Innovation in the charity sector

On Tuesday, I was lucky enough to be invited to a Charity Networking Reception, organised by Over The Wall, "a national Charity making it possible for the UK's most seriously ill children to experience a week of normalcy."

Taking place at the extravagant Goldmsith's Hall in the City of London, it was billed as a chance to find about the work that Over The Wall does, but more importantly as a chance to meet other charity representavives and other interested parties to swap ideas, discuss problems and challenges of wroking in the charity sector, and to generate new working relationships to benefit of all.

Among the charities and organisations present were (in no particular order): CLIC Sargent, NACCPO, RNIB, Children with leukaemia, Asthma UK, Teens Unite Fighting Cancer, The Make A Wish Foundation, The Youth Cancer Trust, Association of Childrens Hospices, Children with AIDS Charity, Leukaemia Care, Action for Sick Children, and us, Camp Quality UK.

The list could go on...

I met some really great people from NACCPO who generated lots of useful ideas that I hope to share with the rest of the charity, but who also said it was good to meet me as a point of contact for families wishing to find out more about Camp Quality.

I also found, much to my surprise, that I was able to gives suggestions and ideas for other charity's and the challenges they were facing. and likewise, people came up with some great ideas for us to use.

One thing I noticed is that innovation was alive among the people gathered in the room. These were all charities that relied on funding and needed to be innovative to get that funding. Further than that, as the host of the evening reminded us, with all the people in the room and their charitiers there still wasn't enough resources, people or money to help all of those who we were trying to help. While charities are often fighting for the same funding, we are all trying to help the same people and so should work together to the benefit of all.

There were lots of useful, relevant and valuable ideas on fundraising, recruiting volunteers, providing support to young people outside of the camps we put on, ideas of places/resources to be aware of and use - perhaps too many ideas to use and certainlty too many to mention, but many that I hope Camp quality will use to great effect.

And I plan to share with the other people I met that evening which ones were successful, which ones weren't, and what could be improved upon.

The evening was a great success, and a timely reminder of why I'm involved with Camp Quality and why others should be. More than that though, why others should get involved, not just with Camp Quality, but with the charity sector in general - with whoever they feel fits most with their principles and in whatever way they can.

Find out more about Over The Wall here.
Find out more about Camp Quality UK here.
Donate to Camp Quality here, or through my fundraising widget in the sidebar.