Business Charity Awards 2018 open for entries

The deadline for entries is 1 February, and the event takes place in London on 23 May, as part of Third Sector’s Fundraising Week

The Business Charity Awards 2018, which recognise the contribution made by UK businesses to charities and social enterprises, have opened for entries.

The deadline for entries to the awards, which are being produced by Third Sector in partnership with the London Benchmarking Group, is 1 February.

There are 23 categories, including Challenge Event of the Year, CSR Team of the Year and Marketing Initiative of the Year.

Twelve of the awards are devoted to partnerships involving companies from a wide variety of sectors, including automotive and transport, financial services, media and entertainment, and health, beauty and pharmaceuticals.

The Outstanding Employee award will go to an individual in a company who has made an exceptional contribution to charity with the support of his or her employer.

One company from all the winners will be crowned Business of the Year, which was won in 2017 by the financial services firm Investec for its long-standing work with the Bromley by Bow Centre in east London.

The awards will be judged by a panel of experts on corporate social responsibility from businesses and charities, and the winners will be announced at a black-tie dinner at the Marriott Grosvenor Square in London on 23 May.

The awards ceremony is part of Third Sector’s Fundraising Week, which takes place next year between 21 and 25 May and includes a two-day fundraising conference, the Big Questions Live debate and a reception to celebrate the best up-and-coming fundraisers.

For more information on the awards and to enter click here.

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Applications open for free leadership training programme

Organised by the King’s Fund, Comic Relief and the Big Lottery Fund, Cascading Leadership will match each successful applicant with a charity leader

A new programme that will provide free leadership training to people who work for health and wellbeing charities has opened for applications today.

The King’s Fund, Comic Relief and the Big Lottery Fund have designed and launched the new £250,000 programme, which is called Cascading Leadership.

The scheme will match each successful applicant with another charity leader, and both will receive training from the King’s Fund.

Each participant will take part in a two-day training and development programme on leadership skills, receive individual supervision from leadership experts, take part in three face-to-face consulting sessions with the other charity leader and take part in peer learning sessions.

The programme lasts six months, is free to attend and 80 places are initially available.

Only charities that can show how their work improves health and wellbeing will be considered for the programme, a spokesman for the King’s Fund said.

The programme is funded by Comic Relief, which is investing £75,000, and the Big Lottery Fund, which is investing £175,000. It will be delivered by the King’s Fund.

The programme is based on a pilot run by the King’s Fund and Comic Relief last year, which a report from the King’s Fund says helped participants to “develop professional skills, alongside deeper strategic leadership”.

The deadline for applications is 20 July, with successful applicants notified in August. The first programme will run in November, the spokesman said.

Lisa Weaks, head of third sector at the King’s Fund, said: “Cascading Leadership recognises that there are many charity leaders with hugely valuable skills and experience. The programme harnesses their excellent leadership and enables them to support other charity leaders while developing their own capabilities even further.”

Gilly Green, head of UK grants at Comic Relief, said: “With increasing demands on services, challenges in the funding landscape and more complex relationships to nurture and negotiate, being a charity leader can be a lonely as well as an exciting place.

“Cascading Leadership takes as its starting point the principle of sharing knowledge and building the sector’s capacity from within. And it is this understanding, and sharing of experience from others within the sector, alongside time to reflect and plan away from the everyday pressures of the workplace, that participants report valuing so much.”

For more information and to apply, click here.

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