EMFAN Local Network Event 11 December 2012 - Post Event Page

Event summary

This event took place on 11 December at the Riverside Centre in Derby and was attended by 40 delegates from across the East Midlands.

Speakers included Michelle Targett, ERDF PA2 Contract Manager Team at the Department for Communities and Local Government, Chris Hill, Project Manager, Reach & Impact Project, One East Midlands and funder’s updates from the BIG Lottery and Locality.

The first part of the day focussed on ERDF (European Regional Development Funding) and the opportunities for the VCS to engage more in the programme and benefit from this source of funding as well as feed in their views on how the proposals for the 2014-20 programme and how it should be delivered. In the question and answer session, concerns were raised about the LEP’s (Local Enterprise Partnerships) playing a role in delivering the next ERDF programme because of their lack of VCS representation and VCS engagement. Other issues raised included the difficulties of finding match funding and the length of time and process to get an ERDF application approved.

The second part of the day focused on the workshops and a progress update of the EMFAN project, following the recruitment of the Project Officer. The update included information on the current EMFAN membership and the benefits of being a member and the tools that have been developed by EMFAN for funding advisers.

The Fanoogle signposting tool developed by the EMFAN project has steadily grown in its use by VCS organisations. The tool has real potential as a free marketing tool for advisers across all sectors who want to promote their charged for or free services to the VCS.

The Funding Monitor, a tool to enable everyone in grant funding to share learning and improve the grant making process is not being utilised to its best potential. Suggestions for improvements included case studies of VCS organisations that had been successful with obtaining funding, with or without the support of advisers, and a form of rating system to collect feedback about funders and advisers.

The roundtable discussions highlighted issues and solutions to challenges faced by funding advisers/advisers to the VCS and suggestions included more learning from case studies, alternative methods of learning through webinars/You Tube, private sector learning and using existing tools and resources.

Actions and next steps

The ERDF Reach and Impact project at One East Midlands, will be working with the East Midlands Department for Communities and Local Government to look at possible solutions to make the ERDF programme more accessible to VCS organisations.
The Reach and Impact project will work with Funder’s to look at potential match funding for ERDF applications.
The Reach and Impact project will also be meeting with the LEP’s in the New Year to raise awareness of the VCS and encourage VCS representation on their boards.
The EMFAN project will take forward some of the suggestions for improvements to the Funding Monitor
The EMFAN project will take forward suggestions from the round table discussions to increase learning through creative ways and to focus on developing the funding monitor tool to demonstrate the impact of funding advisers.

Main presentations

Workshop presentations and handouts

Photographs from the event

Photographs from the event can be viewed on EMFAN's Facebook page by clicking here.

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