What needs to be done to support small organisations?

Building Change Trust facilitated a consultation session at Community House on Thursday 19 May past with a range of representatives from community and voluntary organisations , funding bodies ,  government departments and others

The consultation was organised to consider “What needs to be done to support small community and voluntary organisations in Northern Ireland now and into the future?”

The event which was facilitated using the Consensus Workshop Method was a preliminary event organised given concerns by the Trust that its current programmes may not be engaging with the needs of small organisations, which make up the bulk of the sector here.

In considering the question those present agreed that small organisations would be broadly defined as those with an annual income of no more than £100,000 and thus some would be employing staff whilst others would be run solely by voluntary effort.

A number of questions were addressed and a number of outcomes were agreed upo including actively promoting the benefits of voluntary involvement in small organisations and support volunteers add facilitating and linking grassroots to policy making.

Also, having responsive and flexible funding programmes and working with regulators to consider needs of small organisations were identified as key areas of action. 

The Trust board will be considering the report at their meeting on 3 June and agreeing future steps.

Further activity to include consultation and research will be rolled out over the summer months. If you have views and opinions on the question please contact the Trust Administrator, Nigel McKinney.

Further information including the full report of the event is available here.