Charities Research - Help

sufs2000

Hi Guys,

I'm running a session at work for a charity helping people with Autism. I have set up a workshop to help them with focussing on surviving throughout the current economic climate and what they could be doing better but need a little help. As part of the workshop I will be getting them to read material related to the questions below but I need to provide them with the related reading material. Does anyone have any ideas where I could look for this reading material? Any pointers to a variety of different sources (journals, web, books, etc) would be amazing!

• What are charities currently doing to survive? & How?
• What have charities historically done to survive? & How?
• What do organisations do to thrive in times of economic hardship?
• How do organisations thrive in times of economic hardship?

Your help is much appreciated Thanks!

PlutoinCapricorn

Many charities close in a recession, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Some reduce costs and staff, and increase fundraising efforts.

Mergers or at least pooling resources are considered.

New initiatives are put on hold, so that funds are available for the basic services.

Charities use their reserves - not necessarily a bad thing. CAF loans are available.

Savvy_Sue

You'll probably find some stuff on the NCVO website, and possibly also on your local volunteer umbrella body website.

oldtoolie

Directory of Social Change provides training and books. http://www.dsc.org.uk

Institute of Fundraising is useful www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk/

NFPSynergy has free reports. http://www.nfpsynergy.net such as:

'Gimme, Gimme, Gimme!' - A Guide to fundraising for small organisations - March 2011
This report was written to try and help organisations think about their fundraising with greater realism and to improve their chances of success. It is aimed at small organisations, those (however large) who are just starting to think about raising more voluntary income or anybody else who finds it useful.

Look! nfpSynergy did my PEST analysis - February 2011
This report grew out of one released in October 2010 - It’s competition, but not as we know it (2nd edition) – which explored what it means for charities to compete, the changing face of that competition and the different strategies charities can follow in order to thrive.

Two books on my shelf are:

"Fundraising when Money is Tight" by Mal Warwick

Guerrilla Marketing for Nonprofits by Jay Conrad Levinson

sufs2000

Hey ... Thanks for all the responses, it is very much appreciated I've managed to find some really good reading material now which is great.