With schools closed in NSW and Victoria, and childcare restricted to authorised workers in Victoria, many children will be at home for the next few weeks. And with their usual creative and physical outlets – libraries, sport, playgroups, and other public places – now cut off, families want to be innovative in the ways they interact with kids in the home.

Children have experienced trying to stay safe from the virus for 18 months now.

Jony Doe

Use Zoom, Facetime, or Skype to keep in touch with family and friends, both local and overseas to stay social, and maintain friendships and relationships when you can’t be together.

How to keep kids engaged and parents sane

Keep a routine. Giving children a structure to each day will help them feel more secure, and it gives parents and caregivers a routine to work around. Try to do the things you would normally do, including your showering/bathing routine, keeping consistent mealtimes, and restricting recreational access to screens, having at least some screen-free time each day, as you would at other times. 

If possible, ensure that everyone in the family has time and space to retreat and have alone time. It is challenging to be in a confined area with the same people for extended periods of time. Maintaining your mental health is important at times like these.

Find time for children to get fresh air and sunlight. This may be as simple as spending some time in the backyard or on the balcony. If you live in a place where you can’t get outside, open your curtains and windows if you can, and let the natural light in.

Children thrive on parental attention

For both parents and children, it’s important to remember, the lockdowns won’t last forever. This period of time may be difficult, but it will pass as Australia speeds up its vaccination rates, providing protection for those vaccinated against hospitalisation and death. With strong vaccination rates, we can be confident into 2022 that we can protect the most vulnerable members of society.

In this time ask them if they just want to share, or if they want you to help them to find a solution. Children don’t always want advice, sometimes being heard is enough. If you or your children need further support, please reach out to a trained professional such as a psychologist, social worker or GP. 

The post Surviving and enjoying lockdown with kids appeared first on createfuturegood.

Running a program designed to increase the resilience of small charities is a fantastic job, but one of the biggest challenges is measuring resilience. In reality, whether a charity is resilient can only be known when they face difficult events or changing times. 

When funding is such a challenge and public bodies are using charities to deliver their mission, it can be easy to fall into the trap of following the funding, by allowing external entities to dictate your organization’s direction.

It is important for the good governance of your charity that you record your decision and the reasons for it.

Jony Doe

PCharity governance

• Charity Governance Code
• Kent Good Governance Charity Forum, Brachers
• Governing your organisation, NCVO

This was our experience with one charity in particular. As part of our initial meeting, we asked why they existed because their work felt very disjointed. The charity could tell us all about what they did in terms of activities and projects – but struggled to articulate what they were trying to achieve. 

Effective leadership

In the time we’ve been working with them they have agreed to their purpose and reviewed how their activities fit with this. Their theory of change document has also allowed them to regularly ensure the organisation stays focused, makes informed decisions about strategy and measures itself against its intended impact.

If you do consider such a decision is necessary, you should follow any rules in your charity’s governing document that allow for postponement or cancellation.

Awareness

In many parts of the UK, the local voluntary sector landscape has changed significantly in the last decade, let alone since Covid-19. As a board and senior management team, it’s important to spend time researching who else is out there because your information can quickly go out of date and this may have an impact on your delivery. 

The post Six characteristics of a resilient charity appeared first on createfuturegood.

It’s time to rethink our approach to data in fundraising so everyone feels like a pro, even if Excel makes you break out in a worried sweat. When we use data we’re more equipped to make better decisions for our strategy, supporters and team; important in a year of more uncertainty!

Children have experienced trying to stay safe from the virus for 18 months now.

Jony Doe

Use Zoom, Facetime, or Skype to keep in touch with family and friends, both local and overseas to stay social, and maintain friendships and relationships when you can’t be together.

Invest in a good CRM – and use it!

• Think about data in everything you do
• Network with other data “non-geeks”
• Get comfortable with a new way of working

If you’re a fundraiser that’s daunted by data you may be surprised how much you’re already using it. Every time you segment your database, draft your budget forecast or analyze a campaign to see if it can be saved with a tweak (or it’s time to let go), you’re using data. Data in fundraising is using the statistics and insights available to you, not intuition or feeling, to make decisions.

