Community Matters
Voice4Change England (V4CE) decided to collaborate with Community Matters because they represent the largest network of grassroots community organisations in the UK and have over 1200 members. Their programmes and services aim to support them and the people they serve, and to create the conditions in which communities can thrive.
Here are some of the great services you can access if you join Community Matters.
FREE MEMBERSHIP FOR SMALL ORGANISATIONS WITH ANNUAL INCOME OF £15,000 OR BELOW (Category A in our membership scheme)
Small community organisations with an annual income of £15,000 or below are now entitled to free membership. This category will be asked to send in a copy of their organisation’s Annual Accounts or other supporting document as evidence.
Not eligible for this category? Claim 20% membership discount!
ARE YOU FIT FOR PURPOSE?
With groups in the sector reeling from funding cutbacks and lack of available resources, it has never been more important to ensure you are:
- financially viable and sustainable
- legally compliant
- able to demonstrate your impact to funders and stakeholders
We recognise that many of you are looking for support that is easily accessible, affordable, and built on years of expertise.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Find out more about our membership programme
The Programme
Why a collaborative programme? What’s the story behind this programme?
When Voice4Change England were thinking about introducing a new membership programme, we wanted to do more than create a sign-up system, we wanted to create something that embodied and represented our values and aims to the sector, something that would inspire a new way of working.
We found that the biggest challenge in the sector was the gap that lay between the generic support providers and BME organisations of all sorts. The sector as a whole seemed caught up in the debate around generic or specialist – who ought to be serving the sector and the organisations providing vital services to our communities? We thought why not prove to the sector that it did not have to be one or the other? Let us show that generic and specialist support providers did in reality provide complementary services not competing or duplicate ones, as most people believed.
When the programme partners met to discuss the collaboration, it became evident that each partner was bringing special skills and expertise to the table. It was also obvious that while it seemed that partners were providing similar services like consultancy or information the core content and aims were very different. So, email bulletins produced by each organisation carried distinct content tailored to community/local organisations, BME issues or wider sector concerns.
V4CE hopes that this collaboration will work at two levels. First, that it will provide easier access for BME voluntary and community organisations to generic (and specialist) support and better reach for support providers into the chronically under-resourced BME VCS. Secondly, this programme will create a platform for more joint working between the programme partners, to possibly enable joint services, events and resources in the future as well as more interaction between the members of each partner organisation encouraging more engagement, participation, cross-fertilisation of networks and ultimately stronger relationships between different parts of the sector.
Why did V4CE choose to work with NCVO?
NCVO are the largest umbrella body for the voluntary and community sector and wider civil society with an extensive range of services, advice and resources to offer. As the key generic national support organisation for the sector, V4CE felt it important to improve the diversity of the members they served and help provide easier access for BME organisations to a range of generic services. This programme has also allowed V4CE and NCVO to showcase their distinct yet complementary services and support offers.
Why did V4CE choose to work with Community Matters?
Voice4Change England value their relationship with Community Matters who champion voluntary and community action at a neighbourhood level.
Community Matters bring specialist expertise on organisational development, community assets, range of advice services and quality standards for small community organisations, local groups and activists, which would be of great value to our small and local BME members. V4CE and Community Matters hope to also work together behind the scenes to offer joint services, host joint events and produce joint resources for members of both organisations in the future.
Why did V4CE choose to partner with Charity Builder UK?
Charity Builder UK is a unique service funded by Tennyson Insurance that provides practical solutions to managing HR, complying with health and safety regulation, and buying cheap insurance. This service is only available for free to voluntary and community organisations through a national partner like V4CE.
Voice4Change England felt it would a valuable benefit to their often cash-strapped BME members to avail of hands-on support to organisational essentials for free.
What happened to the old Subscriber Scheme?
The old Subscriber Scheme no longer exists and has been replaced by the much enhanced new collaborative membership programme. All V4CE Subscribers and their data will be transferred to the new programme, unless they chose to opt-out.
How is the new V4CE Collaborative Membership Programme different from the Subscriber Scheme?
The Collaborative Membership Programme is different from the Subscriber Scheme in three ways. First, the new programme is a membership structure that feeds into the governance of the organisation, so members will attend AGMs to vote for the V4CE board.
Second, the collaboration with NCVO, Community Matters and Charity Builder UK enables the programme to offer a wider range of complementary services to meet generic or specialist needs. From time to time, we will also ask you in more detail about your needs and views to help us design better and more targeted support and services for you.
Thirdly, we will be reviewing the success of the programme and introduce new partners to our membership programme to further widen the choice we offer V4CE members so that they can benefit from an even broader range of support and services.
Who funds this programme?
This programme is core to Voice4Change England’s activities. This is part of the Strengthening Voices project funded by the Big Lottery Fund’s BASIS Round 2.
Services
I have now received my membership number, how can I access Charity Builder UK’s online service?
You will need to register on to the Charity Builder service at www.charitybuilder.co.uk, quoting your affiliation to V4CE. You will then receive your login information and be ready to access their unique support service.
Through this collaboration will you be offering joint services to members?
This collaboration will ensure you have a wider choice of services. We have been working behind the scenes to ensure that we and our partner organisations do not offer duplicate services, but instead have a range of services that play to our strengths and specialisms. All partners will refer to the right provider depending on your needs – so if you are looking for advice on managing a community asset we will ask you to contact the Community Matters team and if you are after training on managing finances we will signpost you to NCVO, and if you need support on lobbying locally or want your needs on the agenda of policymakers, we will be here to help.
We also aim to work together to host events and create resources that we feel will benefit you.
I want to be able to influence the policy agenda in my area, but need better information and more support?
We are here to represent your needs and your issues to national policy-makers and want to help you make your case for change in your area. Our policy team will provide you with briefings on the big topics that will affect you and your users, invite you to our lobbying events and help you connect with the people that matter most.
How can we use all the information from our funding reports to demonstrate our impact to public bodies, policy-makers and other funders?
Our Working Better programme, in partnership with CES has supported BME organisations and networks to implement quality assurance and impact tools, as well as develop bespoke training programmes with its BME users. We will ensure you choose the right tools and skills and have access to a range of resources that work for you.
We work to help our local community but feel that we need to work more with other organisations like ourselves, and link to the wider sector?
V4CE are committed to helping BME organisations collaborate and work better together. You can chat to our Collaboration Officer to assess your needs or just ask a question. We will ensure you are able to find the right resources and skills – and to top it all, we will connect you to others doing similar work, and invite to our networking events, as well as sign you up to our virtual networks, so you can continue your conversations anytime you want.
I need training on financial management systems, can you help me?
V4CE are here to provide you with specialist support and advice on meeting the needs of BME organisations and do not offer help with generic organisational development. You needn’t worry, because our partnership with NCVO and Community Matters ensures that we are able to signpost you to cost-effective services. We are offering a special 20% discount on your membership fees to both organisations, to make it a little bit easier for you to access their services.