In this section we have pulled together work all six National Hubs of expertise have produced on building relationships, working with or simply communicating with funders.

Encouraging Local Authority Asset transfer
A downloadable .pdf (167kb), this briefing provides some background to the issues surrounding the transfer of land and property assets from local government to voluntary and community organisations.

Full Cost Recovery
A downloadable .pdf (176kb) introductory guide to the main principles of Full Cost Recovery. It contains a simple stage by stage guide of how to calculate costs and decide what to include as overheads.

Publicly funded assets
Downloadable .pdf (144kb) briefing paper - introduces ‘clawback’, which may affect publicly funded assets, and outlines the main points from recently revised government guidance to funders (HM Treasury, 2006).

State Aid
Downloadable .pdf (142kb) briefing paper – provides a brief overview of the State Aid regulations and aims to help practitioners in the public and voluntary/community sector develop an understanding of the subject.

Guide to surer funding
Downloadable .pdf (161kb) briefing paper - an introductory guide for organisations currently delivering, or looking to deliver, public services. This paper is also aimed at funders of third sector organisations carrying out such a role.

BME voluntary and community organisations policy and advocacy work
Research into establishing mechanisms for ensuring that Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) VCOs can influence positively the funding environment and that the capacity of BME groups is developed to enable participation in policy and advocacy on relevant issues. Further to the research report which identifies mechanisms to ensure that BME VCOs can positively influence the funding environment a programme of work to meet the above objectives was carried out. This included developing: case studies to share learning; a comprehensive database of BME organisations in England; researching standards for funders.

Tools for procurement and fundraising
Downloadable 35 page .pdf (405kb) document produced for the Finance Hub by NCVO Sustainable Funding Project. The document provides a series of exercises and checklists designed to support advisers working with groups on procurement and contracting. It includes materials designed for those just starting to look at contracting (introductory), those ready to explore the topic further (intermediate), and for those wanting to look at contracting more seriously (advanced).

Research into funders' forums
The purpose of this report is to give an overview of Regional Funders’ Forums (FFs) in England, to provide third sector organisations with a clear overview of where the FFs are located, define what purpose they serve, and to detail the key contacts.

The Finance Hub has more work in this area underway, the outcomes of two projects will soon be available:

• The decline of local authority grants – fact or fiction?
  To what extent have local authority grants decreased? Are contracts a viable alternative to grants? By commissioning comprehensive, contextualised and up-to-date research, we intend to clarify and map the current trends across England.
• Intelligent funding – from vision to reality
  Both funders and organisations which are funded seek mutually beneficial relationships yet this is not always a reality. The project will look at key issues such as pre-application advice, investment in overhead costs/support functions, sustainable funding provision, support of partnership funding and contractual relationships.
  

Funding Governance for funders
This research report aims to help funders understand the importance of funding organisational capacity as an integral part of funding a service or project.

Is it seaworthy? - Assessing and funding the capacity of voluntary and community organisations
The UK Workforce Hub and Governance Hub has launched ‘Is it seaworthy? - Assessing and funding the capacity of voluntary and community organisations’ produced in partnership with the Association of Charitable Foundations. It aims to help funders understand how to assess the capacity of an organisation, and how and why funding it effectively is crucial to the organisation’s service delivery and sustainability. The report is free to download, or can be purchased for £5. For more information please go to the websites www.ukworkforcehub.org.uk, www.governancehub.org.uk or phone 0800 652 4886.

Funding and Costing Workforce and Governance
Development: a Resource for the Voluntary and Community Sector. The resource aims to help VCOs better understand the costing and funding implications of workforce and governance development so that they can better plan, budget, cost and fundraise for this, and recover full costs.

The report is free to download, or can be purchased for £5, from the publication page of our website www.governancehub.org.uk  

For more information please visit the Funding Governance section on the Governance Hub website.

“Making More Impact With Your Funds”
A briefing booklet from the ICT Hub designed to inform funders about both the importance of ICT and funding the total cost of ownership, with the aim of helping funders to maximise return on their investment by improving front line services.