Find time for children to get fresh air and sunlight. This may be as simple as spending some time in the backyard or on the balcony. If you live in a place where you can’t get outside, open your curtains and windows if you can, and let the natural light in.

Be aware of data pitfalls

It’s time to rethink our approach to data in fundraising so everyone feels like a pro.

Nikki Bell

If we have a good idea that we’re passionate about, it’s very easy to analyse data in a way that will prove that we’re right. This is called ‘confirmation bias’ and is something you need to be mindful of from day one to keep yourself and your team in check. Without this awareness, we lack the opportunity for innovation and growth – a key focus for charities in 2021!

In this time ask them if they just want to share, or if they want you to help them to find a solution. Children don’t always want advice, sometimes being heard is enough. If you or your children need further support, please reach out to a trained professional such as a psychologist, social worker or GP. 

The post How to get started with data in fundraising appeared first on createfuturegood.

For some charities trustees may consider that holding a virtual or hybrid AGM or other required meeting is not a viable solution. It may also not be possible for them to move immediately back to face-to-face meetings.

Wherever possible, we would ask you to file your annual return, report and accounts on time. However, where the pandemic has impacted your ability to do this, we have given a filing extension to any otherwise compliant charity that applied to us for one.

It is important for the good governance of your charity that you record your decision and the reasons for it.

Jony Doe

If your governing document does not allow you to postpone or cancel meetings you should use any power in your governing document to amend the rules to ensure you can hold meetings in a valid format. You should update the governing document and approve any previous decisions as soon as possible.

Postponing or cancelling AGMs or other meetings

For some charities trustees may consider that holding a virtual or hybrid AGM or other required meeting is not a viable solution. It may also not be possible for them to move immediately back to face-to-face meetings. In these circumstances trustees may consider they have no choice but to cancel or postpone.

If you do consider such a decision is necessary, you should follow any rules in your charity’s governing document that allow for postponement or cancellation.

Annual return and accounts

Since the start of the pandemic, we have generally been understanding and taken a proportionate approach if trustees have decided to hold meetings on a remote or hybrid basis or postpone or cancel a required meeting where:

The post Coronavirus guidance for the charity sector appeared first on createfuturegood.

It’s estimated by 2040 one in four children will be living in areas with extreme water shortages. And by 2050 a further 24 million children are projected to be undernourished as a result of the climate crisis. There’s no time to waste. It’s time to act now.

While our politicians ignore the fact that current disasters are intensifying due to the climate crisis, scientists are telling us we need to do more to reduce the intensity and severity of disasters. It’s not a complex theory or speculation—statistics paint a clear picture of what the future may be like.

Shreya turns “climate warrior”

We spoke to 22-year-old Shreya, a youth climate activist from Nepal who participated in Save the Children’s Red Alert on Climate campaign. Shreya shares how the climate crisis has affected her life and her country and the climate action she wants to see from world leaders.

Nepal is among the most vulnerable countries to the climate crisis. In just two years, a Nepali peak, Mount Saipal, has become snowless. Our lives are melting along with our mountains. As the impact of climate change intensifies over time, it is the young people of today who will face the worst effects. I am one among them.

Children like Shreya are all over the world and are demanding more from world leaders. And it’s time we listened. The world must recognize and stand with children, acknowledging their voices, activism and leadership in the climate movement. There is an urgent need. Their lives are at stake. 

Time to listen and to act

I have been actively involved in raising awareness, influencing policymakers, and taking climate action. In 2017, I participated in the National Youth Conference on Climate Change organized by the Nepalese Youth for Climate Action (NYCA). The conference motivated me to join the network and make a collective impact. Since then, I have been working with NYCA, a youth-led coalition of the Nepalese youth and youth groups tackling the climate crisis, which is the biggest challenge of our generation.

The post The climate crisis appeared first on createfuturegood.