Published: 09 May 2008
BASIS 2 Launches to fill gaps in VCS support
Greater support is on its way to voluntary and community organisations across England, as the Big Lottery Fund launches the second round of its BASIS (Building and Sustaining Infrastructure Support) programme with up to £50m available to develop the sector.
Following the claimed success of BASIS 1 that awarded close to £100m to over 200 projects supporting third sector infrastructure, BASIS 2 is taking a more targeted approach.
The programme is looking to fund projects that fill the highest priority gaps in the current VCS infrastructure support to ensure the sector’s wide spectrum of organisations can access relevant high-quality assistance.
Sanjay Dighe, Chair of the Big Lottery Fund’s England Committee, said:
“Through BASIS 2 the Fund is continuing to develop the provision of expert, consistent and sustainable services, across the range of voluntary and community sector organisations.
This second round of BASIS is taking a much more targeted approach to ensure funding is used specifically to meet identified needs within third sector infrastructure support.
This support aims to fill the gaps remaining after BASIS 1 on both a regional and national level, ensuring the sector is fully equipped to operate to the best of its ability, ultimately improving the services it provides in enhancing lives and communities across the country.”
To help identify the priorities for BASIS 2, between August and November 2007 BIG carried out a consultation with national and local organisations including funders, frontline organisations and providers of voluntary and communty sector support services.
In support of the Fund’s approach, Ann Blackmore, Head of Policy at NCVO, said:
“NCVO commends BIG on undertaking a very thorough consultation exercise.
We fully support BIG’s proposal to fund a more tightly prescribed range of activities in Round Two of BASIS.
This will enable organisations to make an informed decision about whether or not to apply and reduce the number of bids that go unrewarded.”
Projects to benefit from BASIS 1 funding include the Scope-led Disability LIB (Listen, Include, Build) project, which was awarded £4,245,382 to establish the UK's first disability-led consortium that is advising on the critical and varied needs of disabled people's organisations (DPOs) across England and providing necessary infrastructure support.
Through Disability LIB, DPOs will have access to action-learning groups, training workshops, seminars and practical toolkits.
BASIS has also supported projects working at a local level such as St Helens CVS who are using an award of £498,777 to improve the delivery of infrastructure support offered to groups from the voluntary, charitable and faith sector.
To develop skills and knowledge the project is offering a range of services to improve governance, planning, management, sustainable funding and volunteer recruitment.
BASIS 2 will continue to complement, but not duplicate government initiatives such as Change Up and Capacity Builders. It is building on a strong history of Lottery funding in this area that is responding to a key need amongst voluntary and community organisations.
The Big Lottery Fund's regional staff will hold a series of stakeholder events to ensure that those who are eligible to apply for BASIS 2 funding are fully briefed on the opportunities presented by the programme.
The deadline for applications is 2.00pm on 27 August 2008.
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