Research proposals sought for charity management training programme
Melanie May | 23 February 2023 | News
Cranfield Trust is exploring the development of a management learning programme for leaders and managers of small to medium voluntary organisations to develop charity leaders of the future, and is inviting proposals from organisations to undertake the feasibility project from April 2023.
The research project will explore available management training for small to medium sized charity leaders and managers, their interest in taking up existing training opportunities, and the potential for the development of a management training programme for the sector.
Cranfield Trust wants to understand what it would need to do to develop a relevant, flexible and cost-effective management training offer to small and medium sized charities. The research project will inform the possible development of the programme, which would be undertaken by Cranfield Trust and an academic partner.
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The deadline for submission proposals is by end of day on Monday 20 March 2023. Interviews will take place in the week of 27 March 2023. More information is available on the Cranfield Trust site, and proposals and questions should be submitted to Amanda Tincknell CBE, CEO of Cranfield Trust, who is leading the project, at am**************@cr************.org .
Tincknell commented:
“There is a great deal of training available in the voluntary sector, and more widely, but through our extensive work with charities we have seen that there is little training geared to people developing their careers in the voluntary sector, to help them develop management skills early in their careers, or to help Chief Executives and senior leaders in smaller charities refresh their skills or fill skills gaps. Most voluntary sector staff do not take a great deal of general management training, and prefer training that is specifically developed for the voluntary sector market.
“Much of the specialist voluntary sector training is geared to leadership and strategy, not management, so middle managers or emerging managers do not have many specialist voluntary sector learning opportunities. Some of the training available is also relatively high cost for smaller charities meaning it is not affordable, even more so in the current cost of living crisis which has hit charities as hard as the rest of the country.
The Masonic Charitable Foundation is supporting Cranfield Trust with a grant to undertake the research, and Cranfield Trust is also looking for a contractor to develop and partner in the research project, to start from mid-April, with the aim of reporting to the Trust’s management team in early September and to the Trustee Board in October 2023.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.