Covid-19: Support for voluntary sector leaders and their funders
Leaders of smaller voluntary organisations are experiencing stress and a prolonged period of uncertainty due to Covid-19. We are offering them online peer support sessions: ‘a space for solidarity and solace’.
As we build a picture of the challenges they face, we are also advising funders on how to respond, learn, and sustain progressive practice.
I feel better about myself now than I did … being able to sit back and realise what is possible and what we’ve achieved in this period.
Support for leaders
Support for funders
Thank you 
Thank you
We would like to thank the funders of our Covid-19 response work for their support:
- Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
- Paul Hamlyn Foundation
- The Tudor Trust
Briefing papers:
Birds in a hurricane
We explore how organisations have survived - and in some cases even thrived - since the Covid-19 pandemic began. We share the things we believe will help both voluntary organisations, and those who support them, to sustain and develop their contribution for the longer term.
Briefing papers:
Show us you trust us
This fifteenth briefing shares the experiences of 34 leaders and senior staff participating in the sessions between 22nd January and 26th February 2021, and our reflections on the questions and opportunities for funders that they raise.
VCSE organisations are clear about what they need from funders:
‘Be brave’, ‘be flexible’, ‘trust us’, ‘be clear and open’, ‘understand the pressure we are under and reflect this in how you work’, ‘become more of a partner and less of an auditor’.
Covid-19 blog series
21 October 2020
Promoting equitable, inclusive and transparent grant making
Himali Dave | UMI Fund
read more
14 October 2020
Making ‘relational’ real: Our experience of funding during Covid
Hazel Robertson | The Robertson Trust
read more
read the blogsResearch and insights
The following resources may be useful at this time. This list includes research from our back catalogue and recent publications on how VCSE leaders and funders are experiencing and responding to Covid-19.
Briefing papers:
Learning in the flow of working
Ben Cairns, Houda Davis, Liz Firth
This briefing draws on the contributions of 19 learning and evaluation staff from 17 foundations who took part in our Community of Practice, and offers our reflections on the questions and opportunities for funders that they raise.
Briefing papers:
Covid-19: The story told by 72 emergency funding applications
A Foundation gave us access to 72 funding applications made to their Covid-19 response fund. The data provides rich insight into the challenges faced by VCSE organisations as they navigate into recovery and renewal.
Research reports:
Delayed Transfers of Care & the Voluntary and Community Sector in Greater Nottingham
What does it take to reduce patients' stay in hospital when other options would be better?
Briefing papers:
Piecing a story together
Covid-19 is changing the funding world like nothing before it. This briefing shares how evaluation and learning staff are supporting their foundations through the immediate crisis and with questions about what all this means for the future.
25 June 2019
The gift of time: Practical tech tips and what we learnt from sharing them
Ellie Hale | CAST, Lynne Dyer | Growing Links
Growing Links share their experience of tech and reflections on what was learnt during the study.
read more
09 November 2018
Reimagining hospital volunteers - getting started with under 18s
Annie Caffyn
It’s one thing to decide that you want to work with young volunteers, but where do you start and how do you keep new recruits interested? We've collated tips from hospital volunteer coordinators.
read more
Research reports:
Duty to Care?
This research aimed to generate and share learning about changes in grant need and grant-making in the context of the recession.
Publications:
Duty of Care
This research aimed to generate and share learning about changes in grant need and grant-making in the context of the recession.
Publications:
Turning a corner
We believe funders could make adaptations to grant-making practices to respond to the needs of small voluntary organisations.
Publications:
Getting started with collaboration: A framework for joint action
This framework is for individuals and organisations who are setting out on new collaborative ventures.
Learn more about IVAR