The Department for Communities and Local Government has created this practical guide to delivering local behaviour change campaigns and benefit young people..

Available as an interactive PDF, it offers tips for anyone interested in running projects that set out to change people’s attitudes and the way they think about themselves and others.

The 59 pages of this document provides useful information and steps on how to go about changing attitudes. It does have a children and Young people bias, but I think it can be applied to anyone.

Writing newsletters is a good way of getting news and messages across. The question at the back of my head is always: can we do it better?

John Grain, from John Grain Associates Ltd. has recently put a really good article together titled:

How to write a better newsletter

It contains useful tips and questions you need to ask. If you spend time and money producing a newsletter, this is an excellent tool to make sure it hits the spot.

Click here to download:

HOW_TO_WRITE_A_BETTER_NEWSLETTER.docx (17 KB)

(download)

Click here to download:

HOW_TO_WRITE_A_BETTER_NEWSLETTER.docx (17 KB)

With money being tighter, one of the first budget cut casualties is staff training and development. We can not afford to attend the training we would like at the moment and I am sure we are not alone.

The KnowHow wiki site has some suggestions on how to: Train and develop people without it costing a fortune.

These suggestions can help to make the (smaller) training budget go further so we can continue with our professional development.

Click here to download:

How_to_train_and_develop_people_without_spending_a_fortune.docx (15 KB)

(download)

Click here to download:

How_to_train_and_develop_people_without_spending_a_fortune.docx (15 KB)

There is a wealth of expertese and information at you fingertips if they happen to connected to a keyboard and a computer. You just need to know how to find it.

Know How non-profit has a Wiki Site (where anyone can post information) which covers all sorts of topics. The link below takes you to How to write an application to a Charitable Trust. It is one page of tips and things to think about beforehand. Essential reading before you apply to a Trust. Definitely worth the 3 minutes it takes to read!

How to write an application to a Charitable Trust

So is innovation important? When you read the document produced by the National Council for Voluntary Organisation (NCVO) you may well come to the conclusion that it is. More and more funders are looking for an innovative apprpoach and lets face it, the Sector is pretty good at that.

So what is innovation exactly and why would you want to innovate? How can you motivate others in your organisation to be innovative? Who else is being innovative? Where do you start?

All those questions are answered in this document.

I particularly like the reference to Leonardo da Vinci. "Leonardo da Vinci designed a helicopter that was never built-he was simply ahead of his time." This is one of the many examples which illustrate that the conditions have to be right for your innovative ideas to succeed.

It also includes a self assessments section, so you can understand how innovative your organisation actually is.

The document was written in 2009, but is probably more topical now. 20 useful pages.

Click here to download:

innovation_matters.pdf (1.04 MB)

(download)

Click here to download:

innovation_matters.pdf (1.04 MB)

From previous blog posts you will know that it is crucial that we get our monitoring, evaluation and measuring impact right. And I'm not even mentioning Social Return on Investment... But it takes time and resources, the two things that are getting in short supply. So, we need all the help we can get to make life easier.

The Charities Evaluation Service has produced a 52 page resource which may help. It is a step by step guide covering things like:

• Identifying what data to collect
• Good practice in collecting data
• How to collect data
• Using your data

I have to say, it is well set out, easy to read and useful. You can use the bits you want, or go through the whole document.

And finally, it's FREE to download.

Click here to download:

meonashoestring-795-803.pdf (447 KB)

(download)

Click here to download:

meonashoestring-795-803.pdf (447 KB)

Fundraising is an important core income stream for all non-profit organisations especially in times of recession.  So what elements of your cause's business should you continue to find funding for and where should you be looking for those all important funding streams?

Have a look at this webpage and give it a try.   Knowhow

Let us know what you think by using the response button!

We are all trying to get our heads around what Big Society is all about. Not an easy task. The Community development Foundation has published a report "Growing and Sustaining Self-Help" Taking the Big Society from words to action.

They believe that self help is a community’s collective attempt to tackle the issues it cares about. Public spending cuts mean that self help is more relevant now than ever. I personally agree with that statement, but I also think this requires a shift in public thinking. These things don't happen overnight. You can't expect communities to inmediately take over the responsibility of the upkeep of say, a local play area, when the Council has been responsible up until now.

The report aims to highlight the potential of self-help and shows examples of how this could be achieved.

Click here to download:

Growing_and_sustaining_self_help.pdf (758 KB)

(download)

Click here to download:

Growing_and_sustaining_self_help.pdf (758 KB)

I went on a course yesterday which was all about measuring the impact of what we do. I personally find the job difficult and time consuming. If I'm honest, it tends to slip down the list of priorities when there are so many other things which require attention.

I am starting to realise that this is becoming more and more important to funders and other stakeholders. So off I went to Birmingham to attend the training delivered by NCVO under their VIP project (Value of Infrastructure Programme).

This course promised a range of toolkits to help plan, monitor, evidence and communicate the impact of what we do. It did not disappoint, as I came back with a folder full of "tools" to help us do just that. What it also did was give me the "kick" I needed to actually do something about tracking whether our work is making a difference.

Part 2 of the course is a session in June after which I will be able to use the tools on-line which will, hopefully, make life easier.

NCVO is allowing us to share the tools with the sector so here is one which may be relevant to your organisations. CVS will be rolling this out to members at some point this year, but we need some time to digest it all before we are in a position to do that.

Click here to download:

VIP_Organisation_Dial_March_2011.pdf (2.08 MB)

(download)

Click here to download:

VIP_Organisation_Dial_March_2011.pdf (2.08 MB)

Yes, we would all like to know this!

It is the title of an article from the Guardian and I must say it give some useful hints and tips. Definitely worth a read, written by an expert.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/voluntary-sector-network/2011/mar/21/perfect-funding-bids