Regional work

We aspire to being a strategic and engaged funder, contributing to the development of policy thinking at a national level and working with our grant recipients across England to ensure the maximum impact from our investment on the ground. 

Improving local levels of support

At a local level, whilst we do not provide core funding for the delivery of mainstream support services, we work to coordinate and improve the direct support available to charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises.

Support in the regions

Support networks or Consortia as they are also known, are groups of support providers, some of whom responded to the Home Office Active Community Unit’s call in 2003 to unite and receive ChangeUp funding to improve support to frontline organisations - others were in existence before the Home Office's call to unite.

Some operate at regional level, some at sub-regional level, and some at local authority level, though there is no consistent pattern across the regions. There are about 130 at present across England. Further details about their work can be found in the regional pages of the Improving Support website.

Responding to the recession

We are working to ensure that our existing programmes and grant-holders respond effectively to the recession.

The role of consortia

Local and regional consortia were proactive in delivering early recession-related research, clinics and extra support during 2008/9, and the majority of local and regional consortia have adapted their plans for 2009-11 to focus on improving support for the third sector during the economic downturn.

They will be our partners in delivering ‘real time’ feedback from the frontline on how the recession is affecting the sector.

Regional Managers

Our team of Regional Managers work directly with local and regional support providers, strengthening the coordination of services, promoting effective communication and learning, identifying opportunities for increased collaboration and helping to ensure that support providers can fully engage with a wide range of stakeholders. 

Using expert knowledge

We make use of that local delivery information and expertise to inform our policy and programme development, and ensure we are able to respond fast to changing demands and needs.

To find out more about each of the nine English regions and our team of regional managers see the listings in the left hand tool bar.

Regional ICT Champions

Funded through Capacitybuilders’ National Priorities Programme, the regional ICT champions work to increase the capacity, availability and quality of local infrastructure ICT support services that are relevant and meet the needs of charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises.