The Sector Background

There are in the region of 20,000 voluntary organisations delivering services in the North West. The sector is now seen as an important part of delivering the Government Service Strategy. It has been recognised at senior level that the sector has been unable to invest in its own development due to continued poor funding at local level.

Funding has become available for infrastructure development from sources such as "change up" and "future builders". However, there remains a real challenge to influence local funder's and to encourage organisations to withdraw from total reliance on strategy funding. Social Enterprise is gaining a reputation as a vehicle to develop funds via trading in goods and services for a social purpose.

However, by using sound business principles it is possible to plan ahead, setting strategies and targets to achieve sustainability. The charity which recently employed Anne Davies [Aurora] as CEO for over five years is totally reliant on voluntary income but has still doubled its turnover and increased the services to offers from twelve weeks to all year round. Anne has a track record of working with organisations to achieve similar success and ensuring that staff have the skills and knowledge to continue the process.