Riverside has joined a consortium which will enable
charities to share resources and access fundraising more
effectively.
The housing association, which owns
around 50,000 homes from Irvine to Ipswich, is one of 28 charities
to be selected to participate in the Open Innovation Programme as
part of the Cabinet Office and Nesta’s
Innovation in Giving Fund.
The programme will enable charities to take
innovative approaches to giving on a larger scale by supporting new
concepts and using the reach and knowledge of existing charities to
engage people in giving.
Lisa Connor, Riverside’s Fundraising Manager,
said: “We’re delighted to have been chosen to take part in this
forward-thinking programme which will address our need for
practical and financial support to help us increase all aspects of
giving to the charitable projects that we support. This could be
anything from new ways of encouraging volunteers to unlocking idle
resources.
“By working collaboratively and tapping into the collective
expertise, networks and assets of the consortium we can make the
most of limited resources. We will also be looking to organisations
outside the not-for-profit sector to inspire us to think creatively
and further enhance our fundraising activities.”
Helen Goulden, Director in Nesta’s Innovation
Lab, added: “The Open Innovation programme sets its sights firmly
on working with charities who have identified big challenges they
want to work on to increase giving. The charities that have been
selected into the programme have demonstrated a real appetite and
ambition to work with people and ideas from outside the sector to
develop high-impact solutions and take great innovations in giving
to scale.”
Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society, added:
“The Open Innovation Programme will support charities so that they
have the resources to develop new ways to engage people in giving
time or money to charity. It’s important that we give charities the
means to develop their ideas and use some of the same inventive
approaches that have been successful in the commercial world.”
Over the next three months, the charities will
receive coaching and peer support to develop their innovative
concepts before being invited to submit proposals to take the ideas
to scale and receive funding support. Successful applicants will be
selected to receive a share of £1.5m funding from the Innovation in
Giving Fund, as well as non-financial support, to implement their
ideas.