Big Lottery Fund

Building Capabilities for Impact and Legacy’

Dharmendra Kanani, England Director, Big Lottery Fund

“Helping VCS organisations and social enterprises to become more effective will continue to be a priority for BIG over the next few years. The approach we are taking will mean that they are able to get the support they need to do their work and that people and communities most in need will see greater benefits from our funding. This discussion paper is intended to stimulate debate and gives an opportunity for voluntary and other organisations to influence our approach. I would encourage interested parties to complete our survey and have a say.

Over the past ten years, we have spent more than £200 million on capacity building including a wide range of high quality projects funded through our BASIS programme.The principles set out in our discussion paper build on many years of learning, and the approach which we set out recognises the crucial importance of this work. Our aim is to enable voluntary and community organisations and social enterprises to get the support to develop their capabilities and navigate the challenges and opportunities posed by the current environment in which we are all operating.

“We know from experience that a healthy, well managed and engaged voluntary sector can have a positive impact on the well being, strength and engagement of civil society as well as better policy making locally. We hope the £20 million investment from the Big Lottery Fund to build the sector’s capabilities will go a long way in helping to achieve this.”

Building Capabilities discussion paper

Introduction

BIG has as one of its main objectives supporting the voluntary and community sector (VCS) to become more effective. We also want to support the development of social enterprises as a distinctive element in delivering our objectives. Strong organisations help us achieve better outcomes for people and communities most in need. The skills, abilities and resources of grant holders are crucial to the success of the projects we fund.

Discussion paper

To develop our thinking, we have published a discussion paper 
- 176KB. This paper is for voluntary sector and social enterprise managers working in both frontline and infrastructure support and development organisations. It sets out our approach to ‘building capabilities within voluntary organisations’, and gives an opportunity for voluntary and other organisations to influence this approach.

Online survey

This discussion paper includes a number of questions, which you can respond to through our online survey at the bottom of this page. You will be able to respond to these questions between now and 15^th March 2012. We will publish a revised paper after this time, setting out more details of our plans for funding.

Questions

A list of questions and answers 
- 143KB is available. If you have any questions which are not covered by these, please email supportingcivilsociety@biglotteryfund.org.uk

Helping VCS organisations and social enterprises to become more effective will continue to be a priority for BIG over the next few years. This approach will mean that they are able to get the support they need to do their work and that people and communities most in need will see greater benefits from our funding.

Government has made £30m available for a final national investment in local infrastructure. The Big Lottery Fund has indicated that we will provide at least £20 million to complement this in distinct and additional ways. We have formulated a set of principles which give rise to further questions on which we would now welcome views ahead of finalising details in 2012.

This paper is intended to stimulate debate and thinking to shape, influence and inform our future thinking and investment. We hope you find it interesting, and look forward to your responses.

Online Survey