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Phone a friend today! 
Gary Beharrell - Chair East Midlands Funding ForumAs I read through the localnewsletters, through the pressand when I listen to people, I hear nothing but gloom and doom, nofunding available, cuts toservices, redundancies. Acrossthe sector I hear tales of woe.This overbearing mood makes usblind to other important messageswe should be listening to, other things we should beconcentrating on and other thingswe should be taking intoconsideration.Firstly we should remember whywe are here, as funders andinvestors in the sector we areabout people and supportingthose in need, whatever thoseneeds may be. In order to combatthe pervasive gloom, I have beenchasing up some previous grantrecipients and seeking outpositive stories from them, both tosupport our learning as a grantmaker, but also to ensure weremember what we do this for,and frankly to cheer ourselves upa bit. This has been a mostrewarding experience. So go onphone a grantee today.On the positive side of theseharder times, now can often bethe catalyst for creative thinkingnot only amongst those we fund,but also amongst ourselves. Therecession has a different impacton us all. For some a spike inapplications due to the areasthey may support (e.g. debtadvice), an increased profile andbeing seen as a stable funder such as local authority.For others it maymean a drop indemand, as thesector is unwillingto start newprojects or perceptions thatless funding maybe available fromthat organisation.Either way, it is now moreimportant than ever for fundersto talk to each other. We shouldbe sure we are working together and look to ways to supporteach other, often informally, butoccasionally through moreformal routes. So go on, ring afunder today!
Disclaimer: This article was inno way sponsored by BT or any other phone provider! 
Welcome 
IN THIS ISSUE...
EMFF update 2Authorities, the3rd Sector & NI73What is‘Adultism’?4FundingUpdates7Training andEvents10BusinessChampions5NottinghamshireCarers6One EastMidlands event7Welcome fromGary Beharrell1
East MidlandsFunding Forum
Contact EMFF
James KirkpatrickTel: 0115 979 2333
 james@regenerationem.co.uk
 
 
PAGE 2
EMFF aimsto improveknowledgeabout, and access to funding
Funding Forum Update
We are running a Funding and Support speed-dating event for FundingAdvisers and Development Officers in the region on 29th July in Leicester.This is an all day event to give those who support frontline organisationsan update upon the funding and support opportunities available.Visit the REM website for more information:
www.regenerationem.co.uk
 
Risk in Funding
EMFF Network event—24th JuneThe meeting focused upon how fundersand investors assess and view risk.Speakers and workshops leads includedthe Royal Bank of Scotland, LincolnshireCounty Council, Futurebuilders Englandand the Social Enterprise Loan Fund.The meeting highlighted that it isimportant for funders and investors toclearly spell out at the start of a processwhat they expect in terms of the riskassessment of a project or programmeof work from those seeking support. Acommon problem within this can be thelanguage used, with the adoption of riskassessment coming from the privateand public sectors to the third sector.What is common among riskassessment is the need for thoseseeking funding and support todemonstrate their planning skills,including how they are aware of thewhat if’s and Plan B for their project ororganisation. Helping the investor toknow that you understand thepossibilities of where things might gowrong during a 1-5 year period will helpto reduce the concerns they have overtheir funds. It was highlighted that thesector needed greater support in termsof business planning, and for this toinclude risk assessment.
EAST MIDLANDS FUNDING FORUM
Also different funding and investmentorganisations are able to acceptdifferent levels of risk, those providingloan funding may be able to takegreater risk than those providing grantsfrom public funds. Even within the onefunder their programmes may havevarying levels of acceptable risk. Forfunders and investors there isn’t a onesize fits all for risk assessments.Assessing risk as part of an applicationprocess is not an exact science, and stillrequires an individual or group of individuals to make a judgement uponthe information provided to them. Aswith the whole assessment processesthe judgements made will depend thetype of activity the proposed workinvolves, and the funders or investorsown appetite for taking risk.For both funders and investors, anddelivery organisations looking atcarrying out an assessment of the risksfor a piece of work, be this an individualproject, a funding programme, or forthe whole organisation, it is importantthat the approach to risk is supportedand sustained, and something that isnot treated as aone-off exercise,which is thenshelved andforgotten about.
 
 Authorities, the Third Sector and NI7 
PAGE 3 JULY 2009
One really positive benefit of the Local AreaAgreement has been its emphasis on theneed to work in partnership with the ThirdSector. The introduction of National Indicator 7 (NI7), creating an Environment for aThriving Third Sector, emphasised theimportance of this partnership and the needfor us all to work together to ensure thesuccess of the Third Sector because of itspositive impact on people’s lives.In Nottinghamshire we already had a cross-sector working party of the LAA developing aCompact Plus that we could all sign-up toand use as the framework for managing our relationships. The working party felt that apractical and supported Compact would forma strong foundation on which to build anEnvironment for a Thriving Third Sector, sothey ‘morphed’ into the T3S group and havecontinued to integrate and develop these twinstrands of work.The LAA partnership and its individualmembers have agreed in principle to theCompact Plus and so now work continues incross sector sub-groups which are looking atproducing detailed codes of practice on,communication and engagement; funding;monitoring and dispute resolution andimproving capacity in the VCS. These codeswill then be promoted to enable their practicalapplication.The Nottinghamshire LAA partnership alsoagreed to fund a post within a CountywideInfrastructure group to support thedevelopment of the Compact and enableVCS engagement with the LAA partnershipthrough network support and development.This has been a really positive contribution.Alongside the development of the Compactthe T3S group is organising a county-widesurvey of the sector so that we will have aclear local picture of the state of the sector and what groups feel they need to maintainand improve their position, whether fromDistrict or County Councils, other local statesectors such as the PCT’s or the Police or from VCS infrastructure organisations. Thesurvey process is quite complex and soprogress has been slow but we hope to havesomething to share by National Compactweek when we also hope that at least thefirst of our detailed Compact ‘codes of practice’ will be launched.I think that we have tried to supply a littleextra capacity in the sector and linkinitiatives and work together to try and workeffectively. In other areas, authorities andThird Sector organisations are approachingNI7 in different ways and I look forward toexploring this issue in detail at the EMFFNetwork meeting when we can share ideasand good practice to make our work stronger and more innovative. For more informationgo to:
ww.nottscc.gov.uk
Wendy Young, Nottinghamshire County Council 
 
EMFF Network event23rd September, Derby - venue tbc
We will be looking at NI7 and third sectoractivity within the region. Included within thiswill be how authorities are working with NI7,and how these and other Funders andInvestors can ensure a thriving third sector canbe developed.The event is for the EMFF membership andlocal authorities and other bodies involved inlooking at and contributing to NI7.For more information please visit:
www.regenerationem.co.uk
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