What led to the changes to our membership offer?
Historically, we’ve supported our members in an ad-hoc, reactive way, dealing with issues as presented to us and we’ve worked on problems as perceived by an individual. Rarely were we asked to look at an organisation as a whole.
Our new approach will enable us to work more proactively and holistically with organisations in the round, to help them upskill, deepen their impact and ensure their sustainability.
The VCFSE landscape has been changing over the past decade, but these changes really accelerated during the COVID pandemic and subsequent recovery, forcing the sector to re-evaluate its position and create a more flexible strategy for the future. Despite the world beginning to settle into a new pattern, pressures on the sector are still increasing and organisations must find new ways to become sustainable. In a recent consultation, our members laid out the following issues as priorities:
- Increased demand for services
- Charities struggling to recruit
- Cost of Living crisis increasing running costs for organisations
- Volunteer numbers not regaining pre-COVID levels
- Increased competition for foundation funding
In our day-to-day work and from speaking to funders, we’ve also identified the need for charities to better evidence the outcomes and impact of their work to ensure they secure funding.
In addition to training sessions, open access resources, fundraising support, networks, events, sector research and updates, CVSCE’s previous work model gave unlimited 1:1 bespoke support, which is unsustainable as a business model.
With all of this in mind, we have refreshed our membership model to reflect the changes that the sector is undergoing and assessed how we implement that model to make our work more impactful. We believe these changes will support organisations to develop more strategically, to make better use of what funding is available to them and to work in partnership not only with other like-minded groups but also with statutory organisations and the private sector. We now need to collectively build on the incredible resilience and flexibility demonstrated during the pandemic and show how effective and valuable an asset the VCFSE Sector is to the economy, health and happiness of Cheshire East and the wider region. The changes CVSCE has made to its membership model will enable us to work more proactively and comprehensively with organisations as a whole to help them achieve their aims.