"How to cost and fund ICT”
A free publication from the ICT Hub to help VCOs determine what ICT strategies and ideas are most beneficial to them, help VCOs make smart hardware and software choices, help VCOs understand what resources they need to invest when implementing and sustaining their ICT and finally offer techniques to develop a successful funding strategy.

Sources of funders research
A piece of research from the ICT Hub, completed in January 2007, to identify funders who have funded ICT projects and initiatives in the VCS. In this first phase of research 55 funders were identified. The research will be updated in Autumn 2007.

IT funding for charities survey
In Feb 2006 the Information Technologists' Livery Company and the ICT Hub undertook a survey of voluntary and community sector organisations to gain a fuller understanding of the sector's experience of seeking funding for ICT. Essential reading if you would like to find out more about funding and ICT.

Baseline research 2007
In 2007, the ICT Hub commissioned a piece of work to repeat their Baseline research, initially carried out in 2004. The research highlights VCOs experiences of working with funders and how they have changed over the last three years.

There is also some interesting work coming soon from the ICT Hub:

• Update of sources of funders work – a commissioned piece of work to update the research into funders who have funded ICT projects and initiatives (to be carried out in Autumn 2007)
• Searchable directory of funders – the findings from the sources of funders research will be used to populate a searchable directory of funders on the ICT Hub website (in development)
• Funder service pilot research – a commissioned piece of work to find out what methods funders are using to successfully assess ICT funding applications so that they can fund the total cost of ownership. The findings from this piece of research will be used to develop a pilot project, also to be commissioned by the ICT Hub.
  

Funding Better Performance 
A 60-page report examining how funders and third sector organisations can work together to achieve more. Drawing on six case studies, the report gives practical guidance to both funders and third sector organisations on the skills and approaches needed to ensure both parties get better result.

Key advice for funders
A short, focused advice section for funders.

Funder relationships
Principles for a good funding relationship

Getting performance work funded
Advice for TSOs

Case Studies
Two case studies on performance and funding

Full Value: Public services and the third sector
A short think piece for policymakers in government and the third sector interested in improving public services. It explores the need to move beyond the confused concept of ‘added value’ to a new way of recognising organisations’ ‘full value’: their outcomes, both primary and secondary, hard and soft, and the satisfaction their work brings to all their stakeholders.

A Sustainable Funding Framework for Volunteer Centres
Northampton Volunteering Centre was commissioned by the Volunteering Hub, to identify the components, outcomes and formula of a sustainable funding framework for quality accredited volunteer centres, including models for unitary authorities and two-tier authorities (that is county and district councils). This piece of work has identified the key factors affecting the cost and performance of volunteer centre services, identified the true cost of providing some of the services, and developed a formula that allocates resources at a local authority level and a number of possible delivery mechanisms.

The Good Practice Bank: Resources to Assist with Funding
This Information Sheet is designed to help signpost people to organisations that are able to answer queries on funding sources as well as including links to online resources, software and publications.

The Good Practice Bank: Expenses and Benefits
This theme of the Good Practice Bank contains Information Sheets on issues such as the National Minimum Wage and expenses and regulations on volunteering and state benefits. Also included are examples and templates, useful links to search for further resources, and links to free publications.

How to cost and apply for funding workforce development

Learning and Skills council microsite
Introduction to the LSC and how it works with the sector, as a recipient and provider of funded training

Train to gain brokerage microsite
Information about the sector for brokers of the LSC’s scheme train

Is it seaworthy? - Assessing and funding the capacity of voluntary and community organisations
The UK Workforce Hub and Governance Hub has launched ‘Is it seaworthy? - Assessing and funding the capacity of voluntary and community organisations’ produced in partnership with the Association of Charitable Foundations. It aims to help funders understand how to assess the capacity of an organisation, and how and why funding it effectively is crucial to the organisation’s service delivery and sustainability.

Funding and Costing Workforce and Governance Development
A guide for the Voluntary and Community Sector, in association with the Governance Hub. The resource aims to help VCOs better understand the costing and funding implications of workforce and governance development so that they can better plan, budget, cost and fundraise for this, and recover full costs.

The two reports above are free to download, or can be purchased for £5 from www.ukworkforcehub.org.uk or www.governancehub.org.uk phone 0800 652 4886.