This presentation was delivered at KCSC funding Fare and gives a brief oversight of how to get started by identifying what you need, building a business case to meet a funder’s criteria, and finding funders.

Context:

• coalition Government
• Labour controls 17/32 London boroughs
• No certainty about future economic growth
• Expectations of big funding cuts
• Concept of the ‘Big Society’
• Comprehensive Spending Review 2010 to leave ‘unprotected’ services with reduced resources

Office for Budget Responsibility Report (14 June 2010)

• Departmental expenditure limits for 2010/11 are close to 0% growth
• For unprotected services this could means cuts of 2-5% per year or 15-20% budget reduction over 5 years
• Having protected services means greater cuts to unprotected services
• Download OBR Report from here

Services in order of protection:

• NHS
• Schools
• childrens services
• Police
• Elderly people services

Less protected services:

• Housing
• social benefits
• Adult education
• Highways
• Capital investment (already to be cut by 50%)

What London local authorities might do:

• Likely to have -1 to 0% growth in cash support for each of next 5 years
• May see some ‘salami slicing’ of budgets or a more strategic approach
• Unlikely that funding for London authorities will be protected

Can we do anything about it?  It’s unlikely, but we can register suggestions here.

With a squeeze on charitable on and statutory funding,  development workers have a crucial role to play in showing voluntary and community organisations where to go for quality ICT help and support.

It’s a significant challenge as Lasa’s own research tells us that whilst 90% of our respondents rate computers and the Internet as “vital” or “fairly important”, 55% lacked an ICT budget; 65% didn’t back-up data on a regular basis, 40% had zero computers networked and 33% said their staff didn’t have access to networked computers or email.

NAVCA also recognises the problem and recently commissioned us to deliver a one day ICT workshop as part of its SKILD programme for development workers.  Common issues that development workers need to signpost groups to include  funding ICT, databases, websites, managing ICT, trouble-shooting and technical support.   You can download the workshop from Slideshare.

• 18 May @ I-Trust, Ely, Cambs - How to Cost and Fund ICT projects – In this 90 minute workshop I’ll be showing the essentials of how to put together a winning technology bid to a funder.  More details to be confirmed.

• 24 May @ NCYVS, London N1 – in this one day workshop for SKILD I’ll be showing development workers why technology is important for small organisations, and where they can for help and support.

• Understanding why technology is important for small organisations
• Feeling more confident in responding to their technology questions
• Being able to advise frontline groups on planning and costing for efficient use of technology
• Being able to signpost frontline groups to free and low cost resources which make their aims more effective.

This event is organised by NAVCA and the price is £49 per person (including VAT) for all organisations.  To book on this course please download and complete the booking and initial assessment form (Word, 1.43MB) and return it to events@navca.org.uk You can also contact NAVCA’s events team on 0114 278 6636.

• 21 June @  Kensington & Chelsea Social Council Funding Fair @ Kensington Town Hall, London W8 – I’ll be presenting a one hour workshop on “How to Cost and Fund ICT projects” – a primer on the essentials of writing a winning technology bid to a funder.

Download the latest issue of wholesome goodness that is Computanews for free

In issue 156:

• Let’s go virtual – online meeting – new web based technologies are making virtual meetings a less expensive alternative to physical meetings. In this first of a two-part article we look at what the tools do and the different formats.
• How important is social media media to small VCS organisations? – the editors look at the evolution of the online presence and urge caution before taking the plunge into the murky waters of social media.
• Tips 156 – Webinars – 13 steps for plannning and running a successful webinar.
• Carbon savings through re-location – Ethical IT looks at how server virtualisation helped the Malaria Consortium..
• Raising the dead – PC recovery tools and procedures for Circuit Riders – members of the UKRiders list tell us about their working processes and the tools they use for resurrecting problem PCs.
• Reviews – Idealware’s Field Guide to Software and OpenMute’s Social by Social books are scrutinised.

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Missed an issue?
Recent archived issues of Computanews can now be downloaded – visit the Computanews home page.

Fancy yourself as a writer?
Computanews welcomes contributions from readers – whether it’s an observation on an article or a longer piece. If you would be interested in contributing drop an email to computanews@lasa.org.uk

Computanews ICT Guides
The Lasa Computanews Guides offer practical guidance on specific ICT issues and help answer common queries. Guides are available as a FREE PDF download.  Guides currently available are:

• ICT Security
• Managing ICT
• Data Protection
• Project Management
• Circuit Riders

Download from the Lasa Computanews Guides webpage


With charitable funding tight and funders even more risk averse than usual, these workshops clearly explain how to use the internet to locate sources of funding and work through the steps to writing a winning grant proposal for a technology project.

The steps outlined in writing a winning grant proposal….

• needs analysis – provide evidence of need
• risk analysis
• identify benefits and priorities of project
• identify objectives and outcomes
• budgeting realistically for your project
• telling the story of what you do and the difference you make
• measuring success

….are also transferable to putting together a framework for non-technology projects.

