Sunday 20th January 2008, 01:09The Foundation for Social ImprovementAt the last Group Board meeting we had a presentation and update from Pauline Broomhead the CEO of the Foundation for Social Improvement (FSI). Many of us first met Pauline when she was the working for the NSPCC as their National Fundraiser and together in partnership with Emma raised more than £57 million towards the Full Stop Campaign.
At the start of 2007 Pauline agreed to continue her partnership with Emma by heading up the Charity the FSI. This was quite a coup as Pauline is ranked within the top 10 fundraisers nationally in the UK. The vision for the FSI is to capacity build the voluntary and community sector so that they can develop long term funding strategies. We have all had the privilege to work with charities who are led by special people who had an insight into the needs of a part of our community which was not being met by government or society at large. However, all too often we have witnessed their misery as their time and energy is continually drawn back to the need to raise funds to continue their good work. Year on year this battle can wear down even the most ardent charity leader as they watch their ability to take their vision forward evaporate further and further each year.
The fault does not lie in the hands of the charity leaders neither does it sit with the public whose money they seek. It is perhaps just the perverse nature of life that many of those charity leaders whose talent can be clearly seen identifying needs and delivering service and support to parts of our communities who need it, do not possess the unique skills of a nationally recognised fund raiser like Pauline.
This is the heart of the vision for the FSI. They can provide support, training, materials, web sites and mentoring to capacity build the charitable sector by giving them clear strategies and skills to develop long term sustainable fund raising plans to elevate their work and allow the leaders of these charities to focus on their clients needs rather than the pennies in a collecting tin?
The answer the FSI got to this question at our board meeting was clear, fantastic progress has been made since Emma and Pauline formed this new partnership 12 months ago. Pauline has been delivering free training to hundreds of charities up and down the UK. With her team they have been mentoring charities and the web site is up and running www.thefsi.org . The feedback from charities who have attended these training sessions has been great. Pauline has already been networking on an international basis to link up with organisations with a similar vision around the world to share best practice. They have attracted some heavy weight trustees who share the vision and they have established very exciting plans for 2008/9.
Take a look at the site, if you can help our work, if you can contribute to our resources (Credit Suisse recently hosted one of our training events at their offices in Canary Wharf) if you are in need of the services from the FSI, please make contact with Pauline.
My thanks to Pauline and her team at the FSI. Your work ensures that more and more of the charities in the UK can focus on the needs of their communities and provide the services which we and our families need at times in our lives when we often fear we have no where to turn.
Roy
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