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Tools for Success
Tools for Success:
doing the right things and doing them right
The Tools for Success guides and support
services have been developed by Cass Centre for Charity
Effectiveness (Cass CCE) to help small voluntary and community
organisations ensure that the basics contributing to long-term
sustainability are in place, enabling them to become organisations
in which others want to invest.
Tools for Success will help
organisations:
·
identify their areas of strength, areas
where they already have the basics in
place
·
identify capacity
gaps
·
work on building capacity, to get all the basics
right: make sure they are consistently doing the right things and
doing them right
·
gear up for the next step in order to implement
a recognised set of quality standards such as PQASSO
– the practical quality assurance system for
small organisations designed by Charities Evaluation Services.
Independent data suggest PQASSO is by far the most widely-used
quality system in the voluntary and community sector (VCS). For
more information, see
www.ces-vol.org.uk/
Who Tools for
Success is for
Tools for Success is intended for use by any
small voluntary and community organisation wishing to invest in its
long-term sustainability. The City Bridge Trust funded Cass
CCE to produce the toolkit, construct a package of support to
surround it, and to promote the toolkit widely across the
sector.
The tools, templates and checklists provided in
the guides that make up the toolkit have been designed for use by
both staff and trustees (management committee
members).
How to purchase
Tools for Success
The
toolkit is priced at £30, which includes postage and packing, and
order forms can be downloaded from the Cass CCE website.
Copies of the individual guides can also be downloaded free of
charge from
www.cass.city.ac.uk/cce/resources/TfS
Introduction to
Tools for Success - support services
The Tools for Success guides are structured to
enable you to work through the content at your own
pace. The
self-assessment tool is designed to help you identify your
organisation’s strengths and weaknesses allowing you to focus on
specific areas of
need.
If you feel that you need more advice or
expertise to identify problem areas and how to tackle them, then
Cass CCE have a package of support to help you do
that.
Tools for Success is complemented by a number of
services from Cass CCE including:
to help increase the impact of the guides. each
of the services will help embed the building blocks for long-term
sustainability within your organisation. For further information,
see
www.cass.city.ac.uk/cce/resources/tfs/Services.html
The toolkit and the support services can be
purchased directly from Cass
CCE. A limited number
of places for workshops and expert support services are available
at a 50% discount to City Bridge Trust applicants on a first come
first served basis. If
you would like to take advantage of this discount, please contact
Jenny Field by emailing:
casstoolforsuccess@cityoflondon.gov.uk
Please note the closing date for
applications is Friday 16th January
2009.
Introduction to
the guides
The toolkit is built around seven areas of
organisational capacity crucial to long-term sustainability. They
are:
Compliance - are we
legal?
Governance - can we demonstrate
accountability
Direction - do we know where we are
going?
Finance - have we got the financial resources to
meet our obligations
People - have we got the right people and
skills
Operations - are we efficient and effective in
meeting our objectives
Networks - do we work well with
others?
Each area of organisational capacity has its own
guide complete with tips, tools and templates to help develop
capacity, along with signposts to other resources. We have only
included the basics in the guides – the minimum you need to ensure
sustained effectiveness.
Self-assessment
To encourage you to make best use of your time,
we have provided a self-assessment tool. By following the
questions, we will take you through the crucial areas of
organisational capacity.
In this way you can then identify those areas
where you already meet the basics, and those where you need to do
more work.
What happens next will be up to you and could
include celebrating your achievements; making a priority list and
plan what to tackle next; deciding to really go for it and follow
up our pointers for the next stage: implementing a set of quality
standards.
The self-assessment tool can be found at
www.cass.city.ac.uk/cce/resources/tfs/SelfAssmnt.pdf.