Thinking Differently is tackling short-term, project focused funding that often makes is difficult for smaller VCSE organisations to grow. How? Flexible grant giving & development support over a two years. This new pilot project is a partnership with the Mental Health Alliance and funding is distributed through the Third Sector Framework.

On a sunny February morning, we met with the organisations taking part - Evergreen Active, 5 Towns Christian Fellowship, Wakefield District Society for Deaf People, Turning Minds Around, and West Yorkshire ADHD Support Group - and Antony Nelson who is leading on this piece of work.

It was brilliant to hear about the areas of development that the organisations are focusing on. Lots of similarities about improving marketing, becoming sustainable and building relationships - and an impressive amount of progress towards these goals already!

We filmed some short updates with some of the organisations, coming to you soon, with some interesting insights into the impact of having the funding and space to work on development.

Antony Nelson said:

"This was a fantastic session. In just a few months each organisation has drafted a development plan focused on their hopes and aspirations and started making progress on their development journey, with some notable successes already. Inspiring to hear about the work they've done.

Conversations in the room yesterday were excellent with some really interesting overlaps between development priorities: income diversification, beneficiary voice, governance, marketing, brand, use of social media, access to space to deliver & manage services.

Some great connections made and huge amounts of generosity in evidence in the room which I expect will lead to mutual support and learning from each other. Also lots of learning about each other's service and support offers which should see more people getting more support."

Read more about the project in announcement article and first update article.