Pilotlight announces plans for capacity building programme supporting environmental action
Melanie May | 24 April 2023 | News
Pilotlight is planning a new capacity building programme for environmental organisations, and is starting with a survey to find out their support needs.
Figures show the number of environmental organisations in the UK to be growing at around 3% per annum — with 6,204 voluntary organisations, according to NCVO, and one in five social enterprises focusing on climate and environmental sustainability, according to Social Enterprise UK.
As the first step in the design of a new programme, Pilotlight is asking environmental charities and social enterprises to complete a survey to assess the overall needs for support in the sector.
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Among the issues covered will be the: quality of governance and leadership; capacity of the team, including staff and volunteer skills; ability to plan, including handling data and reporting on impact; and diversity, equity and inclusion.
The survey launched on Earth Day and runs for six weeks, closing on Friday 2 June.
The Environmental Funders Network and Garfield Weston Foundation are supporting the call for environmental organisations to complete the survey, while the work itself and any resulting report is funded by Pilotlight.
Ed Mayo, Chief Executive of Pilotlight and former CEO of environmental charity the New Economics Foundation, commented:
“We are looking to create a capacity building programme to support environmental action, recruiting business employees to lend their time, expertise and passion to charities, so they can turn their ambitions into tangible action on climate and sustainability.
“After twenty-five years of work supporting anti-poverty organisations, Pilotlight has a deep knowledge of their organisational needs and work collaboratively, including with business, to help. What no-one knows in a systematic way is what the organisational support needs of environmental charities and social enterprises are, which is why we are calling for help and input from those working in the field through this survey.”
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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.