Bill Osborne extends tenure as Trust Chairperson
Bill Osborne has been appointed as Chairperson of Building Change Trust Limited until 31 December 2014. Having served an initial 3 year term as Chairperson the Trust Board have agreed a further 3 year term to guide the Trust through its next phase of development
The Trust will spend its £10 million endowment from the Big Lottery Fund by 31 December 2018 and plans to engage in significant activity in the coming 3 years.
Bill Osborne was originally appointed as Chairperson of Building Change Trust Limited – the corporate trustee of The Building Change Trust in late December 2008 for an initial three year term.
Bill said: “I am honoured to accept the reappointment and looked forward to working with the Directors to continue developing the work of the Trust.
“I’d like to thank the Directors for their support over the past three years and I truly believe the intervention by the Trust is critical to the future development of the community and voluntary sector in Northern Ireland, and indeed to a vibrant civic society”.
Over the period of 2009 to 2012 Bill, with the support of the other Trust Directors and Trust Protector Michael Wilson has stewarded the Trust and overseen the development of strategy, programmes and significant investment in the first phase of the Building Change Trust’s strategic plan.
Significant achievements in this first phase of the Trust’s work include the investment of £1 million grant aid to Charity Bank to support the development of loan finance in Northern Ireland’s Third Sector and build capacity to consider and use alternative forms of finance in the future.
Through this investment, Charity Bank has been supported in its’ efforts to obtain deposits in Northern Ireland in excess of £1 million and make loans in excess of £600,000.
Support from the Trust has also supported delivery of 3 learning sessions on sustainable investment and development and the commencement of a new Advanced Diploma in Sustainable Investment for the Third Sector, hosted at the University of Ulster.
25 key individuals from the sector each year for the next 5 years will be trained as part of this exciting new venture.
As well as the work being carried out by Charity Bank, the Trust has made a commitment of grant aid in excess of £1 million to the original partners of the Trust.
Business in the Community, Community Evaluation Northern Ireland, Community Foundation for Northern Ireland, Rural Community Network and Volunteer Now have all benefited from this grant and continue to develop exciting and innovative programmes of individual and collaborative work to support and stimulate change in the NI community and voluntary sector.
Collaboration NI has been commissioned, providing a specialised service to support collaboration, partnership and mergers within the NI community and voluntary sector.
The Chairperson of the Trust and other Directors are unpaid volunteers freely giving of their time to guide the work and development of the Trust.