About

Who is this site for?

This website is for anyone in the voluntary and community sector who wants to ensure that their charity is operating in a sustainable way. 

Providing safe, environmentally sustainable workplaces and charitable activities are increasingly complex tasks. Staff, volunteers, service users and other stakeholders increasingly expect charities to show that they are aware of their organisation's impact on the environment and society. For small charities, especially, this can be a daunting challenge.

What type of organisations can benefit?

All types of voluntary sector organisations:

- international charities 
- national organisations
- hospices 
- think tanks
- churches
- animal shelters 
- community groups
- voluntary sector infrastructure bodies

Background

This site was initially built for the Charities Facilities Management (CFM) Group, a national network for facilities managers in the voluntary sector. 

The CFM Group was established in 2008 by the chief executives of two small charities, Annette McGill and Sue Nyfield. They were both faced with major challenges related to buildings - relocating a museum and adapting a Grade 1 listed building to be accessible, respectively. They found that there was very little in the way of support and advice available for charities addressing these types of problems.

After consulting with other charity chief executives, they decided to set up a grassroots network to promote information sharing and good practice about buildings, property and workplaces. 

The Charity FM Group grew to more than 300 member-charities. Members included large organisations with nationwide property portfolios, charities with small to medium-sized offices and voluntary sector infrastructure organisations. We worked with operations managers and procurement officers, h.r. and legal teams, as well as office managers and administrators for small community groups.

We arranged national conferences, seminars and informal networking meetings and published a monthly newsletter for more than ten years. During that time the issue of sustainability became increasingly important. This site continues to publish resources and information for charities that want to work sustainably.