Overview
We’re working with VONNE to deliver a regional funders event for the sector on 25th September at the Hancock Museum in Newcastle. We want to get views from you and have some volunteers to suggest a topic and host a roundtable conversation on it. Please look at the attached overview topic to get a sense of what the event is about and contact us by 31st August with the topic suggestion. We will pass the information over to VONNE and get back to you on 4th September if that conversation has been selected. There may be some crossover and co-facilitation with other organisations and once topics have been selected VONNE will host a short facilitation briefing.
If you have any questions please contact georgia.goncalves@vonne.org.uk.
You can find out more and register for the regional funders event on the VONNE website.
Outline of proposed North East & Cumbria Funders Network regional event
The North East & Cumbria Funders Network, facilitated and supported by VONNE, are trailing an annual regional funders event to provide opportunities for funders and social investors to engage directly with VCSE organisations and increase awareness and understanding of them as funders/ investors and to enable interactions between funders/ investors and VCSE organisations through various activities.
We are not attempting to replicate a funders fair model at a regional scale. We want to trial a different approach to enabling funders and VCSE organisations to connect, learn from each other and build greater understanding and awareness.
We want to get as much value as possible from the regional event. It will be a day-long, with lunch/ networking time so organisations can make connections with each other as well as funders, by encouraging them to share knowledge, expertise and experience.
We would like to raise awareness amongst funders about what organisation’s funding needs are and what additional support they require. There is also a real need for more interactions with national funders to break down barriers to applying applying and the need to build relationships.
We will ensure the event works alongside Local Infrastructure Organisations’ (LIOs) funding events and help them to build connections with national funders, whilst also providing opportunities to promote the support and training they can offer.
This idea has been put forward by a number of NEC-Funders Network members as an additional opportunity on top of local level funders engagement events, with the hope of attracting national funders alongside local and regional funders. This will create more opportunities for all funders and for VCSE organisations across the region.
On 9th February we held two co-design meetings with a range of national and local funders and Local Infrastructure Organisations to further shape our collective approach, which is outlined below.
Purpose of the event – Aims & objectives
- Encouraging national funders up to the North East/ Cumbria for this event and as the basis for further/ future engagements
- Enabling constructive interactions between VCSE orgs and funders
- Building relationships and understanding between funders and VCSE orgs
- Facilitating conversations on particular themes/ topics/ areas of interest to both funders and VCSE organisations
Key principles
- An opportunity to re-balance the power dynamic between funders and VCSE organisations
- Provide opportunities for funders to listen and learn, rather than for funders to present and for VCSE organisations to receive information from them
- Enabling a variety of opportunities for engagement – through workshops, panel sessions and networking space/ time
- Enabling VCSE organisations from across the region to connect and learn from each other as well with funders
- Information sharing on specific funders and their funding programmes is not the focus of the event but could be enabled by sharing information pre- or post-event and/or potentially arranging a series of online follow up workshops/ information ‘meet the funder’ type events hosted by LIOs.
Activities
- Interactive workshops focused on different topics:
- Corporate foundations
- Main barriers for VCSE organisations in the North East and Cumbria to applying to national funders
- What are the specific challenges/ issues/ priorities in the region that funders should be aware of and specific challenges that VCSE organisations are facing.
- Understanding local decision makers and leaders for change
- key areas organisations find difficult in applications and common issues funders have when people apply
- What does unrestricted/ core funding open up for VCSEs?
- Organisational resilience and impact
- Panel and Q&A sessions:
- Morning session – General funding landscape
- Afternoon session – Regional overview focused on regional issues, regionalised need and funder+ models
- Roundtable discussions – Enabling smaller conversations on a wider range of topics put forward by VCSE organisations for funders to join – giving VCSE organisations to put forward the conversations they wish to have with funders.
- Networking – Providing the opportunity for 1-2-1 networking and connections between VCSE organisations and funders in a way that is facilitated to maximise the opportunity to benefit funders and VCSE organisations.