Core Values

18/04/2023

18/04/2023

A little mission statement and summary of our beliefs when working with organisations

31/03/2023

So what happens when you meet me?

Well... we start by drinking tea. Or coffee. And perhaps a biscuit.
We have a chat about the things that matter to you - what has led you to the activity you are working on, what it means to the people around you.

Then we talk about the potential gaps in your knowledge, perhaps there are specific funding bids you'd like to apply for, perhaps you are struggling to explain the difference you make to your community and want to get better at this to grow your presence. Perhaps something isn’t working and you want to find out what the challenges and solutions might be. We'll formulate a little plan for next steps...

Next, I would likely take you through a development process (with more tea of course), ideally involving some of the people you work with as well as the people involved in the work. Together we will try to pin down the exact differences you hope to make. We might use something called a logic model to help with this, which helps you map out how your activities lead to community benefits and pinpoint how each bit of your work is making a difference (and some of the assumptions you are making to connect the dots). Everything we do will be in plain english and directly in line with the things that are important to you and your community.

From here we can see exactly what your priorities are and who might need to know about them, including who might want to invest in growing your ambitions. We might also talk about how you collect evidence to demonstrate that you are making these amazing differences, or identify anything you are assuming will happen that you might benefit from testing through evaluation.

You will end your experience with me with a range of tools that are specific to your project, programme or organisation. Depending on the amount of work we do these resources might:
- help you talk about impact confidently
- be able to tell people why your work is making a difference with evidence of your success
- be able to make decisions on where to focus your energy to make the biggest differences
- help you write or work with me to submit funding bids that are specific and measurable and hopefully bring in new exciting pots of money to help you be sustainable.

And it all starts with a cup of tea and a friendly chat. And perhaps some cake.
(Other drinks and snacks are available)

30/03/2023

I've been working with some groups recently on how to find the "scope" for their project based on the Core Values and priorities that matter most to them.
If you are looking to get some money in from a funder or investor it's really important to be clear on what you are trying to achieve with that money, including the specifics about who the investment is for and what benefits or changes you might realise - even though your activities are a live and active process and might go in a different direction along the way!
SO nice to see people get excited about the avenues they could choose to go down and what the possibilities are as a result.

27/02/2023

Calling Eastleigh Borough Council community organisations who are doing amazing work in our local area.

I am an EBC resident and also work as a Monitoring, Evaluation and Leaning Manager in Health Research. Wordy way of saying I work to find evidence for the impact and value of activities and investments!

I have recently started Core Values which is a consultancy to support small social enterprise or community organisations. Through a series of sessions I can help you to measure and evidence your impact and value, building your chances of funding success and help you prioritise resources to ensure maximum community impact.

Eastleigh Borough Council's fabulous community grant programme can support development of your organisation, so if you are interested in making a joint application to build up the evidence of your success please let me know.

I hope you have a lovely day, Caz 😊

https://www.eastleigh.gov.uk/our-community/community-grants?fbclid=IwAR079ATS45GGt1iSEZwGJGQTF3goDWJqxUxGjVN8SjpBl13FIuBMmQI_s4A

27/02/2023

Very much enjoyed this article from New Philanthropy Capital on the benefits of unrestricted grant funding (ie. not project based), but wonder whether bigger more experienced companies would have an advantage as they have the resources to think for the long term and plan/ measure impact?

If you’re used to giving with restrictions, how can you move towards a more unrestricted model? Here we outline how.

23/02/2023

Welcome to the first post of my new Core Values impact, evaluation and fundraising service!

I started this little mini-organisation up because I wanted to find a way to help community organisations, who are doing truly amazing work, have the tools they need to shout REALLY loudly about their value and impact for the people and partners that they support.

I'm therefore delighted to be able to offer support for the - often confusing - worlds of impact assessment, evaluation and fundraising, which I hope will give local community groups and social enterprise companies with big hearts some welly to build their resilience in these difficult times!

Initial meetings are absolutely free so please do share and get in touch if you'd like my support for your own organisation.