bassac ~ supporting people sustaining communitiesAnnual review and accounts
2008/09
- A year of growth
We saw a healthy growth in membership this year: numbers increased by 16 per cent and we established contact with a further 12 key community anchor organisations.
Collaboration Benefits, the national collaboration support service funded by Capacitybuilders, got off to a very strong start and is widely recognised as one of the most successful Improving Support workstreams.
The programme has exceeded every target set by funders and is beginning to have a marked impact on how frontline groups work together and the way infrastructure bodies support them.
Our work on Voice is as dynamic as ever: in 2008/09 we developed the Axis of Influence discussion tool as part of the Voice framework. This can be used by community organisations to assess how influential they are and how they can develop their campaigning and advocacy skills. It is seen as a valuable resource and has been promoted widely by the Office of the Third Sector and as part of the national Campaigning and Advocacy workstream, funded by Capacitybuilders.
We continue to be ambitious in our aims for the Leadership programme. We successfully concluded ‘Leaders of Tomorrow’ training and the learning from that has been incorporated into our work around leadership for the Communitybuilders programme.
We want all staff and trustees of community organisations to have a better understanding of community leadership and become more effective and confident leaders within their own communities. We believe the learning sets we’ve designed will support them to do that.
Our policy work is integral to our programme activities. At the end of 2008 we launched Voice | Community | Policy, a quarterly briefing that through four or five short articles highlights the impact that national policy has on community organisations and the people they serve.
Finally, 2008/09 saw the end of the Every Action Counts programme. We worked hard with programme partners to ensure a legacy for this work, including becoming part of the Ministerial taskforce on climate change. There are plans in place for futher initiatives in the new financial year.
Ben Hughes
Chief Executive, bassac
2008/09 facts and figures
Income – £2.25 million
Expenditure –£2.26 million
Largest single grant – Capacity Builders for the Collaboration programme - £0.6 million
Find out more
Report and Financial Statement - 2009
Report and Financial Statement - 2008