When choppy waters engulf our communities and impact the VCSE sector, small charities are often hit the hardest – think small row boats in high seas!
In larger organisations outcomes such as funding cuts, income loss, staff sickness and lack of volunteers can all be absorbed. For smaller charities, the picture can be quite different. They may have less staff and volunteers to call upon, little or no reserve funds and could find themselves engulfed by a sudden increase in demand. For these organisations there may be no plan B.
At Action Hampshire we believe small organisations are vital for a robust VCSE and stronger communities. Small-scale VCSEs can be more responsive and quicker to change direction to go where needed. Sometimes they’re more accessible, and they can also be tailored much more to the people they’re supporting.
Our priority is looking after the needs of small charities to help them thrive. We believe if your organisation flourishes, so will the people in the communities you support.
At Action Hampshire we can support you by:
- Celebrating you and raising your profile, getting you support (member of the month)
- Bringing you together with other organisations (networking) so you can share resources, collaborate on bids opening up more funding streams for you and have a louder voice in the sector (Hampshire Leadership Forum)
- Offering training and coaching in the things that matter to you so you don’t have to buy in training but can join with others and get peer support
- Partnering with you and resourcing you through our programmes (Let’s be Smokefree, Communities against Cancer, Raising Voices in Research) – This the Action Hampshire Way.
I believe there’s so much we can share as organisations. Lately, I’ve been getting to know some of you at our Breakfast Meetings. It has been a privilege to be able to connect you to each other and to opportunities.
Follow this link to our event calendar to find out when the next Breakfast Meetings are
At a recent event we linked an organisation which had a great activity offer they were struggling to get off the ground, with another organisation which had a group of people who would love to access that activity. Also, Mary (Munch CIC) met Rachel (Presenting Your Past) at our AWE Accelerator Weekend, they are now discussing ways to collaborate.
As an organisation which supports small charities, we are fully backing Small Charity Week. Look out for our stories on social media, our website and in our newsletters to find out how we support small-scale organisations to help them weather the storm or ride the crest of the wave!
