About Us

Volunteer Centre West Berkshire offers:

• Guidance for trustees, charity managers and staff
• Confidential and impartial support to groups or individuals wishing to create new, expand existing or consider changes to their charitable aims and assist with scoping ideas for community action by providing current ‘charity landscape information’
• Provide expert opinion and offer guidance on constitutional matters,
• Provide a pathway for statutory partners to communicate with appropriate voluntary sector organisations
•  Explore and guide on partnership working and create pathways to appropriate work partners
• Provide advocacy for organisations that wish to interact with statutory partners.
• Provide consultation opportunities for statutory partners
• Represent the voluntary and community sector at statutory partner board level.

Voluntary sector training

• VCWB arrange and facilitate training for West Berkshire Voluntary Sector organisations and publicises relevant training opportunities locally and nationally

Promotional work and PR

• Through weekly newsletters to nearly 700 subscribers, VCWB shares voluntary sector news, funding and training opportunities.
•  VCWB provides the opportunity for voluntary sector organisations to share information about their charity, staffing updates and new initiatives with their colleagues across the sector
• Provide peer group and ‘Interest’ group networking opportunities

Expert volunteer recruitment

•  Our volunteer recruitment service works actively to offer information, advice and guidance about volunteering in West Berkshire. We provide an important link between local people offering their time, and organisations in need of assistance.
• If volunteers are vital to your organisation, registering your roles with us ensures that your requirements are available to the hundreds of potential volunteers we advise each year.
• Volunteer roles are promoted through regular bulletins and via our website. We also offer meetings to potential volunteers, whereby they can be advised on roles that suit their interests, availability, skills and passions.
• Annual volunteer recruitment fairs

Funding advice and guidance

• To give one to one support to people new to fundraising from Trusts and Foundations
• To give hints and tips on online bid writing
• To act as a critical friend to review drafts of bids before they are submitted.

Greenham Trust offers:

• Grants to support charitable objectives – a variety of grant mechanisms are in place to support charities and voluntary groups with their core costs and projects.
• Major grants – from £30,000 up to £100,000 particularly for capital and refurbishment projects
• Small grants – from under £500 up to £30,000 through our Community Grants scheme and the Peter Baker Foundation grants
• Match funding – £1 for £1 match promise through Trust Top Up, up to £5,000 per project and up to £10,000 per organisation per year
• Collaborative funding – working with other local funders to support multiple projects and ensure success
• The Good Exchange – an online fundraising platform through which Greenham Trust and other local funders offer grants.
• Crowdfunding – projects listed on The Good Exchange can also attract public donations
• Local knowledge thanks to 25 years of operating in and around Newbury and its environs.
• Rooted locally – funding for charitable distribution and our commercial networks and know how come from Greenham Business Park and wider property portfolio.
• Marketing support for projects of all shapes and sizes through our dedicated social media channels on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.