Running a voluntary or community group can be very rewarding, but there’s a lot of legal and good practice to keep on top off. Luckily at CAN we can offer general and bespoke help to make sure your group is run as effectively and efficiently as possible, so it creates as much good for the local community as possible.

At CAN we are able to help with many aspects of running your organisation including:

• Collaborative working
• Conducting AGMs and meetings
• Setting up bookkeeping systems
• Health and safety
• Strategic/business planning
• Roles and responsibilities of trustees, directors/committee members
• Quality assurance
• Sustainable funding
• Organisational health checks
• Writing and updating constitutions
• Charity, company and CIC registration
• Employment law
• Personnel issues
• Development of policies and procedures
• Measuring what you are doing and its impact
• Trading and income generation
• Marketing

If you need advice or support with running your group, you can arrange an appointment with our expert Steve Place, who will be happy to help. Contact Steve if you are based in the BCP Council area (steve.place@can100.org), or if you are in the Dorset Council area contact Bekki (bekki.stalker@can100.org). For members, Steve produces regular updates on legal and good practice – join us a member here to access this support.

We can also provide practical support in areas such as finding places to meet, and helping with, such as equipment loans and equipment rehoming.

We have produced some simple factsheets on particular topics to help you run your group. These cover topics such as employing people, financial controls and essential responsibilities of the board. We can also provide templates of various policies and procedures such as redundancy policy and staff expenses, and can help you adapt them to your specific circumstances.

Contact us to request copies of our factsheets or template policies and procedures.