"Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was “Oh no, not again”.
Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the Universe than we do now."
You know that game where you have to pick the people, living or dead, you’d most like to have round a dinner table? Being a bit of an ideas geek, I have a similar thing about who I’d like to hear speak at my dream conference. I’m lucky that I occasionally get to hear some brilliant speakers from the world of charities and social enterprises.
We have extended the deadline to complete our State of the Sector survey to 18 December 2016.
We would like to encourage your organisation to complete our important survey as we want to know how the government cuts and economic recession have affected our sector. We need to know how many groups have lost funding, how many have had to reduce services and how many have had to close or are facing closure. But also how we continue to work together providing valuable services and support to the people of Manchester.
Macc’s purpose is to encourage, support and develop voluntary and community groups and individuals to have a real influence over the places and communities in which they live. So for that reason alone, we’re supporting the People’s Plan as a non-partisan, citizen-led movement bringing new and seldom-heard voices into the conversation about the future of Greater Manchester.
We streamed our Spirit of Manchester Awards live, on Thursday 6 October.
You can watch our awards ceremony below.
Watch our Chief Executive, Mike Wild talk about our upcoming Spirit of Manchester Awards on That's Manchester TV
At 9am in the morning an upstairs room at Yes Manchester is being transformed into a clothes shop for local people. But this is a shop with a difference. Everything has been donated, everyone is a volunteer and everything in free. Yes is a service that helps people find jobs and take control of their future and volunteer Marika has run the annual clothes event for the last couple of years.
Our State of the Sector Survey in 2013 found that there were 3,093 voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations in Manchester, with an estimated income of £477 million. The sector employed the equivalent of 12,400 full time staff and 94,300 volunteers gave 370,000 hours, with an estimated value of £332 million. Decision makers took note of the survey results, we know it increased their understanding of the sector. Some of the key facts (3093 organisations, 94,300 volunteers) are now widely quoted by colleagues in the Council, the NHS and other bodies such as Big Lottery Fund.
Voting is now open to vote for the Best Community Space Spirit of Manchester Award 2016. 
Award criteria
A community space can be a piece of land or a building available for use by the community. Organisations needed to show:
• Best use of a community space
• How the space is seen as central within the community
• The impact it has within the local community
I'm being a bit cheeky calling this one a blog as 99.99% of this page is not by me at all. However, this is a good place to share it.
Below is a talk given by an American activist and fundraiser called Dan Pallotta. He brilliantly sums up some of the attitudes which distort the way the charity sector functions. I heartily agree with a lot of what he says - it's well worth watching.