Training needs met with a generous donation of time and knowledge
A Good Thing is an online platform that allows businesses to give things away to their local charities. Less to landfill, more to a good cause! The case study below is an example of the wonderful impact that can be made through these matches.
Did you know that the A Good Thing platform can be used for more than just physical donations? Businesses can also choose to offer their time and resources.
Glasgow-based Triceratops Training did just that, offering a training session to five charities to support them with their income diversification. The training was delivered via a two-hour Zoom session, during which the charities learned about income-generating options and how to choose the right one(s).
A 2023 Cranfield Trust report explained that, for many charities, cost is a barrier to training. Many charities lack training budgets, with almost 50% of organisations having no budget for this at all. Where training budgets do exist, they tend to come from funds which can be hard to access. So donations like this one really are valuable to third-sector organisations.
We caught up with three of the charities to find out what impact the training session has had for them.
Connection and support
One of the charities that attended the training was Lambeage Hall, a community hall situated on a beautiful plot of land overlooking Perprean Cove in Coverack, South Cornwall. The team from Lambeage Hall declared the training session to have been ‘very useful’. They also made links with another village hall charity that was also part of the training session, and they’ve been able to share tips and advice.
Care for the carers
The Trafford Carers Centre charity also attended the training session. This organisation supports unpaid carers – adults as well as young carers.
We caught up with Simon, Deputy Chief Executive Officer at the Trafford Carers Centre, to see what impact the training had had one year on, and Simon told us:
“I valued the training for the encouragement it gave me to think creatively about our sources of income. The funding market is always changing and the best advice I took from the session was to know your marketplace, and to understand the specific needs of the funders so as to best match them to your organisation's various wants. I really enjoyed the session; it gave me a lot to think about, which has positively supported our approach to diversified income generation.”
The final charity we spoke to was the Cornish Godolphin Cross Community Association (GCCA). The GCCA aims to promote health and wellbeing and a sense of harmony and cohesion in the local community through education and providing facilities for events.
Richard Mckie, the GCCA Chair, told us that the training was “a useful reminder of the basics required for every appeal or request”.
Help in the current climate
Hearing from the three organisations made one thing very clear: charities are in more need than ever, and it’s a difficult financial climate to be fundraising in. If your business could offer support through training, volunteering time, or providing physical goods, please consider signing up to the A Good Thing platform to make a difference: Sign-up.