Action Earth provides grants of up to £50 to assist groups in England, Scotland and Wales in carrying out environmental projects by the end of July.

This year, there are also a limited number of £250 grants, only available in Scotland and funded by Scottish Natural Heritage, specifically intended for biodiversity projects. Apply a.s.a.p. at http://www.actionearth.org.uk.

(Source: Third Force eNews)

The national Heritage Open Days event sees buildings across England, old and modern, that are usually closed to the public or that would normally charge, throw their doors wide. This year it runs 11th to 14th September. It is co-ordinated nationally by the Civic Trust, with support from English Heritage, and thrives on the enthusiasm and expertise of local people.

If your organisation wants to take part, see http://www.heritageopendays.org.uk. There are similar but separate events in Wales, Scotland, Ireland and London - http://www.heritagedays.net.

The government-supported investment fund for the voluntary and community sector, Futurebuilders England, is now actively seeking applications from third sector organisations working across all public service areas that are looking to win public sector contracts.

Previously restricted to five areas of service delivery, funding is open for the first time to organisations involved in such areas as sport, recreation and leisure, environmental projects, waste and recycling, legal aid and the arts. There is more money available to invest, and they aim to provide a faster response in future.

FBE news item, or see Third Sector news item, http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/News/800413/ (registration required).

The £50 million Community Spaces grants programme managed by Groundwork UK, for the Big Lottery Fund, helps community groups create or improve green and open spaces across England.

It opened for applications on 19th March - details at http://www.community-spaces.org.uk.

A £7.5 million fund to support local recycling projects in Scotland has been launched at a Community Recycling conference in Perth. Scottish Government news item at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2008/03/11094608, or go direct to scheme information at http://www.crns.org.uk/increase/.

The Scottish Government has also announced major funding over the next 3 years for Scotland’s councils of voluntary service and volunteer centres, sharing over £23 million. There is also funding to promote volunteering and encourage the delivery of public services by the third sector. News release at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2008/03/06115639.

The much-discussed revised guidance on campaigning by charities has now been published by the Charity Commission.

Both the news release (at http://www.gnn.gov.uk/environment/fullDetail.asp?ReleaseID=358150&NewsAreaID=2) and Third Sector’s article (at http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/News/789694/ have some useful information on how this has changed and what it clarifies - that taking action can be part of achieving a charity’s objectives, but can’t be its only function.

The document itself, ‘Speaking Out - Guidance on Campaigning and Political Activity by Charities’ (CC9) is at http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/publications/cc9.asp.

Online democracy charity MySociety has a new web site, WhatDoTheyKnow?, aiming to make it easy to submit requests to public bodies under the Freedom of Information Act, providing simple request forms and the ability to browse previous requests.

Still in development, but basically working, at http://foi.mysociety.org.

‘Visualizing Information for Advocacy: An Introduction to Information Design’ has been recommended by Laura’s Notebook, a voluntary sector technology blog (http://laura.popokatea.co.uk). This useful guide is “aimed at helping organisations strengthen campaigns and projects through communicating vital information with greater impact”.

Go to TacticalTech at http://tacticaltech.org/infodesign for more and the download (a chunky 6.85MB pdf, A5 format).

Separate Steering Groups, being set up to develop National Occupational Standards for campaigners and sector development workers, are inviting those involved in these areas to join them.

Applications by 14th April - details on UK Workforce Hub site at http://www.ukworkforcehub.org.uk/DisplayPage.asp?pageid=12310.

‘Changing the Way We Work’ is a new guide for the voluntary and community sector on greening your office, and saving money. Available as a large (4.91MB) pdf download at http://www.everyactioncounts.org.uk/guides/greenofficev1.pdf.

(Source: CRNS.org.uk)

A new duty to cooperate on key government service providers means that they have a responsibility to work together to identify regional priorities and shape and change services at a local level.

“Sports England, the Health and Safety Executive, the jobcentre and the Highways Agency will be empowered to work closely with authorities like NHS Trusts and local police to tackle the issues that affect their local area and ensure that their services are meeting their community’s high standards.”

Government news release at http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/711162.

A community interest company jointly owned by a number of third sector recycling networks, Reconomy, will be a vehicle to work together more effectively where appropriate. The four networks include Furniture Re-use Network and Community Recycling Network.

News item from Community Recycling Network for Scotland, http://www.crns.org.uk/index/news-app/story.348/.