NICVA News March 2007

NICVA

Free to NICVA members

NICVA news March 2007.pdf

This month's round up

NICVAnews returns after the Christmas break with a bumper issue of news, events, training opportunities, funding and policy updates. So, what's been happening since last issue? The announcement of an Assembly election follows the timely launch of the eagerly awaited policy manifesto, which sets out the needs and concerns of the voluntary and community sector. Other key documents published recently are the response to the support services strategy and a number of consultations on future EU funding streams, while NICVA has issued a briefing paper on the proposals
for Peace III. DSD has also issued a handy guide to doorstep collection, which can help you work out who is collecting for profit and who is collecting for charity.

On the web front, a brand new site to help voluntary and community groups find reliable suppliers of goods and services has just gone live. CommunityBuyer is not just a list of suppliers but also has advice pages and a ratings system to share your buying experiences with other site users. NICVA is always keen to share tips and advice with its members and this month the Governance and Charity Advice Team brings you a useful reminder about 'knowing your members', for those organisations that are set up as companies.

This month we have a special section on the Review of Public Administration, which outlines details of the big shake up in public services so far. It's not always obvious, but as voluntary and community organisations we need to keep up to date with public sector changes, as these can have a major impact on our work.

Finally, just a quick reminder that your contributions to NICVAnews are always welcome, so if you've got something you want the sector to know about, why not submit it to us by the first Tuesday of each month?