Organisational Support

We can help you with a variety of organisational development needs from setting up a group, developing a Constitution and sourcing a group bank account, to developing your governing board. We operate a triage service where all enquiries for support are directed, complete this form to access this service. We will discuss your needs with you and then decide which member of staff has the right skills to support you or your group. This may be someone from Voluntary Action Rotherham that does this or it may be someone from our trading arm – Spectrum Futures CIC.

Email Andy.Vickery@varotherham.org.uk to book an appointment or ring us to discuss your needs on 01709 834440.

Funding Support

Funding comes in many forms; direct grants, i.e. money given by Trust Funds, Government Department initiatives usually from one to five years against which delivery outcomes that benefit the target group you seek to support are expected.

Most of us are familiar with grant funding like The Big Lottery, Awards for All, Reaching Communities, The Heritage Lottery, Comic Relief, Children In Need etc… that raise their funds through the income generated through lottery ticket sales or national public giving campaigns. A grant can either be 100% of a project or a part of it requiring ‘match funding’ from another source, either as real money or ‘in-kind’ match of a capital asset or volunteer and management committee time etc…

There are thousands of trust funds, a wide portfolio of EU funds with an annual programme of aims, there are also organisations established to support social enterprise (income generating business with social aims and social investment objectives) that provide a combination of grant and equity or loan investment in one form or another such as Key Fund South Yorkshire.

If you are looking for funding support in terms of bid writing, project development and assistance with long term plans such as developing a community centre, village hall, securing new outdoor or playground equipment, regeneration, revenue or capital investment projects we may be able to help.

Our staff have vast experience in supporting community groups, organisations and social enterprises to find and secure grant funding opportunities for new and existing projects.

We can support  organisations to:

• identifying suitable funding opportunities

• access the Grant Finder system so you find funding opportunities

• make sure your bid is the best it can be by being a critical friend on a bid

• write the bid for you with your input

• find other organisations you can collaborate with

• think about other ways of generating income

• access training opportunities to increase your bid writing skills

• meet with funders to explore your ideas

We can support you to apply for grant funding if you are a:

• Social Enterprise

• Community Group

• Charity

• School or public sector body

Most of our funding support services are FREE to VCS members especially for small groups and for bids of less than £10,000. We may charge a fee for our bid writing service if you are a larger group or need a larger complex bid and will be happy to discuss this with you as it may be negotiable dependent on the type of organisation you are and where you are based.

Check out our information station page for more details on accessing Funding Central.

For full details on our funding support service please contact us to email Kerry.Mcgrath@varotherham.org.uk.