The workshop presentations and resources are collected at Box.net for you to download.

• Using the Internet for fundraising
• Writing a winning ICT grant proposal

Competition for funding is tough even in good economic times, let alone bad.  So what makes the difference in a proposal?  How do you help it to go from the bottom to the top of the pile?  More importantly, once it is noticed, what must you have in your proposal to ensure that you have the best chance possible of being funded?  These two workshops will show you how to:

• assess ICT needs and to understand what we do, what we want to change, and why we want to change;
• write a powerful technology case statement that makes clear to funders why they should fund the project;
• identify the funders it makes most sense to approach and building a solid relationship with them;
• spend less time looking for information and more time bidding for funds;
• research online sources that make your fundraising more effective
• Using the web to raise funds

The conference also brings together third sector organisations, training providers, statutory bodies & colleges to explore development opportunities for the third sector’s workforce and to work intelligently and collaboratively for future sustainability.

The conference will also provide delegates with free taster sessions on learning opportunities such as project management, training needs analysis, writing successful grant proposals and fundraising. There will also be stands showcasing WFD resources.

The conference is FREE to Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations  in North London

Contact Mariam.wahab@communitybarnet.org.uk for further information on workshops and speakers.

More about Workforce Development North London here.



In an interview to mark the announcement of Government’s Race Online 2012 initiative, intended to bring four million more people online by the time the London Olympic Games begin, Lane Fox said it was “eye-opening” that charities often struggled to fund technology.

“They should be able to get money for core funding, not only for starting new projects………. Technology is not usually at the front of people’s minds, but investing in it can allow charities to work more quickly and effectively.”

That’s no surprise to us and Lasa has long been campaigning that funders should recognise that ICT underpins service delivery to beneficiaries and should be resourced accordingly. Recent research unearthed no more than 90 funders of ICT from amongst thousands of chaitable and statutory grant schemes.  Educating funders about the value of ICT is no easy task and needs all the help it can get from Government.

Lane Fox went on to say that the Government’s Race Online campaign would not fund IT systems for charities or give them funds to help their beneficiaries get online. But she said the Race Online 2012 website would include information to help charity beneficiaries to use the internet.  The Get Online page page points to a number of schemes – such as those run by Age Concern and Pass IT On – to help individuals get online and use the Internet safely.

Charities can head over to Lasa’s ICT Knowledgebase – an online resource providing the sector with quality jargon free ICT advice and guidance.

The Race Online 2012 campaign is expected to be launched within the next six weeks.

Source: Third Sector

In hard economic times, it can be easy for organisations to cut back on ICT, particularly with maintenance support and training.  These are false economies – ICT underpins service delivery, and used effectively can help organisations to better achieve their goals.  This workshop is designed as a brief tour around time and money saving tips and tools to help organisations make their ICT go further.  I was also asked to talk about using new media in the context of organisations being able to use these new free and low cost tools to extend their reach and tell their story to funders.  The list of examples is not exhaustive, let me know if you have others.

The presentation is available for download from here:

Computanews provides straightforward information on the use of ICT (information and communications technology) for staff in small to medium sized voluntary organisations. Sign up

In this issue:

• Project management – let’s work together – project management methodologies abound, but Aba Maison argues that the people side is as important as the processes.
• Look back in tech – the editors take a look at what might be happening in 2010 – and what ICT life was like 10 years back
• Tips 155 – Using project management tools – 12 tips to help with the project management process
• Answr up – Gunner at Aspiration talks to Computanews about their exciting new knowledge aggregation “FAQ on steroids” project.
• Data Protection – Paul Ticher looks at the latest developments affecting the sector and we review his revised data protection book
• Building Bridges – Ian Goodman from Lasa tells us how the latest project is going
• Managing Technology To Meet Your Mission – we review NTEN’s essential new tech management book

Where’s events and newsbits gone?
We’re changing Computanews slightly from this month by not publishing events or newsbits. Why? Well, we can free up a bit more room for longer articles because events and news is covered in full in our monthly London ICT e-Bulletin. If you’re not already getting this, sign up now!

Missed an issue?
Recent archived issues of Computanews can now be downloaded – see links in the sidebar on the right or visit the Computanews home page.

Tell your colleagues and friends about Computanews
It is easy to forward on this mailing to others who you think would benefit from Computanews. If you are reading someone else’s copy, why not sign up for your own?

Fancy yourself as a writer?
Computanews welcomes contributions from readers – whether it’s an observation on an article or a longer piece. If you would be interested in contributing drop an email to computanews@lasa.org.uk

Computanews ICT Guides
The Lasa Computanews Guides offer practical guidance on specific ICT issues and help answer common queries. Guides are available as a FREE PDF download. Guides currently available are:

* ICT Security
* Managing ICT
* Data Protection
* Project Management
* Circuit Riders

Download from the Lasa Computanews Guides webpage