charities, community and voluntary organisations in the UK
  • * - matches volunteer economists with charities wishing to address questions around measurement, results and impact

Finance:

  • - a finance toolkit that enables small charities to understand the importance of financial governance and provides the tools to support chairs in their roles.
  • * - membership organisation offering training to the charity sector to develop leadership and financial management skills, understanding of topical financial issues, networking and knowledge sharing.
  • * - provides practical and finance training and resources for charities with an income of £1m or less including

Start-ups:

  • - provide a toolkit and resources to help new charities get off the ground
  • * - has a guide to choosing a legal structure for new social enterprises
  • - offer a guide to nine of the main crowdfunding platforms supporting good causes in the UK
  • * - offer an essential guide to creating a social enterprise
  • * and - offer programmes and resources to help social enterprise ventures get up and running

Social Enterprise:

  • * - from building markets to large scale public facing campaigns, SEUK the membership body for social enterprise, exists to amplify the voice of their members and get social enterprise on the radars of decision makers across sectors
  • - offers free-to-access social enterprise support, information and advice
  • - provides an open-source toolkit giving mission-driven organisations and individuals the resources to identify, design, and implement the right strategies, models, and processes for scaling impact
  • - offers courses to help individuals start, sustain, and scale social enterprises, charities and community projects
  • * - supports social entrepreneurs with awards, events and resources. They also have a for new social enterprises.

Communication and Campaigning:

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  • - provide a helpful guide to what campaigners can and can't do under the UK Lobbying Act.
  • - published guidance for charities using social media, which includes a link to a template for drafting a social media policy.
  • - membership network for communications professionals working in UK charities with free to access communications guides, templates and reports.
  • - an NCVO initiative offering to link charities up with journalists to tell positive stories.
  • * - an independent source of news and views, sourced from the academic and research community.
  • – provide training and publications, as well as information and analysis on issues affecting the sector through their own policy work.
  • - provide a helpful list of listed by issue including links to blog posts, guides, tips and checklists
  • * - offers free strategic communications training workshops for organisations in London working on inequality and discrimination, poverty or multiple disadvantage.
  • - provide free resources from on what to do when experiencing online abuse, as well as how to be an online active bystander.
  • .
  • Involve – for involving people in decision-making.
  • * - provides training and consultancy in all aspects of media, and matches skilled volunteers with charities.
  • * - supports campaigners with training, awards and advice. SMK have developed , a guide to campaigning in relation to the Lobbying act. Together with Bates Wells, they have also produced
  • and have launched this new with plenty of resources packed into a single page.
  • , to support communities and movements to use the courts for their causes and campaigns.
  • from - includes setting up in-house production through to commissioning and working with agencies.

Data and Digital:

  • *- free services and funding to transform social impact through digital.
  • - supports social technology ventures to grow and access finance and talent.
  • (formerly Tech Trust) - offers donated and discounted software, email marketing and foreign exchange services for UK charities.
  • * - links data scientists with not-for-profits to help them use data in support of their mission. DataKind also runs where you can ask specific questions about a project or your data, or can pick a data expert's brain about what's possible.
  • * - provide a free tool to help you assess how data savvy your organisation is and identify areas for improvement. You can choose between a short 5 minute survey or the full assessment, which takes about 20 minutes to complete.
  • , a directory of tech for good partners, funded by , has a range of 'how to guides' to help non-profits find a digital partner that fits
    * - run a UK-wide digital skills training programme delivered through local masterclasses, mentoring and online learning.
  • - provide a range of free digital skills training courses
  • - run a training programme to increase digital expertise on charity boards.
  • and from NCVO Knowhow Nonprofit.
  • Helping small charities do more digital; has a useful .
  • from Datawise London.

Fundraising:

  • - provide a helpful list of including links to toolkits, guides, training and funder databases
  • - a comprehensive beginner's guide to fundraising for small organisations
  • - 'Fundraising Fundamentals' a free toolkit for small to medium sized charities
  • – provide a range of directories, including the Directory of Grant Making Trusts, and how-to fundraising publications and courses. Also provide the Funds Online (previously trustfunding) database.
  • - a beginner's guide produced by aimed at organisations or charities that are starting out on their fundraising journey

We also list useful links to help you find other sources of funding.

