Support Offered: Consultancy & Advice
We provide consultancy, bespoke training and advice.
Enabling you to be self-sufficient, sustainable and successful in establishing or growing your charity, group or social enterprise.
Our specialist Community Advisors can offer consultancy and bespoke adviceto help you achieve your objectives by assessing your organisation and project set-up by providing guidance, resources and sign-posting to relevant organisations.
We cover areas such as legal structure, applying for funding and correct governance. We help established groups to move forward or simply people who have a great idea to improve their community! If you need more in-depth advice or training we can provide bespoke training and consultancy tailored to your organisation. Our charges are below, please also read our Customer Service Standards document for your information.
Prefer to email us? Or feel free to telephone on 01305 250921 instead.
Tailored Support Packages:
Basic support package lasting for 12 weeks – at a time of change for your organisation, we can provide back up. You get an adviser at the end of the phone to answer any questions you have, we will send you templates & guidance, and deliver up to 4 hours’ 1:1 help via zoom or in-person for your team. We will also give you 3 lots of relevant training (live or pre-recorded). This costs £300 + VAT for DCA members and £420 + VAT for non-members which will be invoiced in three equal monthly amounts.
Intense support package for those challenging times – lasting for 8 weeks. You can contact a designated adviser at any time and we will ensure that you get all of the materials and templates you need. You get a Zoom call of around 90 minutes a week every week (these can be arranged out of office hours to ensure trustees can attend) and an optional further 3 hours’ support on an individual basis for the lead person dealing with the problem. We will give you 6 training slots to use for training (live or pre-recorded) or to commission a 1-hour bespoke training course for the whole team. This will cost £840 + VAT for members or £1,080 + VAT for non members plus the optional additional support at £135 +VAT/£180 + VAT. This will be invoiced in two amounts
Individual Items:
An hour’s help and advice, for instance checking a draft policy or a new constitution, a shortened organisational health check and giving feedback by email, phone or Zoom. This costs £45+VAT for DCA members and £60 + VAT for non-members.
This consists of our full self-assessment organisational health check, followed by a discussion with a Consultant on how to maximise your fund-ability. Cost £135 + VAT for DCA members, £180 + VAT for non-members
A full strength-review – 40 hours of help and support to review and improve all aspects of the organisation. This process will produce a detailed final report and recommendations and a prioritised action list for the changes you need to make. This costs £1,800 + VAT for members £2,400 + VAT for non-members. There is usually at least one in-person meeting during this process and travel costs would apply. We are now taking bookings for strength reviews starting in about 3 months’ time.
Two-hour workshop or training session on a subject of your choice such as trustee recruitment or policies. This costs £220 + VAT for members and £300 + VAT for non-members (up to 6 attendees). If this is delivered in person, travel costs will be added.
Mentoring for a staff member or Trustee – six one-hour sessions across a six-month period to help someone to think about their role and its demands and to support them to make changes. This will cost £450 + VAT for DCA members and £600 + VAT for non-members.
Design and facilitation of an organisational ‘away day’ of around 5 hours working with your team on a variety of issues such as strategic planning or income generation. This costs £315 + VAT for DCA members and £420 + VAT for non-members plus £60 administration (up to 10 attendees) plus travel costs as this is usually delivered in person.
Social enterprise?
What’s a social enterprise? A social enterprise is a business that uses it’s profits to create positive social change. If you’ve got a great idea or are an existing social enterprise then we can help. To get business support and advice on your social enterprise then we certainly recommend you have a chat with one of our Advisors.
Alternatively, if you are registered as unemployed or classed as economically inactive then our ‘Inspire Dorset’ programme can help you set up and establish a Social Enterprise.
We’re members of ACRE and support local rural communities in Dorset, ranging from village halls, pubs, shops and other not-for-profit rural groups. As part of the ACRE network we have access to village hall information sheets, resources, model documents and Advisors around the country that share best practice, provide peer-to-peer learning and support.