Charity and Voluntary Sector

DH: A new funding model designed to broaden & strengthen investment in volunteering in health & social care has been unveiled by Care Services Minister, Phil Hope. The Health and Social Care Volunteering Fund is intended to pave the way for a renewed focus on volunteering projects in the NHS & social care by managing the grants system centrally.
 
It replaces the Opportunities for Volunteering (OFV) scheme, which has been running since 1982.  The new scheme will continue to support local volunteering projects in health & social care and open up the floor to national projects to improve health & wellbeing. The scheme will be managed by a partnership including third sector bodies; Attend, Community Service Volunteers (CSV) and Prime Timers working with ECOTEC.
 
Applications for grants under the new Fund will open in January 2010.  The first round will be for local projects followed by a second round later in the year which will support national schemes.  Any third sector organisation wishing to run volunteering projects in the health or social care will be able to apply for funding.
Press release ~ Health and Social Care Volunteering Fund ~ WRVS ~ Volunteering England ~ Attend ~ Community Service Volunteers (CSV) ~ Prime Timers ~ ECOTEC
 
ESRC: Greater government aid to overseas development charities does not discourage individual giving, according to new research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).  Fears that increasing government grants would serve to ‘crowd out’ donations from individuals are unwarranted.  If anything, say researchers, the opposite is the case, with greater government grants to development charities appearing to encourage individual donors to give more.
 
Overseas development charities are highly dependent on donations from individuals.  In this new study, researchers from the Universities of Southampton, Oxford and Cass Business School examined how the level of donations to overseas development charities has changed over time, what kind of people give money to such charities & their reasons for giving, and how government policy affects people’s willingness to donate.
 
Findings show that donations to overseas development charities (excluding legacies) have grown at an average rate of 7.4% p.a. in real terms since 1978.  Government grants to overseas development charities increased tenfold between 1978 and 1994.
Press release ~ ESRC: Giving to development
 
ESRC: With rising unemployment and fewer job vacancies, the current financial crisis has seen renewed policy emphasis in both Europe & the UK on volunteering as a route to employment, according to a new report from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
 
‘The Value of Volunteering’ – which features contributions from academics, representatives from the UK government, third sector organisations & volunteers themselves – outlines fresh UK government initiatives to use volunteering to help people into jobs, and offers powerful examples of how volunteering can change people’s lives for the better. It also calls for more effective use of European Social Fund to incentivise providers to offer voluntary activity as a pathway to integration especially for groups furthest from the labour market.
Press release ~ The Value of Volunteering ~ Third Sector European Network (TSEN) ~ Community Service Volunteers (CSV)
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