Blog

To mark Trustees Week, November 2013, the Capacity building team at Macc invited trustees of Manchester charities to attend a free seminar, delivered by Moira Protani, Partner and Head of the Charities Department at Wilsons Solicitors LLP. The session was a great opportunity for existing trustees to revisit their responsibilities and check any gaps in their knowledge -it can be difficult to know what you don’t know!- and a great introduction for new trustees.

If you missed the seminar then there is still good news because a copy of Moira’s Powerpoint presentation is available at...

The Chest is the e-portal for procurement used by Manchester City Council and other councils in Greater Manchester. As councils continue the move from grants to contracts The Chest will become the main focus for communication between the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) and council officers once the tender process begins. VCS organisations will have to register their interest in particular opportunities, download the documents they require, ask questions through the site and receive answers, and then upload their completed applications and...

At our Spirit of Manchester awards event last month one of the categories was for Most Successful Campaign. We wanted to acknowledge campaigning work because we’ve always believed that it’s the job of charities not just to meet needs but to drive change for the longer term. The history of social change in this country has been driven by the campaigning efforts of groups for centuries.

Most of our public services were established in the voluntary sector. As cuts to public sector budgets hit, it’s...

During the recent bout of hot weather, I somehow managed to come down with a cold. I not only felt ill, I also felt ridiculous: I mean who gets a cold in the middle of a heatwave? As I write this, figures have just been released showing that the country’s economy is slowly starting to grow again after the recession. It’s a similar feeling: I’m being told it’s lovely out there but it feels dreadful. No matter what the economic analysis says, when I look around I see incomes reducing, prices rising, services closing and life generally becoming more difficult. I also know that this will...