History
This is what has happened so far.
2000
The Tudor Trust awards a grant to Ben Cairns and Professor Margaret Harris to set up The Centre for Voluntary Action Research (CVAR) at Aston Business School where, two years previously, Margaret Harris had been appointed the UK’s first ever Professor of Voluntary Sector Organisation The founding aim of CVAR is to ‘support the development and sustainability of voluntary and community organisations’.
2001
CVAR completes its first major research project, a values-based strategic review for Breast Cancer Care involving all 45 staff and trustees.
2002
Research for the West Midlands Regional Assembly on inter-faith collaboration marks the beginning of a series of projects focused on faith and welfare, culminating in a ground breaking study two years later on the role and contribution of Local Parishes in Local Communities in the Diocese of Birmingham. Drawing on this study in an article published in Policy and Politics[1], the research team conclude that, “It may be time for policy makers to reframe their understanding of faith organisations; to see them less as ‘resourceful’ instruments of public policy implementation and more as distinctive third sector organisations – with a variety of underpinning values and their own goals and distinctive responses to societal needs and problems.”
2003
Atlantic Philanthropies awards CVAR a grant of £300,000 over three years to set up a ‘capacity building programme’ to ‘increase opportunities for shared learning in the voluntary sector and to develop and promote knowledge and problem-solving tools for practical use in voluntary organisations.’ As part of this work, a critique of government policy is published in the International Journal of Public Administration[2], where it is argued that, “Assuming that they [VCOs] do wish to embrace the public services delivery agenda and the associated drive to develop their organisational capacity, they are sorely lacking in guidance about what action they should actually take. There is no consensus about what “capacity building” entails or what its intended purpose is. On the contrary, the literature suggests a wide range of possible drivers for capacity building and a choice of methods for achieving it.”
2004
CVAR becomes ACVAR (the Aston Centre for Voluntary Action Research) and completes the largest ever study on the adoption and use of quality systems in UK voluntary organisations for the NCVO[3]. In a subsequent article in Nonprofit Management and Leadership[4] it is argued that, “Systems that are imposed on nonprofits and systems that are not in keeping with the organisational culture are doomed, it seems, to remain no more than managerial fads to which staff pay reluctant ceremonial obeisance.”
2005
In collaboration with the I&DeA, the pilot Partnership Improvement Programme is launched in eight local authority areas in England[5]. Subsequently, this becomes a three year national programme, funded by OTS and Capacitybuilders, with delivery in 50 top tier authorities by 2011[6].
2006
Following a successful six year incubation period within Aston Business School, the decision is taken to establish a new, independent charity (IVAR) to build on the work and reputation of ACVAR, and to secure the longer term sustainability of the mission and values which underpin our work. With core funding from the Tudor Trust, Esmee Fairbairn and Lankelly Chase, IVAR enters into a new partnership with Birkbeck, University of London and moves into offices in central London. The joint Birkbeck/IVAR seminar series (now, in 2009, about to enter its fourth year) is launched. Margaret Harris becomes IVAR’s Academic Adviser; Julian Ashby becomes IVAR’s first chair and sets out his vision for the organisation. Read more.
2007
IVAR completes its first year with the production of new research findings on advocacy and an analysis of the impact of public policy pressures on frontline organisations[7].
2008
IVAR’s Board agrees to reinvest surplus funds in a Research Development Fund, aimed at supporting work unlikely to attract external funding as well as ensuring that research is affordable for smaller, grassroots organisations. New areas of work include the emerging practice of ‘high engagement funding’ amongst charitable foundations, community ownership and management of assets and collaborative working (as a partner in Collaboration Benefits.)
2009
How best to capture and record impact is identified as a pressing concern for many voluntary organisations and, in partnership with New Philanthropy Capital, IVAR launches an eighteen month study, focusing on multi-purpose ‘community anchor organisations’. By September the IVAR staff team grows to seven, with a core group of six associates contributing to specific programmes, including work on assets for JRF, capacity building for BIG and commissioning for OTS as a partner in the I&DeA - led National Third Sector Commissioning Programme. Summarising eight years of action research projects in the voluntary sector, Ben Cairns writes in an essay for The Baring Foundation[8]: “If the voluntary sector is valuable and valued; if it genuinely does have a role to play as both a public services provider and as a core ingredient of civil society; if it is able to present a coherent argument about its distinctive features, then it will require treatment from government that is special, in as much as it is tailored and attuned to that distinctiveness.”
All publications mentioned here are available in our publications archive.
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[1] Cairns, B., Harris, M. and Hutchison, R. (2007a) ‘Sharing God’s love or meeting government goals? Local churches and public policy implementation’ Policy and Politics, 25 (3): 413-432
[2] Cairns, B., Harris, M. and Young, P. (2005) ‘Building the Capacity of the Voluntary Nonprofit Sector: Challenges of Theory and Practice’ International Journal of Public Administration, 2005, 28 (9 & 10): 869-885
[3] Cairns, B., Hutchison, R. and Schofield, J. (2004) The Adoption and Use of Quality Systems in the Voluntary Sector, London: NCVO
[4] Cairns, B., Harris, M., Hutchison, R. and Tricker, M. (2005) ‘Improving Performance? The Adoption and Implementation of Quality Systems in UK Nonprofits’ Nonprofit Management and Leadership,16 (2):135-151
[5] Cairns, B., Brier, S., Harris, J., Harris, M. and Hughes, H. (2006) Making it Real: A report of the partnership improvement programme with voluntary and community organisations and local authorities,London: I&DeA
[6] Cairns, B., Harris, J., Brier, S. and Moran, R. (2009) Getting things done together: key findings from the partnership improvement programme, London: I&DeA
[7] Andrews, J., Cairns, B. and Hutchison, R. (2007) ‘Servants of the Community or Agents of Government? The impact and implications of UK public policy on community-based organisations’, Paper presented to the Annual Meeting of ARNOVA, Atlanta, November 2007
[8] Cairns, B. (2009) ‘The independence of the voluntary sector from government in England’, in M. Smerdon (ed) The First Principle of Voluntary Action: essays on the independence of the voluntary sector from government in Canada, England, Germany, Northern Ireland, Scotland, United States of America and Wales, London: Baring Foundation