ACF Conference 2010: Current challenges for charitable foundations and supporting small voluntary organisations

Marilyn Taylor (Visiting Research Fellow at IVAR) gave the keynote address to the annual conference of the Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF), outlining the challenges that face foundations in the current policy climate.  Her talk, Navigating Uncertainty: Challenges and Opportunities can be found on the ACF website.

Ben Cairns, IVAR’s Director, also spoke at the ACF conference about the challenges of supporting small voluntary organisations. 

Drawing on research carried out for BIG and the City Bridge Trust, Ben quoted from his recent article in Trust and Foundation News (click here to read the full article) in arguing that, even in a period of cuts and cutbacks,

“to ensure that small organisations are able to make informed, confident choices about their future direction, they need support that is sensitive to specific organisational contexts and tailored accordingly.” 

To view Ben's presentation click here. 

This was followed by a session for ACF’s professional development programme on ‘funder plus’, in which Ben talked again about the need for flexibility in approaches to supporting organisations:

“It is important that models are adapted and are not prescriptive.Trusts and foundations need to see beyond business models and recognise the different processes and goals of organisations active in civil society.”

To view Ben's presentation click here.

Content created 12.10.10