VCSE Alliance Membership
Eligibility
Our Voluntary, Community, Social Enterprise (VCSE) Alliance is how we connect with, support, and link together third sector organisations in the city. Membership is FREE and open to all voluntary, community organisations or social enterprises based (or active) in Coventry.
Subject to the restrictions below, VCSE membership is open to:
- social enterprises
- independent employee/member/retired persons social associations
- sports and leisure clubs and societies
- parent / teacher associations and out of school clubs
- independent ‘Friends Of’ associations or similar
- volunteering associations supporting public sector organisations such as hospitals, provided that such associations have full financial and decision-making independence from the public sector organisations they support
- Saturday / supplementary schools
- faith organisations
VCSE Membership is not open to:
- Private sector organisations
- Any organisation able to distribute profits to individual or corporate members or owners
- Public sector organisations including executive agencies and quangos
- Political parties, trade unions and party political organisations
- Organisations or projects owned or controlled by public or private sector organisations (e.g. local authority controlled companies)
- Subsidiary organisations of an existing VAC member (e.g. trading subsidiaries)
- Any organisation with objectives which contravene VAC’s Equality & Diversity policy or which are, in the reasonable opinion of the VAC Board, inconsistent with the values of VAC.
Registration and Approval Process
Please complete a VCSE Alliance membership registration form and submit this to us, in person, by post or email info@vacoventry.org.uk.
Approval of VCSE membership of VAC is based on meeting the above eligibility criteria. VAC does not vet organisations in any way nor their policies and procedures or working practices. VCSE Alliance membership is subject to the Chief Executive’s approval. The Management Board of VAC will be notified of the approved groups at their subsequent meeting.
Organisations not deemed eligible may still be held on the database and receive VAC communications but will not have membership rights nor access to some benefits.
Renewal of Membership
At the beginning of April each year, VAC will automatically renew VCSE Alliance membership unless otherwise notified by members. VAC will contact members to check that information held is still correct and to confirm that membership has been renewed. If we cannot verify this information, membership may be suspended. Please ensure your contacts are kept up to date.
Retention of membership information and Data Protection
Unless instructed otherwise membership forms will be retained by VAC for a period of three years after which time they will be securely destroyed. For further information regarding data protection please click on link vacoventry.org.uk/privacy-policy
If you would like a copy of VAC’s Data Protection policy please email us at info@vacoventry.org.uk
Suspension or termination of membership
VAC reserves the right to suspend and/or terminate the membership of an organisation if its continued membership of the VCSE Alliance could potentially bring VAC into disrepute. Suspension can be immediate subject to authorisation by an officer of the Board and termination would be decided by a regular meeting of the Board having given the organisation reasonable opportunity to respond and to remedy the issue that has brought about their suspension. The decision of the VAC trustees shall be final.
Benefits of VCSE Alliance Membership
Being part of our VCSE Alliance is a great way to network, gain support, stay informed, promote your organisation, services and volunteer opportunities and feel connected to the sector.
VAC offer several support services included in VCSE Alliance membership. You can explore all of them here.
External support and resource list for VCSE colleagues:
- 360Giving https://www.threesixtygiving.org/2021/03/30/best-resources-for-fundraisers-to-search-funders/
- ACEVO https://www.acevo.org.uk/resources/
- Association of Chairs https://www.associationofchairs.org.uk/
- Charity Comms https://www.charitycomms.org.uk/
- Charity Digital https://charitydigital.org.uk/home
- Charity Evaluation Working Group https://www.chewgroup.org.uk/
- Charity Excellence Framework https://www.charityexcellence.co.uk
- Charity Finance Group https://cfg.org.uk/topics
- CharityConnect https://www.charityconnect.co.uk/
- Cranfield Trust https://www.cranfieldtrust.org/pages/pro-bono-charity-support
- DataKind UK https://datakind.org.uk/
- Digital Candle https://www.digitalcandle.org.uk/
- Directory of Social Change https://www.dsc.org.uk/
- Embrace Finance https://www.embracefinance.org.uk/
- Fair Development https://www.fairdevelopment.co.uk/
- Fundraiser Sarah www.fundraisersarah.com
- Fundraising Chat (Facebook Group) https://www.facebook.com/groups/FundraisingChat/
- FundraisingEverywhere https://www.fundraisingeverywhere.com/
- Funds Online https://fundsonline.org.uk
- Getting on Board https://www.gettingonboard.org/
- Globalgiving https://www.globalgiving.org/learn/
- Grant Finder https://www.grantfinder.co.uk/funding-central/
- Impactasaurus https://impactasaurus.org/
- Inspiring Impact https://inspiringimpact.org/ (NPC now hosts the Resource Hub)
- INTRAC https://www.intrac.org/
- LawWorks https://www.lawworks.org.uk/
- Legacy Fundraising Chat https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/legacy-fundraising-chat/id1619631189
- Lloyds Bank Foundation https://www.lloydsbankfoundation.org.uk
- Localgiving https://localgiving.org/
- Media Trust https://mediatrust.org/
- NAVCA https://navca.org.uk/
- NCVO https://www.ncvo.org.uk/help-and-guidance/#/
- NCVO Small Charity Helpdesk https://www.ncvo.org.uk/about-us/our-services/support-small-charities-voluntary-organisations/small-charity-helpdesk/#/
- NPC Resource Hub https://www.thinknpc.org/resource-hub/
- Persuasion (legacies consultancy) https://persuasion.org.uk/
- Pilotlight https://www.pilotlight.org.uk/join/charity
- Populo HR https://populo.org.uk/
- Pro Bono Economics https://www.probonoeconomics.com/
- Reach Volunteering www.reachvolunteering.org.uk
- SCVO https://scvo.scot/
- Shehnaaz Latif (impact consultancy) https://www.shehnaazlatif.co.uk/
- Small Charities Data Hub https://smallcharitiesdata.org/
- Small Charity Friendly Collective https://www.limegreenconsulting.co.uk/small-charity-friendly-collective.html
- Small Charity Setup Tool https://smallcharities.wpengine.com/
- Small Charity Support https://www.smallcharitysupport.uk/
- Small Charity Week https://www.smallcharityweek.com
- Small Charity Week Crowdsourced List of Sources of Support https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xVYfzWiCfshW3DtTry0HFbDKvTNTbfNpEfqlJGPue2s/edit#gid=1763752809
- Small International Development Charities Network (Facebook Group) https://www.facebook.com/groups/sidcn/
- Social Value UK https://socialvalueuk.org/resource-library/
- Superhighways https://superhighways.org.uk
- Time to Spare https://timetospare.com/
- UK Fundraising https://fundraising.co.uk/
- Volunteering Matters https://volunteeringmatters.org.uk/
- WCVA https://wcva.cymru/
- Welbeck Accountancy https://welbeckaccountancy.co.uk/