“We believe that our staff, including our interns, deserve a fair day’s pay for their efforts and want to support them to live and work locally in the community that they serve. We’d encourage other local businesses to do the same: the process is straightforward with helpful resources and a responsive team at the Living Wage Foundation should you need assistance.”
Did you know that CCVS is able to support your organisation through the accreditation process, and Cambridge City Council will fund the first year of the accreditation fee?
To find out more about what the Living Wage is, how to become accredited, and what that would mean for your organisation, read our previous blog.
Camcycle staff team with the Living Wage accreditation plaque.
The Act received royal assent in February of this year. The Act is generally pretty mundane with no areas of real controversy. It is designed to bring in some of the recommendations from the 2017 Law Commission report into charity law that will make things simpler for charities.
Thanks to the Law Commission for highlighting the following documents
The changes brought about by the Act will not take practical effect immediately. We now have to wait for the Charity Commission to set out how it is going to implement the changes, they have published a blog about the process on their website. The upshot being that actual changes will only happen as the commission is able to implement them.
What is in the Act?
The charity commission highlight 5 key changes
charities and trustees will be able to amend their governing documents or Royal Charters more easily – remaining subject to the Commission and the Privy Council’s approval in certain circumstances
charities will have access to a much wider pool of professional advisors on land disposal, and to more straightforward rules on what advice they must receive, which could save them time and money when selling land
charities will have more flexibility to make use of a ‘permanent endowment’ – this is money or property originally meant to be held by a charity forever. This includes a change which will allow trustees to borrow a sum of up to 25% of the value of their permanent endowment funds, without the Commission’s approval
trustees will be able to be paid for goods provided to a charity in certain circumstances, even if not expressly stated in the charity’s governing document (currently trustees can only be paid for supply of services). From pencils to paint, this will allow charities the flexibility to access goods from trustees when it is in the best interests of the charity (e.g. if cheaper), without needing Commission permission
charities will be able to take advantage of simpler and more proportionate rules on failed appeals. For example, if a charity appeal raises too little money, the charity will be able to spend donations below £120 on similar charitable purposes without needing to contact individual donors for permission
The rules about changing governing docs or purposes are mainly about bringing CIO’s and charitable companies in line with each other. This could make it more tricky for non CIO’s but it will mean simply updating purposes without making significant changes will no longer be regulated.
We have no idea when the commission will release guidance and actually make the changes, but Russell Cooke the solicitors have written that they recommend charitable companies wanting to make major changes to purposes do it now before the changes are implemented.
There is a good summary of the Act from Stone King on their website.
Networking for charities and services to improve the lives of older people in Cambridge
So far 16 different organisations and services benefiting older residents in Cambridge have met online to share what they are doing, make useful contacts and collect valuable information.
The aims of the network are:
to come together to establish an informal network that meets regularly.
find out what others are doing and to examine challenges together and share experiences.
collaborate more effectively and avoid working in isolation
Attendees have expressed interest in pursuing a number of initiatives including mapping services in the City for older people, sharing communications and creating an event in the Autumn aimed at promoting activities and services for older people in the community.
The network is chaired by Cambridge United Community Trust following an initiative from U3AC and COPE with organisational support from CCVS. The next meeting will be in June. To join the network or find out more get in touch with Christine.
Our CCVS logo and branding was designed some years ago. It has served CCVS very well, but was beginning to look dated and in need of an update.
It’s been a lengthy process but we’re really happy with the end results which we’re sharing with you today.
Once we had the backing and agreement from our Trustees, we began to think about what we wanted in a brand refresh. We decided which elements we would like to keep, namely, a recognisable purple colour; the CCVS part of the logo; and some sort of roundel, in keeping with other CVS’s and NAVCA.
We worked with Chris Gooch, of Open Design Agency Limited, to chat about what we had in mind and put together our initial brief. Chris studied our annual review, our values and our website to gain a real flavour of our work, aims and objectives. As we had been considering updating our Vision and Mission too, Chris advised getting those in place first, so that the vision could become our new strapline for the logo.
Mark, our CEO, put together a proposal document for the Vision and Mission which was circulated for comments and suggestions among our team and the trustees. Some great suggestions gave us plenty to think about and we finally settled on something we were all happy with. This was then put to the Trustees for approval which we’re happy to say was given!
Our Vision
We wanted something short, sharp, and meaningful, aspirational words that would look good on our office wall to show what we’re about. We wanted the vision to drill down to the heart of everything we, and our local organisations do, namely, focussing on community.
Our new Vision is:Fair, Strong, Connected Communities
This has been added to our new logo and gives an immediate flavour of our work and values.
Our Mission
We recognised that our Mission needed to be longer. The Mission describes what it is CCVS does, how we achieve our Vision, and becomes our elevator pitch. It gives us the who, why and how of what we do.
Our new Mission is:
We work with individuals and organisations in communities to help them build places that anyone would want to live in, work in, or visit. We:
Promote relationship building and collaboration with individuals and organisations working in communities
Provide practical support to build the knowledge and confidence of those working in organisations in the community
Amplify the voices of those in communities so they can influence policy makers
Our logo and branding
After many emails backwards and forwards, online chats, and revisions, the logo and brand evolved, and Chris was able to share the final files with us. We’re thrilled with the results.
The CCVS initials have kept a similar purple but have been redesigned in a different font and have had shadowing added. The new Vision has become the strapline.
The roundel, which is made up of individual icons representing people, was reduced from 12 icons, to 6, to match the number of our values. Each of the 6 icons has been given one of our new brand colours.
We wanted the logo to give us flexibility, so as well as using the main logo as a whole, we are able to pull out the different elements to use separately. We have the option of using the roundel in one single colour, on its own, or with the CCVS initials. We can also pull out individual icons to use as we wish. We have the logo in files of different size and formats, in black, white and greyscale, and a logo without shadowing should we need it. Now all we need do is to start using it!
You will notice a very gradual transformation. We don’t have the capacity to do a major launch and change everything all at once. We plan to update things as we use them, so our old logo will be around for some time to come. We need time to think about templates for various aspects of our work, and need to find a balance between looking professional, but having time to get on with what we do best – supporting organisations.
If you’re considering a refresh, here are some tips we’ve learned along the way:
Be open minded from the start, your ideas may undergo many evolutions before you get to the final result.
If you’re going to appoint a designer, find someone you can have an honest conversation with, who listens to your ideas, and is open to change, but willing to challenge you if necessary.
Involve your team in some of the brainstorming and seek opinions. Even though someone may have to have the final say, hearing other people’s ideas can open a whole new way of thinking.
Trust your instincts! Put your ideas out there, be bold if you wish to.
Work with your Trustees, after all, they will need to agree with your proposals, especially if there is a budget involved.
If any organisations wish to chat to us about the process in more detail. Do get in touch. We’d also love to know that you think of the new branding.
Our next big project will be updating our website, but that will take some time.
Since returning to work in January, I have spent nine days travelling within the UK, attending conferences, events, trainings and making site visits for a consulting client. These have been the first opportunity to leave home on business since the middle of March 2020. I’ve loved it. But will it continue?
Let’s be clear. Going anywhere for the last two years hasn’t been sensible. The risks to health from Covid-19 have been real and serious.
Selfishly, the impact of the worst effects of long Covid on me would have been disastrous. If I’m too ill to work, I don’t earn my income. The bills go unpaid. No sick pay, no government help. Less selfishly, I would never have lived with myself if I’d been a one-man super-spreader.
But now, with all the progress we’ve made, the return to in-person work is possible. Of course, we are all — individually and…
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