Force for fundraising

Published by Riverside for Riverside in Housing and also in Communities

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.