Legal advice and support:

  • provides for one-off pieces of advice needed by small not-for-profit organisations who are for the scheme. For longer term advice, LawWorks may be able to match a small not-for-profit organisation with a volunteer solicitor through their . They have also produced free short for not-for-profits on specific areas of law such as how to incorporate a charity, the basics of property law and employee grievances.

Merger:

  • and by
  • The has published three reports:
  • by

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI):

  • - a guide created by
  • - a framework and taxonomy to help organisations monitor equity considerations developed by 360Giving and The Social Investment Consultancy.
  • - a free tool by Big Issue Invest, which organisations can use to input information about their Board, staff and communities they serve to generate an overview of their diversity split as well as their gender and ethnicity pay gaps.
  • - D5 is a five-year coalition to advance philanthropy’s diversity, equity, and inclusion. They have very helpful resources including pointers on how to talk about DEI.
  • Free resources from UK charity on what to do when experiencing online abuse
  • - an anti-racism toolkit that gives arts organisations practical steps to take anti-racist action.
  • - a comprehensive resource created by * aimed at people who are interested in lived experience
  • - a starting point for museums and galleries to build a robust communication strategy to support decolonisation work.
  • - delivers equalities leadership programmes.
  • - a free toolkit for employers created by and .
  • * - provides captioning and live subtitling services to theatres and other arts venues.
  • - an initiative that uses the Government's Kickstart scheme to tackle the longstanding lack of racial diversity in the environment movement. Organisations can sign up for support to offer a paid placement for a young person.
  • - practically applys anti-oppressive ideas to how social change organisations and workplaces organise internally. It offers alternatives to off-the-shelf HR policies and processes, which tend to replicate the very oppressions that our organisations strive to challenge.

You can also find a detailed list of helpful and can listen to recordings from from our event on Recruiting for Diversity.

Environment and Food sustainability:

  • - working with arts organisations to help them measure, manage and reduce their environmental impacts
  • * - guidance from on how to ask your organisation to sign up to a healthy and sustainable food policy
  • * - an open education resource for sharing knowledge and increase the public’s understanding of our food system

Community and user engagement:

  • - developed in collaboration with museums and galleries across the UK, the Art Fund has launched a toolkit offering practical guidance for developing and delivering opportunities for community
  • - handbook and toolkit on developing a peer network
  • * and partners - guide on developing remote and online peer support through a range of online platforms
  • - a self-assessment framework for participatory practice to help organisations improve community engagement in museums
  • - guide to service user involvement
  • - guide to best practice on working with young people

How to. . .

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  • : a GOV.UK guide for voluntary, community, and social enterprise organisations.
  • Find a consultant: is a network of independent consultants who work with voluntary organisations.
  • Set up a charity: and an online checklist tool called by Small Charities Coalition* to steer you through the logistics of setting up a charity in simple steps.
  • Close down an organisation: offer resources to support organisations considering a closure with practical and emotional guidance and signposting.
  • Write an invitation to tender: we have drafted a example tender document, which you can download and edit as appropriate.
  • Set a budget for a project: see our rough guide to setting project budgets.
  • Prepare a tender process for a project: see our rough guide to preparing a tender process.
  • Find knowledge and advice for small charities: .
  • Work collaboratively: from Take Note* that are relevant to anyone undertaking or exploring collaboration and delivering work in partnership - social change organisations, funders, researchers, advocacy organisations and networks. You can also watch this webinar we hosted with Take Note, which takes you through the key tools and the thinking behind them.

For more tools and resources for charities, social enterprises and community groups, check out NCVO's knowledge and e-learning hub.

Infrastructure support organisations and sector supporters:

  • - funding, advice and tools for the arts sector in England
  • - the funding and development agency for the arts in Northern Ireland
  • - Wales' funding and development organisation for the arts
  • * - connects, supports and represents independent museums and galleries
  • *- supports, represents and campaigns for the voluntary sector working with offenders
  • - the public body that supports the arts in Scotland
  • - provides training courses, publications, online funding databases and research for the charity sector
  • * - national network for community-led organisations. Its programme supports member organisations in financial or organisational difficulty.
  • * - the membership organisation for everyone working museums, galleries and heritage
  • - national membership charity for local infrastructure
  • - research, resources and training for voluntary sector organisations in England
  • - support for voluntary sector organisations in Northern Ireland
  • - support for voluntary sector organistions in Scotland
  • * - support for UK charities with income below £1m
  • - support for voluntary sector organisations in Wales

*these organisations have been funded by a grant from Esmée Â鶹´«Ã½.