No time for time-wasters – a response
14 June 2011
by Peter Wanless
Allison Ogden Newton has written a characteristically interesting piece about Funders which I felt moved to comment on. I’ve spent 30 minutes struggling to post these comments directly onto her blog but failed, so here’s a link and my thoughts. 2/10 for my IT skills!
http://allisonogdennewton.blogspot.com/
Hi Allison
You raise some important issues that funders grapple with constantly. Here are some immediate reactions from a Big Lottery Fund perspective.
Showing posts with label Big Lottery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Big Lottery. Show all posts
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
Saturday, 5 February 2011
Its Ladies night and the feeling's right...
Well, Ladies afternoon really. Today was the day when my sister, Sue, had her annual birthday lunch for her girlfriends. I am lucky to be asked along and we are all lucky because Sue always serves up a stunning meal with nominal help from an increasingly raucous bunch. As early evening arrives so do husbands, partners and adult children ready to escort revellers home. Mine turned up in his bike lycra and slippers, not a look.
Its always a special gathering, with a great deal of sharing. There is something very powerful about a group of women with considerable life experience getting together to joke about juggling children, elderly parents and jobs. We ponder mysteries like, 'Why do men go up and down stairs without taking stuff with them?' and "How does a young chap keep his jeans up, once they have cleared his arse"? Having woken up this morning with a very, very sore throat, I was not feeling my best. So the pink sparkling wine I drank all afternoon, washed down with Lemsip extra strong led to a particularly lively account of our Isle of White camping holiday, brought to a premature close by the insomnia inducing New Forest Monkey Spankers!?
We became our own episode of Grumpy Old Women, laughing until we cried.
Twittering came up, as I tried to recruit the uninitiated, during which time I responded to Peter Wanless of the Big Lottery, who on reading today's standard asked if I was the 'aristocrat' Lord Wei was off to see in Lambeth to discuss social enterprise? Nope, that's not me and anyway I was in Kingston having a hell of a giggle.
Its always a special gathering, with a great deal of sharing. There is something very powerful about a group of women with considerable life experience getting together to joke about juggling children, elderly parents and jobs. We ponder mysteries like, 'Why do men go up and down stairs without taking stuff with them?' and "How does a young chap keep his jeans up, once they have cleared his arse"? Having woken up this morning with a very, very sore throat, I was not feeling my best. So the pink sparkling wine I drank all afternoon, washed down with Lemsip extra strong led to a particularly lively account of our Isle of White camping holiday, brought to a premature close by the insomnia inducing New Forest Monkey Spankers!?
We became our own episode of Grumpy Old Women, laughing until we cried.
Twittering came up, as I tried to recruit the uninitiated, during which time I responded to Peter Wanless of the Big Lottery, who on reading today's standard asked if I was the 'aristocrat' Lord Wei was off to see in Lambeth to discuss social enterprise? Nope, that's not me and anyway I was in Kingston having a hell of a giggle.
Thursday, 18 February 2010
Surviving the 'era of the cut'
Today I chaired the London meeting of ACEVO's nationwide pre-election consultations, entitled 'The Big Ask'. It was an interesting and well attended event. Lots of passionate and highly articulate points made. One that struck me was from a CEO working in health who had tendered for contracts against statutory providers for whom many of the procurement costs were lost in the machine. It was not, therefore a level playing field. We heard time and again from third sector organisations who offer services with extraordinary success rates, such as working with ex-offenders and achieving re-offending rates of 13% as opposed to the National statistic, which is at around 55%. These services present as extraordinary savings in terms of reducing prison populations and human misery, but as one woman put it, "if the prison authority has to make cuts, the first thing that goes are the auxiliary services."
I had a lovely meeting today with an old friend, Debbie Pippard, at the Big Lottery. We talked about their funding priorities, their enthusiasm for social enterprise and responsibility to only fund services that should not be funded by statutory authorities. It made me think about how you would define what statutory authorities should fund, and particularly how that might change in the 'era of the cut'. Debbie also asked me to draw folks attention to their Awards for All offer. Seems like a good one to go for at the moment.
Yesterday I saw my action learning group for a meeting to decide if we should continue. For those that don't know action learning is a formal, facilitated group of peers that meet regularly and take it in turns to pose professional dilemmas. Instead of offering advice, the group ask questions allowing the subject to work towards their own strategy. Ours has met quarterly for nearly ten years, and are an epic group of gals. In that time we have changed innumerable jobs, had children, got divorced, lost loved ones and remained true to ourselves and mistresses of the universe. We did of course, decide to plough on. As the Americans say, ‘if it ain't broke, don't fix it’.
The family and I are off to Pembrokeshire for a few days for log fires and muddy walks. Can't wait. We have left our lovely au pair to manage the menagerie. In fact this week we adopted another rabbit, Nibbles, whose family have downsized to a flat and can no longer keep him. He seems a super chap and as long as he steers clear of Jemima our clucky, pecking alpha chicken he'll be ok. Still, yet another animal - I can't help but wonder if it’s a step in the right direction. I think I must love agro.
I had a lovely meeting today with an old friend, Debbie Pippard, at the Big Lottery. We talked about their funding priorities, their enthusiasm for social enterprise and responsibility to only fund services that should not be funded by statutory authorities. It made me think about how you would define what statutory authorities should fund, and particularly how that might change in the 'era of the cut'. Debbie also asked me to draw folks attention to their Awards for All offer. Seems like a good one to go for at the moment.
Yesterday I saw my action learning group for a meeting to decide if we should continue. For those that don't know action learning is a formal, facilitated group of peers that meet regularly and take it in turns to pose professional dilemmas. Instead of offering advice, the group ask questions allowing the subject to work towards their own strategy. Ours has met quarterly for nearly ten years, and are an epic group of gals. In that time we have changed innumerable jobs, had children, got divorced, lost loved ones and remained true to ourselves and mistresses of the universe. We did of course, decide to plough on. As the Americans say, ‘if it ain't broke, don't fix it’.
The family and I are off to Pembrokeshire for a few days for log fires and muddy walks. Can't wait. We have left our lovely au pair to manage the menagerie. In fact this week we adopted another rabbit, Nibbles, whose family have downsized to a flat and can no longer keep him. He seems a super chap and as long as he steers clear of Jemima our clucky, pecking alpha chicken he'll be ok. Still, yet another animal - I can't help but wonder if it’s a step in the right direction. I think I must love agro.
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